[s-cars] 93 S4 - Red paint problems

[Trevor Frank]

Same problem with the all too popular Green 93.  I am not sure if it is
a factory clear or not.  Mine has fine cracks and pits in it on the hood
and front fenders.  It has bad oxidation on the roof hood and some
oxidation on the doors.  I have painted cars before and have used
everything from the Pro-Maguire's stuff to the Pro-3M stuff, I even
talked to my Meguires rep and tried his suggestions.  The only thing
that lasted over a few day's was to use clay to get the contamination
off and then polish and wax it.  I talked to a painter friend of mine
and he suggested sanding the clear off of the whole car and stripping
the hood and fenders down to metal and starting over again.  Ooh ya it's
a California car that has spent many of it's years outside.

-----Original Message-----
From: GreenBugeye at aol.com [mailto:GreenBugeye at aol.com]
Sent: Saturday, June 29, 2002 2:26 PM
To: s-car-list at audifans.com
Subject: [s-cars] 93 S4 - Red paint problems

I've been having greater and greater difficulty with the original red
paint
on my 93 S4 (no, not all of them were green!).  When I bought the car in
99
from Euro Car Service (my local guys), it had what appeared to be acid
rain
damage on the roof -- the entire roof was covered with splotchy pink
spots
that were clearly in the pattern of water that had been sitting on the
roof
at some point.  I used 3M Imperial Hand Glaze to buff it out, and it
came
right back to the original color, so I coated it with wax and figured I
was
done.

Wrong.  The spots returned within a week or two.  So I buffed and waxed
again, yadda yadda yadda, here we are two years later, and I have a new
issue.  I buffed and waxed the roof as usual last week (didn't get much
red
on the rag this time), and the rain this week appears to have stained up
the
roof with the same pink splotches, only this time in the pattern of neat
little beads of water.  And it's also starting to splotch up the freshly
buffed and waxed roof and hood.  I used Maguire's Gold Class
Professional
paste wax, and have been using it for some time on a number of cars and
motorcycles with no problems.  This wax is only available at an autobody
supply place.

So, does anyone else have these issues with their red S4s (or other red
Audis)?  Was this a common problem?  Any FAQ I can look at?  Any action
by
AoA to remedy it?  My guess is that, since the car has been on the road
for
nine years, Audi is none to anxious to get involved, and frankly, my
suspicion all along has been that it's an environmental issue, anyway.
Just
looking for tips/ideas/solutions before heading to the body shop for a
wet
sanding or potential respray (which is definitely not in the budget this
summer).

Thanks!

Chris Eck
Akron, Ohio
93 S4 TQ (Stage 1, H&R, ECS camber plates, etc.)
59 Bugeye  (British and running without catching fire!)
91 CB 750 (reliable Jap bike)
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