is yellow a colour that fades...

is broom yellow a color that fades like red?i hope my punto aint going to turn white in years to come lol. any1 had any problems? what is the best way to keep it maintained without ripping off the paint work. any help would b appreciated

Give it a good polish, then get it treated with Supagard paint sealant. This will stop paint fading or discolouration for at least three years. Fiat have tested and officially approved Supagard so it will definately help. You will find that some valeting companys will do it for you a lot cheaper than main dealers. Dont go for the alternatives like diamondbrite , lifeshine or silverseal etc as they have to be either retreated/or additives periodically applied to keep them protected/guaranteed!

Funny you should say that - I've just bought a broom yellow Punto

Attached are a couple of pics that show my problem areas - not really too major - the laughable rear spoiler has faded, and the tailgate and bumper seems to have faded less than the side panels (i.e. the tailgate and bumper have possibly been repainted, or painted in a different thickness).

Plastic items are renowned for fading (like my spoiler) - they fade from the inside-out due to plasticisers and adhesion promotors in the paint - and there is really nothing that you can do other than keep it out of the sun (more of an issue for us in NZ I suspect as the Southern Hemisphere sun is stronger thanks to the ozone depletion etc...)

As for the rest of the paint, give it a coat of some type of wax (any type that's non-abrasive/doesn't need elbow-grease) every month or two, and you should avoid most of the dulling/oxidation that makes pink Puntos look awful.

The first time you wax, you may have to polish first to make the surface smooth. Another way to remove surface contaminants is to use a Clay Bar. It's a magic lump of stiff plasticene that you glide over the paint with a lubricant (supplied) and it makes the surface feel as smooth as glass without the need for hard-work polishing.

-Alex

your spoiler looks just like mine, and ive only just painted mine, my bumpers are also a slightly different colour to the rest of the car, think plastic bits just fade differently to other bits... mines sprint blue though

Well when i brought my red bravo the bonnet and roof was pink lol abit of T-cut and it was all red again

Bravo_Sean

I discovered just now that the spoiler does not have a clear-coat. Most of the Punto does. The clearcoat is good news for durability but bad news for fading (the faded rear quarters don't seem to polish up at all). I think the side-skirts do not have a clear-coat either, as I tried to remove some scratches from those and the colour came off on the cloth.

Anyway quite a lot of the lemon-yellow has rubbed off my spoiler (with some cutting compound) to expose paint that's nearly the right colour. I might keep rubbing a little longer...

...OK I've now rubbed for a little longer and it didn't improve further - here is a pic below though showing the difference between the left side (that I have done) and the right side (that I haven't).

-Alex

thankx mate. il see about my spoiler it looks abit dodgy looking lemon yellow. do you think t cut would be good to bring back the colour?or make it abit darker?or would it just make it shinier? i have bought sporting side skirts and are yellow .they are off a y reg. they look abit lighter than my car. do you think its worth leaving them as they are?or giving them a good polish?

Colour fading is known as photodegradation and affects colours most from the red end of the rainbow spectrum. Yellow is the third colour and is more prone to fading than all colours except for red and orange.

Yellow is the best colour for Fiats.

Agreed, and my Stilo is as yellow now as the day I bought it years ago. Just needs regular proper cleaning and polishing/protecting. Helps if you had it from new/ish.

ah thanx lads. i aint very good at polishing i polished my old red uno and it looked good for a week n then got worse. so i aint sure if iwant to risk it with the punto. ?

also there are so many polishing stuff out there i dont know what actualy works and what actualy rips the paint off. t cut etc.

any simple recomendations? are valeting places any good?

any ideas how to make my sideskirts a tiny bit darker to match my car? without getting them re sprayed? any sort of color restorer out there for plastics? or shal i stick them on as they are. the skirts are off a Y reg so obviosly abit older but i dont want them to look tacky because the rest of the car is a darker yellow.

thankx for any replys.

best bet for newbies is autoglym. Halfords nearly always have it on 3 for 2. You will want AG body shampoo, AG super resin polish and AG extra gloss protection, two buckets, a hose, and some microfibre cloths and a proper wash mit (NEVER use a sponge). bout £30-40 total spend, but will last ages and give brilliant results. I am not gonna type full instructions now but pm me if you want them