Time can take its toll on your paintwork and what might have been a vibrant colour when you first drove away from the showroom is now looking a little tired and faded. Car body repairs aren’t necessarily exclusive to accident damage. Here at Hillary’s Coachworks, we can restore your paintwork by either refinishing it, or by cutting and polishing to bring back the shine. We can also offer advice on how to protect your paint and to keep it looking in as-new condition.
Motorists in Kent should know that paintwork, and especially certain colours, can fade because of weathering. The impact of direct sunlight and adverse weather conditions can cause paint to lose its pigmentation or damage the final clearcoat finish.
Book in for car body repairs at our popular workshop in Royal Tunbridge Wells and we’ll not only bring back the shine; we will also promise an accurate colour match if you only plan to visit us to find out about partial respraying work.
This blog post looks at the causes of faded paint and explains how we can provide a suitable remedy.
There are a few reasons for colours to fade, all of which have a visual impact on the vehicles of our valued Kent customers. Here, we look at the primary reasons for faded paintwork and the consequences that result due to long-term exposure.
Sunlight – Ultraviolet light breaks down the pigment in paint and this leads to fading and discolouration.
Salt – Driving a car in winter leaves it more exposed to salt on the road. Salt can eat into paintwork.
Birds – Urine and faeces have acidic qualities which can eat into the surface of paint and lacquer.
Paint – Even the paint type on a car leads to fading, more so with older cellulose and 1K colours.
Poor Care – If you wash with gritty water or use a chemical soap, it can lead to paintwork issues.
If you live or work in the Kent area and need to discuss car body repairs as a means of restoring tired, jaded paint, we want to hear from you. Hillary’s Coachworks uses modern water-based colours and resilient 2K clearcoats to protect them. While this won’t stop fading on certain colours completely, it will ensure a few extra years of lasting protection.
A good level of care and reacting quickly to any of the causes behind faded paintwork is the best advice we can give but, sometimes, it might be too late to avoid refinishing. It is always the case that prevention is better, and infinitely lower in cost, than having to react to an issue. Cutting and polishing can save you money on the cost of car body repairs.
So, what is cutting and polishing?
This is a process that car owners in Kent should still have undertaken by a professional. Using a fine grade of abrasive paper, a technician can sand back the paintwork without breaking through the colour and into the primer. With cellulose and 1K colours, which were commonly used when classic cars were still the latest models, there is no clearcoat to worry about and we deal with the colour directly.
Once sanded back, the technician uses a cutting compound and a polish to restore the shine of the paintwork.
When this isn’t feasible or possible, car body repairs (and paint refinishing in particular) are the only choice.
Hillary’s Coachworks is bound by tradition but our workshop in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, has modern facilities which include a low-bake oven and a state-of-the-art mixing scheme. This allows us to prepare and paint your car in clean conditions with optimal temperatures and faster drying times.
