Subura flat red paint - does it fade?

[dern]

I am seriously considering buying a uk impreza wagon after test driving one this lunchtime. The car I'm interested in is a flat red colour and have stayed away from red cars in the past as they always seem to fade. Is this an issue that anyone had had with a flat red (ie non-metalic) red subaru?

The car is a 1999 by the way.

Thanks,

Mark

Edited by dern on Monday 24th July 15:34

[WildCards]

Friend had a flat red Impreza wagon non tubbie version which had faded alot at the back, tailgate and rear bumper took the brunt of it. Paint is typically thin of Japanese cars I think. I will say however that he never polished his car, or looked after further than taking it to the local immigrants to be washed.

Edited by WildCards on Monday 24th July 16:06

[Top Trump]

WildCards said:

Friend had a flat red Impreza wagon non tubbie version which had faded alot at the back, tailgate and rear bumper took the brunt of it. Paint is typically thin of Japanese cars I think. I will say however that he never polished his car, or looked after further than taking it to the local immigrants to be washed.

Edited by WildCards on Monday 24th July 16:06

Is that true about Jap cars typically having thinner paint?

[Nicol@]

As per Wildcards comment.

Look after the paintwork and it should be fine.

[roop]

Most flat red paints on cars bloom with exposure to the sun. Typically, red paint is less UV stable than other colours. Get a high quality cutting polish applied to it and it will come back like new. Remember to then wax over the top with a glaze to protect it again.

[dern]

Ok, thanks

Just put a deposit down on this...





Regards,

Mark

Edited by dern on Tuesday 25th July 23:16

[GravelBen]

looks nice


Might not be quite as quick as you're used to (just looking at your profile) but will be a great all-rounder.

[chippy17]

very spooky, I have literally the exact same car, same year, same colour, even down to the read bumper protector etc. I like you was not keen on buying a red car but it was by far the best car I had seen for the money. I think they look good in red with contrasting black sills/mirrors but you can see the slight difference in colour for example on the lower rear spoiler and bumpers but it does not really bother me
love mine though, great cars
perhaps your car has been cloned from mine!

edited to ask, what have you paid for it? If I can be so bold.

Edited by chippy17 on Wednesday 26th July 13:50

[dern]

chippy17 said:

edited to ask, what have you paid for it? If I can be so bold.

I'll let you know after I've picked it up if you don't mind... currently just have a deposit on it.

I'm currently looking for a workshop manual on ebay for it... did you buy one? I need to change the cambelt on mine and would rather follow a procedure in a manual to be on the safe side.

Cheers,

Mark

Edited by dern on Wednesday 26th July 15:30

[chippy17]

dern said:

chippy17 said:

edited to ask, what have you paid for it? If I can be so bold.

I'll let you know after I've picked it up if you don't mind... currently just have a deposit on it.

I'm currently looking for a workshop manual on ebay for it... did you buy one? I need to change the cambelt on mine and would rather follow a procedure in a manual to be on the safe side.

Cheers,

Mark

Edited by dern on Wednesday 26th July 15:30

of course I don't mind, just curious to see how the prices are doing...

being a cheque book mechanic I would not know, I do find Scoobynet quite good for things like this...also make sure you get the Sigma alarm manual and the override code for the alarm

[BIG DUNC]

I have failed to find a manual for mine, and am also about to do the cambelt. I went to my local friendly garage where I get all my MOT's done ( so they see me a lot! ) and asked whether it was a difficult job. The kind man printed off the page from his auto data manual for me for reference. He said it wasn't that bad a job, but like all cam belts, access is a pain, and you have to be carefull as the consequences of doing it wrong are pretty bad......
Haven't actualy started yet, since the day before I was going to, the cylinder head on the other car went pop, so I have to get that back on the road first.

[dern]

I bought one on ebay. The 97 and later cars have a different type of cambelt tensioner to the early cars. The manual available on the net only covers the earlier cars and no one seems to have a manual for a MY99 or MY00 car. The manuals that claim to be for the MY97 and MY98 cars show the same tensioner setup in them as the <MY96 cars which left me a bit confused. Anyway, the manual for one of the later bugeye cars has the same tensioner setup as the MY99 so I'll use that as a guide.

