I can tell you for a fact that 03 rr evos have no clear coat. And yes I owned one. I also had to have body work done at the dealership. I saw it get painted and it does not have clear coat. I have since traded it for a 05 black and it does have clear. I hope this helps.

This may prove the fact RR red is a 1 stage (aka no individual clear coat) from a detailing site I belong to where a guy did a RR evo, look at the polish pad in the last pic for the color bleed!

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...ighlight=mitsu

I wonder if the 03 pheonix red lancers are the same way. When I wax my car for the first time in the spring and buff it out I get red coming off...... Plus it scratches very easily..

sounds like a good possibility from your description

****, I'm going House Of Kolor candy apple red in a year or two, since my RR evo already has a bunch of chips in it, and some fading in the mirrors and handles from all the snow driving I do.

I don't think snow is the big paint fade culprit ...I'd look up to the sky to that big radioactive fireball that heats our planet :-D

I'm sorry to tell you but, you got scammed by the dealer. This is the old "clearcoat option" bit. The car usually comes from the factory now days with clearcoat. They don't just spray it on at the dealership. Dealers have been using this bit for years! Most people didn't know the difference when the majority of manufacturers made the change over in the '80's, so the dealer would let you believe it was a special feature.

The only cars I know of that were made with and without clearcoat simutaneously were the 1982 Corvettes. They opened a new production facility in Bowling Green, KY that year that was cranking out the '82 Corvette at the same time the old St. Louis plant was building '82 Corvettes and being phased out. If the Corvette was built in the new plant, it got the moderen Base/Clear paint, if it was built in the old plant, it got the Single step no clearcoat paint. It depended on where the dealer took delivery from.

They might have used a single stage on red evo's to save money though. I hear red is one of the most expensive colors to produce because of the pigmentation. However I doubt they made it optional. The red either IS or IS NOT a clearcoat pint job. It would cost the factory too much money to offer both in the same color.

Ok, not to add a new color here, but I thought it was just me that noticed that some '03 BBY were more faded than other '03's. I havent noticed it as much in the RR cars, but maybe cause I havent seen as much. I just always thought it was odd that the BBY cars were always slightly off from each other, maybe this explains it....

Well here's the answer to RR paint with no Clear coat.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...ead.php?t=1560

All paint from mitsubishi is a single stage unless you have a metalic color like Electric blue, Apex Silver, Pearl White. All others are a single stage.

Heat is a paint jobs enemy! Keep it waxed and the paint will last alot longer.

the paint job on the reds are so bad that when i even waxed the car, there was red paint on the rag and when i buffed it, the foam pad was dark red! Its a single stage paint where they spray the paint and the clear coat in one stage instead of doing multiple ones

I’ve waxed my RR IX probably ~5 times in ~ the past 5 months and not once did I ever see any discoloration of the rag...

Leave a clearcoated car out in the sun long enough and the clearcoat goes bad. When that happens your clearcoated car will need painting but my RR '03 will only need waxing.

Myth