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So mny older red cars and vans look like they have been cleaned with a Brillo pad. Why do red vehicles seem to fade in colour when this apparently doesn't happen with vehicles of other colours.
The only theory I have is that the colour has eroded off by wind resistance as a result of red stuff always going much faster.
Red is fastist, FACT. So the extra turbulance caused paint fade.
Red pigment less UV stable I think.
is the pigements used on old red paint that were sensitive to UV. Newer paints should be fine.
From around 2006, it shouldn't happen any more
Can't remember the whys and wherefores of it all other than it's no longer the issue it once was
Colour technology is a massively complicated subject.
actually I have seen a few new cars tha have faded badly. But it could be due to cheap paint, way it has been washed etc etc. Not sure if all solid cars come with UV resistant clear coat these days? Metallics etc all do which really helps protect the paint but I know older solid colours don't which is why you can 'T-cut' them. If they had clear coat you couldn't cut the colour, just remove scratches from the clear coat.
Crap paint?
I have a 13 year old red Nissan Almera that hasn't faded at all. My mum has a red Corsa that now looks rather pink.
I rarely (erm, never) wash the car - maybe a thin layer of grime has protected the paint
I had an 07 Golf from new for a few years and it was decidedly faded when I sold it. Also really bad for stone chips - seems as if the paint was 'soft'
Nowt would have faded up here in the north this year
as not seen much sunshine
but probably washed out instead
I used to have a red Corsa which faded quite badly over the 7 years I had it from new; a session with some T-Cut colour magic got it back to its original colour with great success.
I think it is also due to pigment size - at the smallest it can go, blue has the largest size, hence old prints start to look blue - the pigment is larger and is therefore more resistant to UV
I am picking new company car in a few months and very tempted to go for metallic red - reckon they are still fade susceptible ? I will have it for 4 years.
Washing your car with washing up liquid doesn't help. Saw vectra that had faded to a shade of salmon pink (especially on the roof).
Red generally fades more, my red T shirts fade faster than any of my other ones.
A red car may require additional waxing than another colour car. Silver is your safest bet 😉
Yellow is pretty bad too, there's a yellow 2003 Seat Leon Cupra 'round my way that has several different shades of yellow on it lol.
It will almost definitely be something to do with the pigment of the paint though. It's the same with ink and printing and how different lights affect different colour inks with different pigments and lots of other shit to do with printing I wont bore you with...lol.
Red and blue paints are the worst for fading. This is normally only associated with flat paints. Metallics should be fine.
And it is due to the red cars being faster. Nothing to do with anything scientific 😀
Front doors on houses also seem affected by this. Is there a sciency link?
Nowt to do with modern paints being better than old IMO, my daughters new red Fiat 500 when she bought it was specifically told that she must put protective polish on it every three or four months to stop any chances of the red pigment in the paint from being damaged by the UV. I believe white pigment paint has the same problem (particularly VW white circa 1997) 😆
My 1998 blue metallic (with laquer top coat VW is still shiny- if I wash and polish it)
And it is due to the red cars being faster.
The paint doesn't fade in fact, it is just wearing away due increased speed of red cars.
The increased speed causes more air resistance on the paint surface, gradually wearing the paint away, this is most apparent of the roof and bonnet as these are areas that meet high resistance and turbulence.
😛
it used to be that most reds were flat colours not metallic which in tern were not lacquered. this meant that the paint oxygenated and faded. metalic reds never suffered this and i believe that more flat red cars are now lacquered and so dont suffer it.
this is the reason that some fleet car suppliers wont supply non metallic colour cars.
It is oxidising not oxygenated.
UV promotes chemical reactions, contaminants etc can all create reactions too. Without a protective clear coat your pigments will fade and the paint will look dull. Clear coat provides a wet depth to the paint which is why it's used on metallics and is normally UV protective. But it is an extra process which adds to the cost. Fleet suppliers won't pay this extra cost. But the extra cost has reduced as it is more common and resale values are higher so they are now more common. eg the Police often buy silver cars now as they are easier to sell.
I thought that there had been improvements in the pigments used for red but can't see any evidence.
If you get horrible white blotches and peeling on the surface it is normally the clear coat that has broken down (the polymer itself) which can be due to light degredation or hydrolysis or other chemical reason. This is much harder to rectify than just cutting into a faded colour coat. But modern clear coats are very good and worth having.
Read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naphthol_Red
Basically its a big molecule with lots of double bonds. These are prone to reacting with oxygen with UV as the catalyst/source of energy. (Bit like how veg oil is less stable than beef dripping due to more double bonds....unsaturated).
If the double bonds go then so does the colour.
I used to deliver car paint and one customer had the contract to paint Dyno Rod vans that dayglo colour.
He clear coated them over the solid paint else they would fade really badly in no time.
That didnt stop the fade completely, but by that time they were being defleeted and resprayed white again.
Not being an expert, I guess its something to do with the pigments in the paint as the colours are made up of different "tinters" to make the actual car colour - a mix for my car contains 11 different colours ( tinters ) to make up the correct shade, even a basic van white can have bits of yellow and black in the mix.
Really old reds had a high lead content which would oxidise.
From a vague memory : In the "Detailing" world the paint on cars is classified into soft, medium, hard - this relates to the paints ability or topcoat to be polished free of imperfections and scratches. German cars have hard finishes, japanese cars have soft finishes...dunno bout the rest?.
Dry Clean only.
Read the label ffs, it's there for a reason.
The paint hardness is related to the type of polymer and the degree of crosslinking. If a coating is not cured correctly (eg no enough heat or for long enough or the wrong mix) it will be softer and less resistant to chemicals. Hardness is not always good and for abrasion a rubbery coating can be preferable but this is all designed in for the application.
A 2k stoved coating will pretty much always be better than something you get in a spray can that dries at room temp.
so....if I go for a new car in metallic red, as compared to a metallic bronze, once the car id 3/4 yrs old, will the red paint have faded ?
I fancy a red car, and it's a company car, but as I will have it for 4 yrs I am dithering on colour. Currently have a dark blue one (metallic) and the paint is a mess with scratches
oxidised!! i know that. my stupid computer doesn't and so changed it for me. 😳
was quite pleased with my post as well.