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MG MGF Technical - Paint Colour difference

My red 1997 1.8i has a distinct colour difference between the colour on the metalwork compared to the front bumper, which is darker.

Has anybody else noticed this phenomena and does anybody have an explanation?
Phil Stafford

Phil,
Have you had the car from new? If you've bought second hand the colour difference might well be a result of a replacement bumper being fitted but sprayed the wrong red. Early MGF's were Flame red, later cars solar red....

Another phenomenon on early red cars was the ability for the door handles and mirrors to fade due to UV. Pain on plastic seemed to react differently to paint on metal.

HTH

Tim
tim woolcott

Phil

For some reason it seems to be particulaly commmon with red cars (no only MG's) I am not sure why....
J Price

Hi all,
remember that I read somehwhere (The birth of the MGF ?) that the front and rear bumpers were painted at the same factory where they are made. Probably due to the different type of paint that is needed on these more flexible parts...

BR, Carl.
Carl Blom

Red cars are more prone due to the pigment of red paint. Thats about as technical as I can get :-(
D Jamieson

Saying that tho I have never seen a faded Ferrari

;-)
J Price

To get a bit more technical. Both Red and Blue pigments are at the extremes of the Visible EM spectrum. At these extremes UV and IR radiation is absorbed by the Red and Blue paint pigment and so will ultimately suffer deterioration as a result. Red and blue car paint often 'chalks' so a regular treatment with a good polish is a very good idea. Not too sure why the plastic bits get affected more though as Carl says they may have used a different paint compound....

The effectiveness of regular polishing was shown on my car when after 6.5 years I had to replace the rear bumper. The newly sprayed item was spot on.
tim woolcott

>Not too sure why the plastic bits get affected more though...
the plastic itself is affected by the UV radiation, and this makes the paint (also of different composition) more prone to fading...
Blue Max

The same what Carl said happened with the outer door handles at an early red MGF.
Different to the rest of the door.
A chap here asked a speciallist and the guy found the paintwork at the handles miss the last surface treatment with 'clear laquer'.
Has anyone found similar ?

Dieter
PS. my PTS paintwork looks different shining in the sun as well (bumber to wings i.e)
Dieter K.

Have to agree Dieter, my 97 flame red VVC has door handles that were positively pink compared to the rest of the paintwork.

I tried T-cut and immediately got pink discolouration on the cloth with very little pressure - no laquer? Anyway after a couple of goes with T-cut, they are not brilliant, but look much, much better. Thought I'd better stop before I reached the undercoat/primer.

I asked the previous owner who had the car from new, he said that they faded quite quickly, 2-3 years, but it never bothered him. He readily admitted that he only polished the car once every couple of months. I've only had it a month and it's been polished five times, and looks just beautiful.
Lloyd.
Lloyd Eagle

Thanks for the feedback. The car has never been damaged so I can only assume it is a function of the different paint and UV attack/ (Noting that the effect is more noticable on the front unit (which is more exposed to sun) than the rear.
Phil Stafford

This year, when I fitted my hard top (that was exactly the same color than the rest of the car last year when I bought them) after the sunny summer of Spain (the top rested in my garage) the car was clearly darker than the top. Although the winter sun is not stronger then summer sun, with the use, in a couple of months, they were more or less similars. Probably by the UV efects
Spinder00

Ah!
They are Solar Red
Spinder00

This thread was discussed between 21/05/2003 and 22/05/2003

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