Thread: Why is it that red coloured cars paintwork looks so poor after a few years?

A lot of older cars that are red have faded paintwork, I wondered why they were more susceptibal to fading than most other colours? Is it because they are non metallic?

my guess would be lack of car care mate as long as you keep up with the waxing etc... then they should be fine , but modern paints are better quality than the older cars

I believe it was due to some cars not having a clear coat to protect the paint & the red pigment is affected more. My old red A3 had no problems with fading paint.

my red A3 hasnt got any fading one bit

Originally Posted by Khufu

I believe it was due to some cars not having a clear coat to protect the paint & the red pigment is affected more. My old red A3 had no problems with fading paint.

+1

Some older red paints (late 80s/ early 90s fords etc) faded horribly. Many red pigments are simply not very UV / weather fast, so degrade over time & fade to a pinker hue.

It was generally only on non-metallics & automotive paints are of a much better quality now.

Yeah they didnt have a clear coat, so needed constant care - that most people cant be bothered to do. An example of this is Vauxhalls Flame Red I think its called. New ones should be fine though, Id have a non metallic red car anyday.

detailed a celica gt4 import which had faided paint and was red good polish and was nicely restored back to a nice red shine.

coloured cars i no this may sound daft but red,blue,yellow,green need bit more attention as the pigment in the colour fades more compaired to silver or black.

the older cars was generally down to poor detailing this can be seen in newer cars although the paint is much better quality is harder to spot at first glance, a good weekly wash and quarterly full detail is all that is needed

I would like to think this paint will not fade!!



That said my first car was a D reg vauxhall astra in maroon and the back quarter was a nice pink colour due to fading!!

keep ontop of the detailing and it will stay as red as when it left the showroom

I was talking to the guy I sent my A3 in to get detailed with and he had a pink(red) corsa in a while back which faded due to neglect and told me how after he was done he was pretty shocked at the colour lmao

anyway here's some pic's before and after of what a good polishing does to a pink/red car xD

all of it is down to car care keep it polished and it shouldnt fade but dont bother and thats where you have problems my old rs turbo which was a 1988 car wasnt faded one bit because it never had chance to fade i was always waxing it reguarly , new paint is alot better tho they have really sorted it out nowadays

This issue stems from the lack of clearcoat.

Almost all modern cars are now clearcoated - until very recently, red Vauxhalls weren't, even the VXR models. I don't know of any new car that doesn't have a clearcoat.

This lack of clearcoat allowed UV penetration of the paint system and, essentially, the sun would bleach the top layer of paint.

Regular waxing or topping up with a sealant with UV protection helped but was always prolonging the inevitable, especially with cars stored outside; garaged cars, not exposed to sunlight so often or for such long periods of time won't fade to near the same extent.

To remove the problem, polishing was/is the only issue; essentially you are removing the uppermost portion of the paint surface, revealing a fresh, red layer underneath.

Other colours, if non clearcoated, would fade but the effect is less pronounced than on red.

The Corsa in the photos above, will, over time, fade again.

Modern clearcoated paints will fade ever so slightly (the sun being so powerful) but it will take a long time for any noticeable change and even then, I doubt they'll ever fade like the old non-clearcoated finishes.

Products such as the Werkstat range offer good UV protection and they'll certainly help prevent the onset of fade.