H
H means the paint has faded.
色あせ
iroase
fading
Colour loss from years of sun. Reds and blacks go first, and a car parked outside in Japan fades on the roof, the bonnet and the shoulders of the wings.
Fade cannot be polished back once the pigment has gone. Refinishing the faded panels leaves a colour mismatch with the ones you did not do, so the honest fix on a badly faded car is all of it.
An H mark on one panel and not its neighbour is often a sign that panel was painted before, badly, with cheap material.
What it should do to your bid
Decide now whether you can live with it, because the repair costs more than most single mechanical jobs on the car.
Where sources disagree
Attested by one major guide as faded paint. Not every auction house uses H.
We tell you this rather than picking the reading that sounds most confident. The legend printed on your own sheet is the authority for your own car.
Night Line
Reading a sheet with H on it?
The free Decode is not open yet. Leave an address and we will write once when it is, so you can put your own sheet through it rather than reading ours.