Soooooo, I pulled off my spoiler to see just how bad the paint fade has gotten: First two pictures.

Flickr: Dielangsame's Photostream

That's friggin insane. Three years and it looks like shit. Good thing it's off warranty.....

So I post a question to Fitfreak: Does anyone know of the paint used on the Fit is a 2 stage or 3 stage? My father is willing to respray the top of my car, along with the spoiler and hood, but needs to know about the paint.

I appreciate it in advance.

 

I think that might be normal if you live somewhere with a lot of sun. I mean not ideal. But pretty normal. Pigments are hit hard by UV rays. If you had a silver or white, or maybe even black, Fit I would say you could see less fading. OR ... the paint is just terrible; also possible

That hasn't solved your problem but hopefully someone else can answer your question about 2-3 stage paint

 

Curious, have you tried buffing and polishing?

 

Have you tried claybar or polish, etc?

I've had friends with red cars with 25 year old paint that came out looking 100x better after a nice claybar and polish.

I have no idea about 2 or three stage paint, though. I am curious.

 

Man, I just spent the last hour researching your question because I was curious, and I"m still confused. I have not seen fading on red, personally, since the single stage Toyota super red paint in the 80's and early 90's. The internet is full of two stage claims (with tinted clear), and even some claims of single stage milano red cars. Hmm. I assume you have no paint transfer onto a buffing cloth or pad, as that would eliminate the single stage paint theory. If it was a three stage paint, that would surprise me. Milano red is not metallic or pearl is it? Anyways, I would contact a reputable Honda dealership body shop as they would have to know. Body shops are weird though...depending on the paint they use (PPG, Dupont, etc) their painting system might have multiple paint configurations. There are most likely multiple "shades" of milano red on top of that.

 

Interestingly enough most of the red factory paint jobs i've seen brought back to life by polish and claybar are these exact ones (Toyota super red)!

I've seen some questionable Honda Milano Reds as well that look almost pink in recent years...

 

That's paint oxidation. Put in some time with a claybar, polish and wax, and it will look brand new.

 

My brother and father spent all of today claybarring, polishing and waxing it, and the two pictures I posted are the end result. As for washing I get it once every other month.

I'll make a call to my dealership and see if they know, or start asking body shops around town.

If it comes to it I may just have the roof vinyl wrapped and paint the wing to match. I like that my car is perfectly functional in every way, but I dont like it now looks like it doesnt. Oh well, it is a 17,000 car anyway... :/

 

I was just showing my wife yesterday that our red 08 Fit was turning pink. mostly on the "D" pillars and spoiler area

 

So did paint come off when you polished it? Was the cloth red? Just curious.

 

No, the cloth came away clean, or at least clean of paint. He says the clear coat is in great condition, its the paint underneath that is losing its color. Weirdly, my bumpers arent fading at all. (or at least the tops)

Im happy that my brother and dad both have plenty of experience on bodywork. So if it does come down to painting they know their way around a spray gun. This would have been alot different if I was on my own...

 

I have had a red fit and a silver one. Stays outside all the time in Phoenix. No fading on either in over 2 years. But I wax mine every month. Try it.

 

Its milano red, it will always turn pink unless garage kept by someone who obsessively cares for their car's paint.

Look up milano pink, etc. That paint color has failed to stay red for over a decade, my '99 Integra LS was worse than that.

 

That was sort of my reaction, having also had a milano red car. It was less red than when knew, I think is what I can say about it

If I were you, and I'm not, but if I were ... I would just put the spoiler back on since it makes the car look better anyway :P

 

I put it back on while I figure out what to do. If the clearcoat is fine I may just vinyl it and say screw it.

 

My Fit is a 2007 and for the first 3 years was in a garage at work and at home. Then last year it had to go outside during the day but always garaged at night. The good thing is that I show it during the summer so it gets lots of waxing and cleaning. Even though I won't be showing next year I still plan to take care of the paint and keep it looking good.

 

You might wanna wash it more than once every other month.

 

Well, I wash mine every two weeks and I thought I was bad. That made me feel a little better about it . I need to wax it more though... I rarely do that.

Yeah I think you can only get away with that with grey, white or silver cars, not really good to let red cars' paint go that long without washing/waxing. Is it garage kept or parked outside?

 

Outside. Regular washing and waxing shouldn't have made that big of a difference, seeing as a guy from work has a Milano Red 2000 Accord, and his paint looks amazing. He's worse at washing than I am, he hasn't since he bought it two years ago.

 

Honda paint ain't what it used to be. A lot of 80's and 90's civics i see look better than cars 20 years their senior. Even my old Element's paint was WAY better than my Fit's, and I RARELY washed that thing.

One of my #1 gripes about the Fit is the paint quality, because of that i've been sure to take care of it a little better than I have other cars i've had. You may be right in that your paint is fading, it's a terrible paint job for an OEM in my opinion.