A colleague of mine is looking at selling on a 55 plate 1.4 Corsa as his famly has now outgrown it.

The paintwork is starting to fade and in already pink is a few key (exposed) areas.

Is there anything out there cheap and cheerful that will restore it's colour in a pre-sale spruce up way rather than a call in a detailer with a polising machine way.

He said he's already tried T-Cut to no avail

How about some coloured polish?

I have used some before on red cars including mine.

Think turtlewax do some in all different colours.

Phil

Autoglym Super Resin Polish

I have a feeling that this is one of the cars who's red fades even under a clear coat.

If it's got a clear coat then there is nothing you can do, not even a detailer.

If t-cut isn't working that's not a good sign.

My Mum's old Astra did exactly this.

A LOT of effort with t-cut brought it back quite good - but it didn't last long, was soon pink again.

Then she wrote it off

Autoglym Super Resin Polish

I was going to suggest this as a cheap option and readily available from Halfreuds

I've owned several red cars, and found it excellent to bring back colour - try it before trying anything that's high cut

Ask Mr Utopia

Vauxhalls really are pants for this.

Years ago I worked at a car wash and valeting place while at college.

An old guy brought his red Corsa in (the older style 90's one).

It had nearly gone white it was that badly faded and he asked if we could do anything with it.

A few goes with T-cut and an electric polisher then some waxing by hand and it had come up almost like new. Took a lot of work and we had to charge him extra but the car was very tidy apart from the faded paint inside and out and looked like new afterwards.

The guy was very pleased to say the least. It is possible but a LOT of work depending how bad it's faded.

That's why I suggested the coloured polish as it may be a quick solution to bring some colour back to get it sold.

Don't know what it is with vauxhall paint. Our car is still a very nice vibrant red and comes up very shiny after a polish and wax.

Phil

Our car is still a very nice vibrant red

It was a similar observation of my older and considerably more leggy 54 plate Fabia that made him ask me about keeping a red car red.

If its lacquered - no go

If its not lacquered, should polish up easy.

03 plate (not much older therefore) corsa with super resin + my DAS6

Wow. Pretty amazing results there.

What makes these vauxhalls so bad with fading red paint? Must just be the type of paint they use I suppose.

Guess it probably doesn't help that the general public don't seem to bother ever polishing their cars. Never seen any of my neighbours do it and our car is the only one on the street with "beading" in the rain.

I had a friend who recently sold a '99 Vauxhall Vectra in non-metallic blue that had also faded like that.

Phil

There is always a lot of potential to polish money into cars. Its kind of what I am doing on an extreme scale with my porsche, but that's not the kind of quick buck making deal - its becoming more of a way of life....

While out on my lunch toady I noticed three red vauxhalls all of similar vintage. A Corsa, an Agila and an Astra. All had very badly fading paint.

Either it was pure chance I happened to see three while out or that I noticed them more after this thread.

Phil

I had a Bluebird donkeys years ago with the same problem. Got the bonnet back lovely with Farecla G3, and finished the boot lid as the last panel. By the time I'd finished the boot lid, the bonnet was already starting to bloom again.

It's something to do with biodegradation of the red pigment when it's based on cochineal (carmine dye from an insect) - or so I was told at the time. I tried several attempts to sort out the Bluebird, but nothing lasted, so I just had a faded car the beaded nicely in the end.

+1 for the Autoglym SRP though - good stuff.

Gaz

A lad I know took his DA sander, and tied a microfibre around it and then used SRP and it came up a treat, worth a try if you have one.