Which paint color holds up best?
 

First, I understand that all of the FC's are at least 13 years old and that in itself will create some problems for paint.

I had a 10'th AE from '91 to '96 and it had a relatively bad paint flaking on the hood. I had originally thought it was started when I was caught in a hail storm, but I've since seen a bunch of white rexes with flaking/peeling paint. I've seen others colors flaking but those cars did not look to be kept up at all.

So, what is the general concensus on the best and worse factory paint color for holding up the best?

My Blaze Red 1991 has AWESOME paint. No faing, craking, peeling. Nada, none, zip, zilch. ;)

my paints awful
the hood and headlight covers are EXTREMELY dull, and seem to be flaking
Also I think the car has been repainted by the previous owner.

Its Sunrise Red (87)

Or it could be all that :mspank: on the car you do all the time Node.;)

A friend of mine works at DuPont (he is the supervisor for their commercial paint division...don't know the exact title though).

He told me that silver is one of the worst colors to get. If you notice some silver vehicles (from early 90's), they tend to lose their clearcoat very quickly. Also, red is another bad color to get because of fading from the sun.

Keep in mind that this is what he told me. (Although I am thinking about painting my car red anyway.)

.

Hmmm, maybe the previous owner put my car in a tanning booth? Cause its faded like no other.
Its passing up orange and going for yellow, CYM FC?

Eyeball poker, get on AIM

My '86 GXL is Arctic Silver (J5), and the factory paint is still awesome. Ive seen many FCs this color and they all seem to hold up very well. Red seems to be the worst as far as fading goes. I have seen a few that were still very nice, but the majority of them fade badly.

Eyeball poker? :confused:

I have a 91 with a white paint job from the factory. The paint is horible. It flakes off soooo bad. I am not sure what is wrong with it. However, I saw a 91 626 or 929 with white paint. It looked so much worse than mine.

I had a paint repair done on my car. The paint shop would not warrenty the work. They said the primer on the car was of bad quailty. That causes the paint not to stay on the car.

Case in point. I had a rock hit my roof between the windshield and the sunroof. It resulted in a paint chip. So I thought this sucks. About a 3 inch square area of paint flaked off. So I placed masking tape in an area around the damanged area and put newspaper over the damage.

One week later I removed the tape and all of the paint it was touching came off with it.

I think the paint is flawed or somebody mistreated the paint. But in the condition that I bought the car I doubt it. it was in great condition.

James

91's had the worst paint. It was a primer issue and slow production (some bodies didn't get painted as fast as the should have).

Man, who do I complain to get a recall underway?

James

anyway back to the orginal question...

If you can wash and wax it properly Black seems to hold up the best.

But for the average joe, who doesn't wash the car in the shade, and with soft cotton towels, then you should pick a non-metalic color for best durability. Avoid reds, and light blues as both have odd pigments that need the oils from polishing and waxing unless you are regular in your polish/wax routine (every 3 months is recommended).

i have a white 88 and the original paint is as good as you could expect (its got plenty of scratches).
also things that contribute to the paint flaking is the use of dishwashing soap to wash the car.

mike

No automotive manufacturer will perform a "paint" recall for a car that is 10+ years old.

I had a 88 Arctic Silver and the paint had "cancer" in a couple spots and was getting worse quickly, but the color was awesome. I have a 87 Noble white now with perfect paint, but I think it was garage kept before me.
http://www.zaxjax.com/images/NewWheels.JPG
http://www.zaxjax.com/images/SilverRX.JPG

I like the black. I have a 89 brilliant black that is in great shape....oh yeah, I painted it once....nevermind...sorry.

How good your paint is depends on many factors; location, care, storage, use, to name a few. My car is Brilliant black and it is in great condition for being 14yrs old (with being in Michigan its whole life and never seeing a winter!) The hood has some stone chips but will be gone as soon as I get my new aluminum hood painted. My friend's seven is a '91 blaze red and it is faded to hell.

I think you hit it right on the head. I have a 93' T/A thats Black and the paint looks better than a 2002 LS1. I bought it on Feb of this year, but the guy I bought it from kept it in the garage. (at least I guess, it had 66,000 original miles on it)

I believe it deals more with the TYPE or QUALITY of the paint, rather than the color. Yes, depending on weather, some colors will react worse than others, but generally, I think its the grade.

Secondly, I believe the PLACE that you have it painted at determines how good it'll be, too. If you go to MIDAS for a $300 paint job, you're gonna get the quality of a $300 paint job. At places like MIDAS, they don't do oven-bake paint jobs and other methods of painting that add durability and life to your paint.




Well, I'm willing to take the risk on Silver. I have high hopes for my REX (when I finally get one :( ) and the paint will be one of the best things about it.

My '91 is Blaze Red and looks great. I manage to keep it clean and I polish/wax with some frequency in an attemptr toe extend the paint's life. When I buff the wax now, though, the towel gets pretty damn red. There's a little bit of flaking just on top of the driver's door, but that's it. I have a feeling a good, complete paint job is in the not-too-distant future.