MX5 detail

rossi_p · 26 June 2009, 12:56

Hi all...

I've owned this Mazda for since last October and done this details back in April but never posted pictures up.. Thought I would share ..

It is a 2000 plate 1.6 with manual everything.

It was in a sorry state when I brought it, I'm pretty certain it has never been clayed, polished or even washed properly. Roof looked brittle and the interior was full of old rubbish. If it has ever been washed before, I'm pretty certain it wasn't two bucket method as the swirls and marks on the paint were pretty bad.

Some introducer pictures to it.

I started with rinsing the car down with the hose before a two bucket wash with Megs Hyper Wash. The mitt didn't glide very well due to the contamination on the paint and I had to empty the rinse bucket three times as was so mucky.. Here is an example of the rinse bucket after doing just the roof and windows!

The vinyl roof looked awful and thought it would need a few coats so applied some 303 Aerospace Protectant to give it some time to soak in and lubricate the vinyl. More on that later.

I then turned my attention to the wheels and arches. Using the trolley jack, I jacked up each corner and got the wheels off, de-greased with Megs Super Degreaser on the outside and inside of the wheels. Left this to soak while I sprayed into the arches as well. I used a brush to agitate the dirt and in the case of the rear arches, used my hand to pull out all the crud that was stuck to the inside lip. I did each arch and wheel twice to get them clean.

Once the wheels were back on, I gave it another wash with the Megs Hyper, drying with a Waffle Weave towel. This brought home just how bad the paint was. The surface was very rough and swirl marks everywhere...

So I set about claying with Megs Clay and used Megs Last Touch as lubricant. The clay smoothed the surfaces up and removed a lot of bonded substance. The pic below represents about a square foot... It was like this over the whole car!!

After lunch, I then set about the correction. I used the Megs G220 DA Polisher, Menzerna Intensive Polish and Lake Country cutting pads.

I managed to achieve a pretty high level of correction as shown in the below two pictures..

I then moved to the next stage which involved using the DA polisher again. This time with Blackfire Gloss Enhancing Polish with a polishing pad. The aim of this was to really buff up the finish to a brilliant shine in preparation for sealing and to finish off any last minor corrections.

After this I applied the Blackfire Wet Diamond Paint Protection which I think is a superb product. This included sealing the inside of the door sills, boot-lid and around the bonnet.

I then sealed the wheels with Poorboys Wheel Sealant and dressed the tyres with Blackfire Tyre Dressing.

I continued the roof resurrection with another coat of 303 Aerospace Protectant. Once this had soaked in, I finished up with a coat of Poorboys Natural Look Dressing. The Poorboys was then used on all the vinyl and rubber seals, inside the doors and the dash.

The inside was hovered, dusted, brushed down and all the rubbish cleared out.

I finished with Megs NXT window cleaner and final results are below.

Boot-lid...

Down the side..

Roof looking much, much better..

Interior..

Roof down.

Inside of the door..

One more with the roof up..

All the best
Rossi

Allan · 29 June 2009, 21:43

Not seen a MX5 done before, fantastic transformation

**chocolate_o_brian** · 30 June 2009, 21:29

Fantastic mate. I've got some of the Menzerna Intensive polish and wanna have a go with a machine to correct the swirls on the Pug. Just haven't got the ££ for a decent machine polisher as of yet.

Great stuff.

scoobyverysoon · 01 July 2009, 00:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by chocolate_o_brian

Fantastic mate. I've got some of the Menzerna Intensive polish and wanna have a go with a machine to correct the swirls on the Pug. Just haven't got the ££ for a decent machine polisher as of yet.

Great stuff.

your pug might need a higher cut then intensive polish - my wife had a 106 the paint was solid needed a few blobs of power gloss (10 cut) to make a impact before finishing with intensive polish

**chocolate_o_brian** · 01 July 2009, 00:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by scoobyverysoon

your pug might need a higher cut then intensive polish - my wife had a 106 the paint was solid needed a few blobs of power gloss (10 cut) to make a impact before finishing with intensive polish

Had a natter with Rich @ Polished Bliss when I ordered it and with a machine he advised it would be a good starter. When I have a polisher, I'll see whats capable with regards correction, but the paintworl isn't brilliant anyways so don't want too much cut on the laquer.

Too much work by hand on old paint, so given up.

rossi_p · 01 July 2009, 11:07

Cheers for the comments chaps.

Cob - I'd go with the MIP first. As you're a newbie to the machine world (much like myself), I wouldn't suggest getting a high cut compound to start with as you may take off much more paint than intended.

The clean up obviously worked. I put the little Mazda up for sale last week and have a new buyer who should be collecting tonight.

Now, what shall I spend the money on...

pete higham · 04 July 2009, 23:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by scoobyverysoon

your pug might need a higher cut then intensive polish - my wife had a 106 the paint was solid needed a few blobs of power gloss (10 cut) to make a impact before finishing with intensive polish

i cant believe that you have had a look at this detail and not mentioned that he hadnt cleaned the exhaust

cracking job that has come up fantastic

**Polished Bliss** · 07 July 2009, 00:06

Nice turnaround indeed, always nice to see black paint freshly detailed.