See pics below to see what that dated T-Cut rubbish did to my 21 year old Uno paintwork.
My car is wearing most of its original paintwork, only one rear quarter has been resprayed. See the strip on the bonnet picture to see how badly the paint had oxidised. With some Holts rubbing compound, T-Cut, some Turtle Wax 'High Gloss' polish I found lying around and a LOT of elbow grease these are the results:
This is my car two years after being T-Cut. Some panels had faded slightly and I didn't even wash it for six months. This is straight after washing it in 2006.
The faded strip on the bonnet was what the paintwork looked like all over the car when I bought it. See how well the rest of the bonnet came up!
This took a lot of work, but it was worth it because it hasn't oxidised since.
As per the above picture. Hard work but worth it.
The Holts rubbing compound took off the worst of the oxidisation, then the T-Cut brought out the shine. A good coat of polish brought it up really nicely and kept it that way. The roof was done in August 2005 and still hasn't re-oxidised.
I found that it helped to use the T-Cut and rubbing compound as per instructions. Many people put on T-Cut with a dry cloth and don't rinse it between applications. This then just rubs the oxidisation all over the paintwork...
Really going to town on the buffing seems to help it last too, and I always apply two coats of polish. First coat gets applied, buffed by hand then left for a day or two. Then I put on a second coat and buff with a cheapo Halfords electric buffing machine. This seems to help lock in the shine, and as long as I give it another coat of polish every few months the shine seems to stay looking good.
Agreed that red paintwork needs more work to stay looking good, but if you keep on top of it then it doesn't require much more than any other colour. And T-Cut is fine as long as you use it properly, though I'm sure there are some alternatives out there that are better but also cost a lot more!
