Faded paint is back...Any advice?

[84chevy]

Hi,
I have an apple red 1984 Chevy pickup with original paint. No clear coat. I used the 3 part system = cleaner, polish and carnuba wax on the rig in October 05. The truck had quite a bit of fading at the time, but the system worked amazingly well and it looked fantastic! However, now that 4 months have passed, the fading has returned somewhat. Not as bad and a little splotchy in some places. But you can definately tell that the shine is going away and fading is taking its place. I used some of the polish and got the shine back fairly easily....but was wondering if I was or did something wrong or maybe something with the paint is to blame? Any advice would be appreciated!!
Jeff

[Murr1525]

You could be fighting a battle with paint that is pretty deteriorated. At some point, if paint is damaged enough, it will never hold the results for long.

Did you re-polish the whole truck? I'd put the wax over it, and see if you manage to hold the results any longer next time.

Another thought would be to try the cleaner again as well, see if there is more dead paint coming off. Then polish and wax.

As I said it may never truly keep be fixed, but 4 months is a good amount of time, maybe you can keep imporiving it.

[LiquidBlack]

You may need to use a heavier cleaner if your problem is oxidation (which is what I am guessing). I regularly use colorX to clean my finish, and I find it works quite well for cutting through oxidation, especially when used with a machine polisher.

Does it look like there is a light film or haze on the paint? Got any pictures?

You may find this thread relevant if this is the case:
1986 Ford Bronco II Extreme Makeover

http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=88

[Setec Astronomy]

Single stage red is going to be one of the most difficult colors to keep from "fading" While it may be that you didn't get all the oxidation in your original session, it may also be that you just need to maintain your paint more often.

Many people feel a reasonable routine is a twice-a-year polishing regimen, which would be every 6 months. Since you only got four months, you might want to reapply the Step 3 wax, say, every 2 months. I'm sure that will get you to 6 months before having to repolish, and you might be able to do something like this: Steps 1,2,3 once a year, Steps 2&3 twice a year, and Step 3 6 times a year. What I mean by that is Step 3 every 2 months, then at 6 months use Step 2 before the 3, and then once a year re-do the whole thing.

Hope this helps.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Faded paint is back...Any advice?

Originally posted by 84chevy

now that 4 months have passed, the fading has returned somewhat. Not as bad and a little splotchy in some places. But you can definitely tell that the shine is going away and fading is taking its place.

I used some of the polish and got the shine back fairly easily....but was wondering if I was or did something wrong or maybe something with the paint is to blame?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

Welcome to Meguiar's Online!

When single stage paint begins to act like you've described, I've coined a word and a term to label and describe what's happening.

The word is, Unstable

As in the paint has become unstable

The term is, The paint has lost its integrity

As in the paint has lost its integrity and nothing you pour out of a bottle or scoop out of a can is going to fix the problem at this point in time and the only true fix and honest answer to the question is in order to fix the problem the vehicle in question will need to be repainted.

So outside of continually re-applying polish and wax, there isn't much else you can do maintain the glossy shine you create immediately after polishing and waxing the paint.

Switching to a different wax may help a little, but in reality, if you polish and wax this paint and it looks great, and then in 3 months it becomes faded and dull, switching to a different wax may only slow down the process, but it won't stop the process and I'll bet that most eyes could not measure the difference, (if any), in extended or shortened time in the big picture.


As far as what is the difference between M80 and M66? One is a body shop tool, (primarily), and the other is a one-step wax for Professional Detailers, (primarily).

One is intended to remove light defects while being body shop safe and the other is intended to remove light to more serious defects, (it depends on how you apply it), yet leave behind a wax protection.

Read through this and soak the information up...

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2409