Well, less of a detail and more of a "Its not a polisher in my hand, its a defribulator"

Friend was given this RAV4 in a bad way, but lo and behold it went right through an MOT and I was asked to see what could be done about the paint. I have never seen a red go this bad, and it was my job to get it right again. All I really had time for (circa 4 hours) was a wash, clay, polish & tart up of faded plastics.

Yep, it was bloody pink!

Offside rear quarter was showing signs of recent spraywork

Once the spare wheel was removed a better idea of the true colour was revealed

Gave it a wash then looked a bit closer

Annoying white dots everywhere which were more than simply sat on the surface as the clay wouldn't touch most of them! Annoying!

The "newer" offside rear quarter with the rest of the car

Started by taping down the bonnet to see what could really be done

Armed with my most aggressive pad (smallest too for maximum impact) and a highly abrasive polish I got this!

Then had to match in the rest of the bonnet to suit

Yay, it's actually red!

and some beading to finish. No wax, this is just after polishing, nothing more.

a job well done there

Nice work there Jason, I think you need to do a 'pink to red' detail to appreciate what can be achieved with this sort of process......

Wow - a brave man to tackle such a task..... well done!!!

You have to love the pink-to-red turnarounds, nice work sir

Chris

Nice work

Well, I saw the truck again this morning as I was at the garage getting the oil changed. Sad to see some of the polished paint has already started to show signs of returning to its pink former state. Will need another going over. Not sure what to use to stop it trying to re-oxidise again?!

Well done Jason

Any idea how much paint is left?

Nice work on that Jason.

My mum's old astra did exactly the same thing. I managed to get it looking red-ish after a lot of elbow grease, but within a few weeks it was pretty much just back where we started with it.

Nice work on that Jason.

My mum's old astra did exactly the same thing. I managed to get it looking red-ish after a lot of elbow grease, but within a few weeks it was pretty much just back where we started with it.

Ditto. My old Merc 190 looked in a similar state. I returned it to red using AG Paint Renovator and topped with AG SRP. The biggest thing I found was if it rained, then the sun came out before all the water had dried off, I got little raindrop sized marks. Presumably this was the UV acting through the water droplets?

It became an annual ritual to keep it looking red. I gave up in the end :S I swore never to get another red car.:no:

This problem is only specific to various marque's using a specific lacquer and paint system develped at the time, this will not the be the case on newer motors as the paint technology has moved on massively, you can therefore buy a red car without worrying....... :yes: