I've got a red Octavia and have noticed my front left quarter, left front door and spoiler is fading into a matt orange colour. I bought 2 bottles of T Cut red wax for red cars to restore the original colour, will this work or will these parts require respraying? I've heard that red cars are the most difficult cars to keep the paint looking nice without colour fading. Any advice or tips would be great thanks.  

I wouldn't use t cut personally I would get it machine polished by a detailer for best results. Have a look on detailing world

Yes

Have alook on Detailing World..

There are plenty of Detailers there able to help you

Failing that...a respray

fI well protected with sealers and wax, it shouldnt have faded however.

How old is the car?

I had a red semi hitop lwb transit for 10 years. The only bit that faded was the roof - too lazy to get up there and polish and wax it. The rest of the van was spot on as it was always polished and waxed - there's a lot of paint to do on a lwb van!

We also had a frontera and a terrano that stayed nice and glossy with no fade.

Dads got a 2010 I10 that is immaculate, I have a good session on it a couple of times a year when he visits. The rest of the time he has it washed regularly.

Reds suffer through neglect. A mate of mine ended up with a pink sierra and an escort!

As stated above, get it machine polished. The money is well spent as you won't get anywhere near the finish trying to cut and polish by hand. Its mind numbing too.... :-)

Would machine polishing my rear spoiler bring it back to life ? Mines starting to fade now and letting the car down a bit ( corrida red). Was planning on buying a good polisher and detailing the car in the near future anyway ?

Octy 2 will be clearcoat so surely if the actual base paint is fading (Not heard of this myself yet) then you can't machine polish as its under the lacquer?

 

Unless it is the lacquer itself getting a bit manky on the top giving the illusion of fading.

Yeah it is a strange one, my mate who is a sprayer said they have probably been lazy and not clear coated it so it's just painted. Might as well try polishing it first, worst case a respray !

Red paint was always more prone to 'blooming' than other colours. No harm in a gentle T-cut & polish

I have a 2010 red vrs and my spoiler has faded took it to dealer to see if out could be done and got told it was the pigments in the paint braking down you can polish it but sooner are later it will fade again so I had mine painted only cost £70

My car is always washed/cleaned polished

As S666RTY has said above about the pigment is spot on. I used to mix standox paint as part of my last job, and got asked about red paint fading every day. If red paint is going to fade you will never stop it, maybe slow it down with good polishes and wax's but that's it.

Lots of threads on this over the years. From the ones I've read then yes red is more vulnerable to fade, but not if it is looked after.

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/245559-does-red-still-fade/?hl=%2Bred+%2Bpaint+%2Bfade#entry2881951

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/244439-restoring-red-paint/?hl=%2Bred+%2Bpaint+%2Bfade

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/295950-is-corrida-red-a-solid-colour/?hl=%2Bred+%2Bpaint+%2Bfade#entry3519241

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/127631-do-red-fabias-fade-in-sunlight/?hl=%2Bred+%2Bpaint+%2Bfade#entry1770790

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/133366-does-corrida-red-paint-finish-fade/?hl=%2Bred+%2Bpaint+%2Bfade#entry1748622

 

 

This thread on detailing world is great...

 

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=308487

 

From this:

 

 

To this with a little bit of T-Cut:

 

 

 

To this:

 

Maybe under these extreme circumstances, T-Cut will work

BUT

Get the paint thickness measured first

It's amazing how the Vauxhall red fades -- I had a red Corsa and managed to keep on top of it -- I used this one for my driving school, and this is how it looked with 180k miles on it!

Corsa05.jpg

Neglect a Vauxhall red and you'll end up with something like this, LOL!

Faded carlton.jpg

Something like this would need a bit more than T-cut -- scrapping maybe?

Mike

Had this issue on my ex po vauxhall Combo! What a nightmare I gave up in the end!