Regards,

Mark

[dern]

Unfortunately the sale has fallen through as I've just found out why it was so cheap. Ho hum, back to leafing through the autotrader again...

[chippy17]

dern said:

Unfortunately the sale has fallen through as I've just found out why it was so cheap. Ho hum, back to leafing through the autotrader again...

Just picked up on this thread, not that I was spying but I saw the car you were looking at on Autotrader and I did wonder why it was considerably cheaper than others, never mind eh. Are you still looking for one?

[MrFlibbles]

Dern, would you mind mailing me offline? I'm interested as to why it was so cheap, but understand why you wouldnt want to post up.

[dern]

chippy17 said:

dern said:

Unfortunately the sale has fallen through as I've just found out why it was so cheap. Ho hum, back to leafing through the autotrader again...

Just picked up on this thread, not that I was spying but I saw the car you were looking at on Autotrader and I did wonder why it was considerably cheaper than others, never mind eh. Are you still looking for one?

Yes definitely.

I've seen 3 cars so far. The first two were both dealer silver 00 wagons. The first was described as in good condition and had scrapes all over the bumpers and broken lights. The second was also described in good condition with no faults over the phone but a couple of parking dings and actually had a 2 foot long gouge down one door. And then there was the red one.

Slightly disheartened but not surprised about the amount of dishonesty which seems to be acceptable to sell a car these days but yes, still looking

Regards,

Mark

Edited by dern on Tuesday 1st August 09:51

[chippy17]

Yes it is a bit sad when people do this, I think I was lucky as I found mine relatively quickly, although mine had a couple of dings on the door and a small scrape on the front bumper but I just knew it was a good car by looking at the owner and a year later not one thing has gone wrong (touching wood furiously).

What was wrong with the red one out of interest?

Edited by chippy17 on Tuesday 1st August 12:05

[dern]

Just to fill in the gaps (now I have my deposit back).

It was a private sale in Woking, the car looked good apart from the odd nick in the paint here and there and the only problems I could see were a rusty back box, few marks on the seats, engine was slightly noisy but it was exhaust noise rather than any engine problems, the pas pump was slightly noisy and it was blowing some oil vapour out of one of the large pipes near the intercooler. It didn't have a fsh as advertised as 2 stamps were missing from the book and it's due a cambelt service. I asked if he'd had any problems with it or work done on it and he said no apart from the servicing (brakes etc). He'd just had the air con regassed but he didn't take the opportunity to explain why.

It was up at £4500 so I offered £4000. He agreed and I gave him a deposit to hold it until today.

I then found out that it had had a front end smash a little over a month ago requiring a new bumper, lights, grill, crossmember, bonnet and some paint on the wings. It also had work done on the aircon which is why it needed regassing. All this work came to nearly £3500. Phoned him up and confronted him over it and he agreed that he'd had the work done and said that he was sure he'd mentioned it which he definitely hadn't and I said I'd have my deposit back.

Don't get me wrong, I don't believe the repair was a bad one (I didn't spot it) and I've no reason to suspect that he'd run it without coolant (the aircon rad is behind the water rad isn't it?) or that the oil leak or the noisy pas pump was related and I've also no reason to suspect that over time the paint may fade at different rates as I have seen happen on mates cars but what I really object to is that this guy was prepared to be so dishonest in order to shift his car.

Be careful out there car buyers and trust no one.

All the best,

Mark

[TangoMan]

Any single stage paint will fade due to UV and oxidising, Use a sealant such as poorboys EX-P to protect it (Sun tan lotion and anti oxident for cars) and put wax over the top of that.

The best paint for buffing is single stage as they come up looking fantastic, Clear Coats on the other hand have a laquar over them to protect the base colour and so stay looking good for longer. Just maintain the paint as above.

[dern]

Thanks for the advice Tangoman.

Bought a blue one now though... www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=294272&f=23&h=0

Regards,

Mark