Subject: 1999 Mazda MX-5 Miata (Metallic Green)
Paint Hardness: Soft and responded like single stage
Time: 16 hours spread over 3 days.
Areas: All
Chemicals: Prima Swirl, Prima Amigo,
Prima Epic,
Black Wow, Hyperdressing, Endurance High Gloss Gel for tires.
Tools: Makita Rotary buffer, PC with OneGrip, Compressed Air
Pads: LC Orange, LC White, LC Black
Today's detail is a 1999 Metallic Green Miata. It was a referral from my friend "Longboard Mini", a MINI friend of mine on NAM. From afar, the paint doesn't look so bad.
The new owner had purchased this from a lady who had the car garaged for many years I believe, so the history of the paint was unknown. I believe the wheels in this picture were put on just a few days prior to this work. This was one of my ideal paint polishing projects. Although the Miata is small, I had the car for several days which gave me the opportunity to be as thorough as possible, and checking the progress in the sun as well as getting sunlit day shots when everything was done.
Aww here we are--the trunk lid is swirled out pretty good.
May not be entirely visible here, but there were 6 dents in this panel.
They are much more visible here. Initially the owner thought there were only 3 of them. I saw 4, but not until I clayed and did the first pass of polish did I discover that there were actually 6 altogether!
I've highlighted them here. Two of the dents actually had a dent above and below the dent accounting for the other 2 dents not visible here.
This was one of many defects in the paint.
Swirls are visible here.
I was surprised how bad the orange peel was!
This grey plastic needs some Black Wow! Just One of the areas that will need to be addressed later.
Nothing here except noticing that the lower portion of the body has a protective coating. Will limit the polishing area.
Always interesting to see how certain colors seem to hide defects better than others. The paint looks pretty good from this angle.
Washing the paint and checking to see if there is any protection already.
Notice how the water just kind of sticks to the paint. Doesn't run off, doesn't bead.
It's evident that there isn't much protection on this paint.
By the way, this top is vinyl, not cloth.
Ok now we're in the shop and getting ready to work.
Under the indoor lighting, the defects just pop out
Now that the car is clean, we shall clay it using
Meguiar's Professional Mild blue clay. I noticed this bird poo etching.
There was some unknown sticky residue here on the paint.
Lots of swirls and more etchings.
My custom light set up is visible here. Just two gooseneck track light lamps on a painters pole.
Seeing the defects using my lighting rig makes a huge difference.
Ok so time to do some claying.
Lots of bonded contaminants!
Now I've protected the vinyl top and taped off any points of concern.
I like to tape the hood/fender seem as they rarely line up completely and become potential burn points with the rotary.
I also removed the license plates, and the remaining bracket had sharp edges which I taped off to protect my pads.
I like leaving the top up when working on convertibles. I can hold a drop cloth by the two closed doors and just tape the front and rear edges.
Prepping my test spot.
Looks pretty flawless with my rotary, Prima Swirl, and an orange pad.
Ok with the tape removed, it's obvious the amount of correction and clarity of metallic flake.
This was a JPEG that I sent to the customer as a "progress report"
Ok my PDR guy is here now, so I'm pointing out the dents. Pretty hard to photograph them.
PDR work being performed.
My buddy Carlos performing his magic.
While he worked on the dents, I worked on the paint. This was an interesting pattern on the painted area
above the windshield. Not sure what caused it, but you could feel the indentations in the paint.
Not knowing what caused it, I decided to tape it and try polishing it out.
For the vinyl top, I decided to see how Black Wow would work.
It's noticeably darker on the left and more shiny. Wasn't sure if I liked the look with the additional highlights or not.
Even from here, the BW is clearly visible.
There were numerous scuffs and marks in the vinyl, so I had to carefully remove those before doing the BW treatment.
Engine bay was dressed with BW and Hyperdressing.
Finally all done!!!
Not 100% flawless, but close.
All done! The paint on the Miata is soft. At some point I saw paint on my buffing pad which lead me to believe I was working with single stage,
but it didn't happen on every panel. Maybe it was a repaint, but the owner was assured it was factory paint. So maybe it was just some touchup that came off as I was buffing the mirrors at the time. But the other thing that lead me to believe I was working with single stage was that when removing the polish residue, it was sticky and hard to remove, just like how single stage paint behaves. Regardless, I was extremely happy at how well this restore turned out! I dressed the tires with Meguiar's Endurance High Gloss Gel, used PlastiX with my Metabo SXE400 on the headlights, Meguiar's Interior Quik Detailer for the interior, and Goo Gone to remove stains, Sharpie permanent marker stains, and some shoe scuffs. The Miata may be a small car, but there was plenty of detail to attend to!
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