Red Cars

[karenmac60]

I am buying a red car, but I've seen many older red cars where the paint has either faded or bled so it looks a sort of cloudy salmon pink colour.. What causes this and how can I prevent it happening? Thanks

[LRob]

Hi karenmac60...it happens because red paint oxidises after long term exposure to UV light, giving it that dull look.

Newer cars probably won't suffer from the damage for a while as they'll have a good clear coat to prevent this sort thing. If it's an older car you're going to buy, use a compound polish on it (very fine abrasive) then a good quality wax, then polish up to a shine. Wax and polish it regularly so it keeps it's shiny look...also try to keep the car in a garage when you're not using it...out of the sun!

[Squitty]

This also used to be true of yellow cars too. It used to be a problem colour matching if you had a bump.

[kjn2]

On the early cars this was also due to the pigment in the paint colour red used, it can be prevented if you keep the car highly polished (protected against the UV light) I bought a p reg corsa for a runaround and that was a matt pink salmon after a lot of hard work it now shines and looks more red, you will allways have to stay on top of it though as if you leave it for say a month or more its back to the mattt I am afraid.It is hard work keeping it red . IF you are looking at a red car and it has signs of matt pink salmon as you state my advice is look elsewhere. ITS HARD WORK keeping it to look nice and shiny.

[karenmac60]

Its a new car and since the red is �500 cheaper due to it being solid paint and not the metallic all the other colours are in, I'm afraid it'll just have to be red. Thanks for all the advice though, at least if it happens now I've no one to blame but myself :)

[tubeway]

It is less likely to happen on a new car - Ford radient red was notorious for fading - it was replaced by colorado red which is much more colour fast

[kjn2]

Karen Hi,

Now knowing it is a new car then I do not think you will have any problems at all, it was only the older cars that suffered from these paint problems, as you would hope the manufacturers seem to have sorted this problem out now on the newwer cars . I still recommend that you give it a good polish every month though as the solid colour cars allways look better when highly polished, also I think that it is a big investment these days and you should look after it, my recommendation polish is Auto Glym it is easy to apply and to polish off and gives a great shine, maybe not the cheapest but you get what you pay for enjoy your new car.

[karenmac60]

Thanks again :)