Been to view a couple of cars with the mother in law and despite my attempts and success at turning up a few late Escorts she is determined to get an Astra She's found an R plate Astra Arctic but the red paint is looking more than a little past it. Would getting it mopped return some shine and colour and how much should it cost?

 

A Mop is around Ł100 quid mate, but really does the trick

 

can you mop paint and thats it. . no need for a re-lacquer?

infact, lacquer is only on metalic isnt it?


I really know shit all about paint

 

For instance. Here is my XR2 when I bought it. Looking a bit pink and faded....



I bought a machine polisher and a bottle of G3



Made quite a difference.

 

Yes mate, but dont get it done by someone with a bottle of G3, get it done by someone that knows properly about detailing.

 

Gaz7 of RSOC is very good users a Porter Cable and has a depth reader so not to danger paint coat

 

Is there anyway of seeing if the paint has been done in the past as the bonnet almost looks white in places

 

the device gaz and my mate jobbo has measures depth so yes you can pretty much tells when a depth is much thicker or thinner than the rest of the car as a whole

obviously some panels have high and low spots but you can make a calculated judgement

 

Is it worth getting the dealer to do it as part of the sale do you think even if it means paying the asking price for the car? It's only at Ł2295 so is hardly a huge sale

 

always asking Steve

 

Ł2300 for a R plate Astra seems high tbh..... unless its an early Mk4

 

That's a lot of dosh for a R plate astra

Get the dealer to do it and a valet for that money it should be MINT

Good luck

 

Giving the car a good mop up will do the job, but it will fade again unfortunately. The pigments been bleached out of the paint by the good old sun!! But defo worth doing and keep loads of polish on it will also help to make it last.

 

do you wanna mop mine

 

Ł2295 !!! i should want a full paint and it to come back on a mk4 at least, unless car prices down youre way are extremely high as that really is t or v reg. money for an astra surely,try doing a search on autotrader to compare prices 1st

 

Red paint unfortunately is one of those colours that suffers quite badly from sun oxidisation, this can be brought back to life again by using a PC or on really bad oxidisation a rotary buffer can be used to remove the bad paintwork.

Newer paints will generally have a clear cote over the base paint layer, this counts for metallic or flat paint finishes.

If the paint is not oxidised it can just have very bad swirling, this can generally also be removed by machine.

Once the paint has been brought back to life, you can apply certain glazes to improve the colour.

Then there should be a final coat of wax to seal the paint to protect it, this will also give the finish a very wet look.

Just a couple of half and half shots i found.

Bad Oxidisation



And the dredded swirls



Here's a quick close up of the Girlfriend's GTI I did a couple of weeks ago, this car was so bad, I thought it was Black for a while, but after a quick machine you can clearly see the Aubergine Flake popping

Just a novice at this really but the results speak for themselves

Haven't let rip on the cossie yet, but cant wait to remove some annoying swirls that have been bugging me for a long time

 

Sorry here's the girlfriend car

 

This is exactly how mine had gone

 

nice job