Permabanned
- Joined
- 13 Nov 2006
- Posts
- 5,798
I have a red car. Are there any precautions or routines you can apply to reduce the dreaded faded red colour?
Give the paint a good polish and wax regularly (fnar fnar) and you'll be fine, as long as it isn't a Corsa that is.
You can get polishes that have UV protection built in.
Do car waxes provide real UV protection?
Some waxes do contain UV-protection agents, but the amount of protection that a microscopically thin layer of wax can provide is limited
The primary goal of a wax is to protect the top layers of paint that contain UV-protection agents from the paint manufacture. If you wash and wax your car regularly, your paint will be protected and you should suffer no major UV damage over the normal course of the life of the car.
Don't be fooled by some companies that lead you to believe that it is the UV protection in a wax that protects your car's finish from fading and failure, this is dishonest and simply not true. Taking care of the paint you presently have will go further to protect your finish than relying on protection supplied by a liquid you pour out of a bottle, or a wax you scoop out of a can. UV protection in a car wax formula is only an extra-dose of preventative maintenance, not the end-all, cure-all that some companies would lead you to believe.
UV protection for paint is much different from UV blocking ingredients for human skin. The two formulas are nothing alike and work in drastically different ways. There is no correlation between the ratings applied to the different levels of sun blocking protection for products intended for use on human skin and the ingredients available for use in an automotive wax formula. Sad to say, much of what you see advertised about the protective qualities of most car care products on the market today is simply over-exaggerated hype used to separate you from your hard earned dollars.
Too true, my brother has an 02 Corsa as an a>b car, he rarely washes it and the panels are all very different colours!
From Meguiars:
Shocker as car-care product company shuns other car-care product manufacturers.
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/..._productId_178347_langId_-1_categoryId_165495
Perfect protective layer for your red paint.
I used that on my calipers. Should stop them getting sun stroke and peeling like an albino child quite nicely.