I was hoping maybe one of our resident experts may have run into this problem before. I replaced the hood stripes last year with viper stripes and now you can see ghost lines where the old stripes ran down either side of the hood. Of course I've seen this type of thing before when letters are removed from the sides of vehicles and you could see a ghost of the old letters, but these are usually vehicles that have never even seen a coat of wax. However I've never run into the problem personally.....until now. It would make you think that the paint faded everywhere on my Mini except where the old stripes were, but that makes no sense? The paint on this car is perfect (it's a 2005), it's never been out in the winter, it has lots of wax on it, it's stored in a garage even in the summer, it only has 12,000 miles on it (so it hasn't been sitting around baking in the sun). So did the whole car actually fade evenly or did some sort of transfer happen on to the clearcoat from the old stripes?

I did take it to a detailer, but he only worked on it for about 15 minutes, then gave up and he only worked on the ghost stripe (not the rest of the paint. If there is a fix, I'll be doing it myself this time, I have a 7424XP and LC pads. Any ideas folks?

 

Even well-cared for paint will fade slightly with *any* kind of sun exposure and the passage of time.

If it makes you feel any better, the rate of fading isn't linear, so the parts that were previously covered by vinyl won't always be six years "behind" the rest of your car, color-wise. The ghost lines will become less noticeable with time.

In the meantime, though, you're not going to be able to do much to correct it. The fading is down in the pigment layer of the paint, which you can't get to through the clear coat.

 

Try wiping down the hood with IPA (Isporal Alchohol, NOT Indian Pale Ale ) get it down to nothing but bare clear and try polishing it and see what happens....

As said above, there is a chance that your paint could have faded "slightly"

 

Thanks Guys, much appreciated. It's probably more noticeable to me of course, because I know exactly where to look. I knew I couldn't go through the clear, but I thought it may have been something else......since I've never seen a car fade so perfectly and still look so good (I mean we're talking no swirls...nothing)


..............I kind of like the idea of rubbing the car down with beer though

 

Well, I suspected what was up because I'm going through something similar with my 2006 "Cool Blue" cabrio. I had a pretty complex vinyl graphic (several hundred individual pieces) that I removed after only three years, leaving behind a faint ghost image of where the vinyl pieces previously were. The "ghosting" is more noticeable on the hood and trunk compared to the sides of the car (where it's hardly noticeable at all), so that's what clued me in that it was sun fading.

Like your car, mine has no swirls or defects in the paint, and I never would have thought that the paint had faded until I saw the difference between the paint that had been covered for three years and the paint that had been uncovered.

Also, metallics, pearls, and "candy" finishes aren't as stable as regular non-metallic paints when it comes to the ravages of sun and time. The "Hot Orange" on your car is a particularly interesting colour. There's actually a non-metallic red/orange base coat, then a tinted clear coat that has the metallic particles in it, then finally a clear coat on top of everything else.

 

Yeah, it's surprising how much of a difference in color there was when I first removed the old stripes (as you say, the lines are slowly fading), especially when you consider how much this car has been babied. Here's a shot I took last fall and you can see what I mean about how good the paint is (except for the ghost line, which I can see in the pic, since I know it's there). BTW, I take it you work with paint?

 

I had LeMans stripes on my '96 Miata for about 3 years (the car was kept clean and waxed almost to the point of obsession during this period) and then removed them. 12 years after removing the stripes, they are still visible no matter how many times the car has been rubbed, polished, buffed, etc. on several occasions. You can feel the difference in the paint, and in certain lights you can see them quite clearly.

 

metalic color or a solid? Miata was one of, if not THE last hold out for single stage paints with the solid colors not changing to base/clear until 2000! Fade issues on the solid colors, especially the red, are so much worse on those cars for this reason. 95 owner here - it is a common discussion point over on Miata.net; came up again just this week. However just about every Miata that has ever seen a body shop for a repair or repaint will have base clear, even if only on one panel.

fade versus a repainted fender with base clear very visible here


Metalics were base clear tho . . .

 

THAT is a BEAUTIFUL car! Love those stripes - well worth any ghost pains

 

+1 , love the stripes, who makes them?

 

Sorry, not trying to hijack your thread....but your stripes caught my eye here. I got my Clubman just last month. I already made an appointment with Lyle over at Vinyl Styles for stripe installation. I was debating between the black pinned-sport stripes or the center wide stripes that onefish2 has: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...88-post93.html. The center wide is similiar to yours except without the split down the middle.

I'm going to request a quote from Lyle based on your picture, hope you don't mind.

 

Got the same problem!
Got tired of the custom stripes on my BRG/W R53. Pulled them off and what a job that was!! After using Goof Off to get the remains of the adhesive residue off I am now left with a very,very very light haze where the smaller white stripe was. (Two tone white and gray stripes) And also a ridge left where the edges of the white stripe was.

After talking to a detail guy the answers are: #1 Put the stripes back, #2 Compound the S**T out of it, or #3 Wait till the stone chips get bad enough and have the Bonnet resprayed.

Oh Well.

 

I am in process of removing stripes off of "Merlin".
The people at the auto paint store suggested an "Stripe Eraser".
It's like a pencil eraser only it removes the stripes on your car.
Use's a 3/8" drill motor to work it.
Did my hood in 30 minuntes.
A little messy but it really does the job.
Does NOT hurt the clear coat.
Can't even tell there were stripes on the hood.
Would probally remove the "Ghost".

 

I've done my fair share of posting on m.n. Heck, I'm an old mailing list member and miataforum member from before Gary owned mf. My car was a Chaste White. Not much to fade there. It's more an issue of protected versus weathered. I remember the constant posts of, "Why does paint come off on my rag when I wax my car."

Miatas didn't have metallics back then. They had Mica paints. Very big difference, but you're correct in that they were clearcoated. Funny thing is that all the plastic were clear coated, yet the red bumpers fade faster than the metal surfaces.

I specifically told the body shop when I had a fender repaired that they were not to use a clear coat, and they didn't.

 

"Merlin" is Pure Silver, #900.

 

Thanks for the info and help guys (and the compliments on the car). Darthen, feel free to use the pic

For those that asked above, the stripes were done by a company up here in Canada called Trim-Line. They've been around for years and I actually thought they were an American company, but I googled it and couldn't find anything, so I guess they're just up here. The guy measures everything out on a computer, then a machine cuts it for him, but he did the cutting around the emblems (front and back) by hand and he did an amazing job. I watched him do it, since I was worried he'd cut into the clearcoat, but not even a scratch. He was the one that suggested going with a flat black and I'm glad I listened to him, what a difference it made in the look of the car. Cost was around $180 total front and back, so I was pretty pleased with that.

 

Just my 2¢ based on my experience for those of you who need to remove stripes. Get a blowdryer. Set it on Hot. Hold it a few inches from the front edge of your stripe...start peeling the stripe and continue to direct the air at the contact point of the stripe. I've used this process a couple of times and there was little to no adhesive residue to deal with.

 

Pulled my stripes off in one piece in about 2 minutes Just let it sit out in the 105 deg. Fresno heat for a few minutes I now wear my "ghost stripes" with pride....I tell everyone that's the way I wanted them

 

if it was red it was NOT clear coated

I own one and know how to check (I taught auto painting for a vocational HS)

If the bumper was repainted in the arrival center because of a transport bump .... that's another story

 

That's funny. In the several dozen Miata bumpers I've polished over the years, I've not had color on the polish cloth, but when polishing the metal parts I have had plenty of color on the cloth. Guess I wasn't rubbing hard enough.