Mercedes Benz C-Class W203 (2000 - 2007) - 01 2.0 restoring badly faded paint

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Sun 5 Apr 2009 01:21
01 2.0 restoring badly faded paint - hatman
I am considering buying a 2001 Mercedes C-class that has a non metallic red paint finish - the paint is badly faded in many places and I was wondering if it is possible to restore the paint to a presentable standard by polishing the car.

Am I right in thinking that taking the car into a professional polisher for a "mop" is likely to restore the paint to a presentable standard? I'd be interested to know what sort of polish is best to use.

It wouldn't be cost effective to respray the car so unless I am fairly confident I can restore the paint through polishing I wouldn't buy the car.

Thanks in advance.

Edited by Pugugly on 05/04/2009 at 11:44

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Sun 5 Apr 2009 09:41
01 2.0 Restoring Badly Faded Solid Paint - andyp
I used to have a Citroen BX in "solid" red and that started to fade badly after it was about 4 years old despite having being polished regularily (a common problem with non metallic reds). I tried many types of cutting & polishing product to help this, the coloured polish was the best, but none worked for more than a few weeks when it would to fade again.
I did once take it to a body shop to see if they had any trade gear they could use on it, but their verdict was that the pigment had gone in the paint and a respray was the only permanent solution for it.
This was in the early 90's though so there might be something different on the market now to cure it !
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Sun 5 Apr 2009 11:30
01 2.0 Restoring Badly Faded Solid Paint - Hamsafar
In the early 1990s I had a zinnerberot BMW which had been partly repainted while with a previous owner. The repainted areas started to fade after a few years, I tried everything, even wet sanding in the end but the paint had faded right through, not just a thin top layer. When I sanded it, it would only return to good paint colour when I got through to the original factory paint.
In the end, I spent a few hundred pounds (can't remember) having it resprayed by a trusted small bodyshop (two man band) and it looked amazing afterwards. To keep the costs down, I removed some trim, lights and bumpers sround the parts to be reoainted.
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