Thanks, Martin. You know, I was just outside and happened to notice a brand new Honda SUV parked nearby. I started to look a little closer at the paint finish to judge just how smooth the paint really is on new cars. I gotta tell you, I honestly don't think it was any better (orange peel) than my final mower coat. It got me thinking... I'm gonna take my camera out into the local shopping mall parking lot and take some photos of various manufacturers paint coatings and see about making a side by side comparison. I'll try to get as wide a variety as I can find. I know that in the last few years, auto makers have switched to low VOC paints and maybe that's why we're seeing car finishes looking alot more like they did in the 60's thru 70's an they did in the 80's and 90's?

About the red pigments - you would think red would be the easiest pigment to make as it's one of the very oldest (iron oxide), but I'll accept your explaination. The next logical question would be: Why does Silver seem to be the next in line for paint fading? Again, you would think silver would be one of the easiest pigments to make?