[Vwdiesel] Faded red paint

[Scott Kair]

    The ECO is the third VW I've had in Notoriously Fading Red.  The first
one wound up with red and white spots from polishing through the paint, the
second was beyond hope, and the ECO's paint was in pretty sad shape from
being parked outside and not waxed in over a year.
    I tried the conventional polish-and-wax, which lasted about two weeks.
Then a friend suggested Zymol wax.
    The proper fix would probably be repainting it, but the Zymol is a
satisfactory and much cheaper substitute.  It lasts a couple of months
rather than weeks, and puts a nice shine on it. The roof was terribly faded,
though, and will probably never look as good as the other surfaces.  The
Zymol has helped it, though.
    The trick is to follow the directions on the bottle and apply it in
straight lines, rather than in circles like conventional waxes.
    At $13 a bottle it's not cheap, but for this application it's priceless.
    BTW, there was a thread on restoring black trim awhile back.  I tried
the Kiwi Black Shoe dye that someone suggested and it works quite well, too,
but care must be taken to remove overapplication from painted surfaces
before it dries.
    HTH
    Scott Kair