Faded paintwork where vinyl graphics have been

[joebristolgym]

My mate has a yellow Seat Leon Cupra that used to be the UK Seat press car and it had graphics in chequers on the bonnet in the past. When she bought the car it was barely visible at all, but she neglected it and they're quite bad now.

Spent the weekend washing/de-tarring/t cutting/waxing the car but it hasn't made much difference - anyone got any ideas to make it better?

Cheers.

 

[Dan 172]

My Dad has the same on his yellow Cupra R.

I wouldn't use t-cut tbh, you really need to get a machine polisher on there really.

I would try something like Meg - Scratch X & AutoGlym SRP first as you can get them both from Halfords and with a little hard work it should be better.

 

[mattjk]

These cars are bad for fading, the paint fades undearneath the varnish, it was a nightmare for my mate to get the colours matched correctly on his one. Not much you can do really.

 

[Dan 172]

The yellow looks very muted from the start with these.

It would drive me nuts if it was my car, as it needs to be a little bit brighter.

 

[Michael172]

get a tube of scratch x and work that in for a few hours see if that works. if not, have it machine polished, if your doing it yourself, get a very abrasive compund and a cutting pad and just attack it.

 

[aceface]

if your doing it yourself, get a very abrasive compund and a cutting pad and just attack it.

Not good advise really. Should always start with the mildest pad and polish combo. Plus heavy compounds will need following up with a finishing polish and there is a much higher risk of causing damage.

 

[mattjk]

Did no-one listen to me? Its not the lacquer its the paint underneath the lacquer I know this because my mate also had the same problem with his yellow cupra and mopping it did jack all the bumper that was spryaed still looks out of place.

 

[Brand86]

Not so sure it is definitely the paint - on demo cars which have decals on them for 6 months or so we used to remove them with tar and glue then polished them up using a relatively light compund and was fine. However your mates stickers may have been on for longer so may be slightly different but I would first just try with the lightest polish first and work up as needed, as Aceface says.

I would be suprised if it is impossible to move the marks, not something that I have encountered before if so.

 

[joebristolgym]

I know nothing about detailing - can someone enlighten me on where to get the stuff you'd recommend I used? Also as well as the polishing/cutting product what kind of cloth/pad would you use with it?

Cheers

 

[Dan 172]

As said mate, try some Megs Scratch-X from Halfords first.

 

[Rich]

As Matt has said I think you may be onto a loser.

If it was single stage paint you could have fixed it, as it is lacquered no amount of polishing is going to fix it - repaint time !

 

[cleanyourcar]

I've just picked a second hand van up and that had similar problems and stupidly I never picked it when I was buying it as it was always raining or viewed under cover. In full sun it looked a mess.

Luckily it turned out to be just the freshness of the new paint and the oxidised and scratched laquer making the removed graphics stand out.

A good machine polish cleared everything and more and left behind a lovely metallic paint.

At least I knew they were Corgi registered