Paint Fade ?

Nick_USA · Jul 1, 2012

ORIGINAL: paulstephenson Just been looking at two 987 boxsters for sale,could any give advice on the guards red colour? does it fade? also the dark green, is it a porsche colour. have not seen ant around.any advice would be grateful. Only a new member of two months and in the process of looking for a 987 boxster..

The modern Guards Red paint does not suffer paint fading issues you speak of. As for the dark green (Olive Green ?) not a popular colour on resale but if you like the colour and intend to keep it not a problem.

paulstephenson · Jul 1, 2012

Just been looking at two 987 boxsters for sale,could any give advice on the guards red colour? does it fade?
also the dark green, is it a porsche colour. have not seen ant around.any advice would be grateful.
Only a new member of two months and in the process of looking for a 987 boxster..

ColonelMoon · Jul 2, 2012

Hi Paul, One thing to consider about darker colours is maintenance as they can look better than lighter once clean and polished but generally turn out to be a labour of love!, as they can show scratches and swirl marks and also the hologram effect if they've not been machine polished properly. Lighter colours won't show this so easily and if you can't see it then it might not bother you otherwise (if you're a tart like me) the car will have to be machine polished every six months to keep it looking at it's best.

Nick_USA · Jul 2, 2012

Topic title changed.

paulstephenson · Jul 3, 2012

thank you for your advice..paul.

Timbo2 · Jul 4, 2012

+1 on the dark colour thing, they look great when clean, but in this country that isn't long, and they take an age to get back that detailed look.

pauljmcnulty · Jul 4, 2012

The modern Guards Red paint does not suffer paint fading issues you speak of.

Why? What have they done to avoid it, fading red paint is the bane of older models. I see a lot of modern red cars fading, including Skodas, Seats & VWs. Out of interest do Audi use some different sort of paint, as I don't see any chalky Audis?

Hoopster · Jul 4, 2012

Audi's had it too; admitttedly a while ago; my red Audi 80 turned very chalky on the upper surfaces. I always suspected Audi owned a sizeable chunk of the Colour Magic business [

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Rodney Naghar · Jul 4, 2012

I think in the old days cars didn't have a clear coat so were prone to fading with UV exposure, reds and oranges were most prone to this because of the pigments used. Paint technology has come a long way and all cars are clear coated these days.

chrishak · Jul 6, 2012

ORIGINAL: Rodney Naghar I think in the old days cars didn't have a clear coat so were prone to fading with UV exposure, reds and oranges were most prone to this because of the pigments used. Paint technology has come a long way and all cars are clear coated these days.

Quite correct - modern solid colour automotive paint systems are completely different to that used on earlier cars. Previously they were solvent based single coat technology and often suffered degradation when exposed to UV - and some colours were more prone than others with reds and yellows being the worst, particularly when lead was removed from the formula. What is surprising is that Porsche suffered more than most, despite (so I bekieve) the same Florida exposure tests as other manufacturers. Bet you've never seen a faded Radient Red Ford. With the advent of water-based technology, solid colours adopted the same clear-over-base technology as metallics and gained the benefit of protection from clear coat. Interestingly, some of the protective properties of clear coat actually improve with exposure to UV, such that Ford were looking into UV tunnels through which bodies would pass before leaving the paintshop to prematurely "age" the clear coat. This never happened due to various H&S issues (what a surprise).