March Entry: Red 1991 Mazda Miata - 170K miles

[owl]

My first attempt at machine polishing! I took the risk of using the circular polisher after about an hour of practicing with a dual action polisher.

(apologies for the brake dust on the wheels - I was just going for paint restoration - this project started when I debated between repainting my car or buying tools to detail my car)

BEFORE:
Heavy Oxidation - Heavy Swirls - Acid Rain Marks - Bird Dropping Reminants - etc
(keep in mind the before picture is after a wash with soap and also running a clay bar over the entire car + buffing out the detail wax spray... and it still looked terribly dull!)

SPECIFIC PROBLEM AREAS:
I have to admit a miata is a small car to work with, but it's my first time not polishing by hand! No real problem areas I ran into besides the car being lower to the ground than most other cars

---
here's what I used:
- Dewalt DW849 (1000 max rpm)
- Porter Cable 7424 (5" counter weight - ~3500rpm)
- 6" backing plates for each machine
- long extension cable
- Lake Country 7.5" Pads (the 4 different surfaces helps ALOT) [yellow, (2) white] + a Surbuf Microfinger Pad for the wax
- (4) Microfiber towels
- (1) regular terry cloth towel for random things
- (2) water spray bottles

- (soap) some regular armor all concentrated soap
- (clay) Turtle Wax Clay Bar
- (clay lubricant) Mother's Quick Detail Spray
- (compound) 3M Rubbing Compound
- (polish) Meguiar's No.9 Swirl Remover
- (glaze) 3M Machine Glaze
- (wax) Meguiar's High Tech Yellow Wax
---

PROCESS:
- wash car
- dry with a California squeegee
- clay entire car with detail spray as lube
- tried polishing (practicing) with PC and compond
- (switched to Dewalt)
- removed oxidation with 3M Rubbing Compound (dewalt - yellow)
- polished swirls and other fine scratches with Meguiar's No.9 (dewalt - white)
- added depth/shine with 2 layers of 3M Machine Glaze (pc - white)
- sealed with Meguiar's High Tech Yellow Wax (pc - surbuf)

LESSONS LEARNED:
- PC very easy to work with
- Dewalt/Circular much more effective but much harder to control
- Wipe of the 3M Machine Glaze before it dries too much! Spent an extra hour rebuffing a second layer of glaze on so that I could wipe the glaze off much more easily than when it was hardened
- the different surfaces of the 7.5" LC pads helped a lot! I can't imaging what it would have been like to do the crevices and corners with a regular pad

===
<before> FRONT


<after> FRONT

---
other pics...

<before> angled


<after> angled


<before> angled#2


<after> angled#2


<during> hood - just after 3M Rubbing Compound


<during> hood #2 - just after 3M Rubbing Compound


<after> back


<after> back angle#1

[Ben Kenobi]

Owl,

Simply amazing! It's hard to believe it's the same car. Thanks for your step by step, I learned some more on what to do and not to do when using a polisher.

Great work,

Paul

[owl]

thanks =)

another "lessons learned" - today (just one day after) I tried re-using some not-so-dry pads on another car and it was NOT a good idea... lots of splatter with the circular polisher... and the wetness caused other issues. I'll wait a week between my future projects or perhaps I'll buy more pads =)

[MS22]

Nice work on bringing the paint back to life. The rotary is a huge step up from the PC in terms of capability.
Use can crank the DeWalt up to dry off those pads (2500), air dry for another 2 hours and done.
One critique: What is up with those wheels? The tires appear dressed but the wheels look awful, were you just doing an exterior paint rejuv?

[drock]

great job on the car. ill have to agree with the wheels tho.

btw do you live in sf?

[owl]

yes, sorry about the brake dust on the wheels... I was just doing the paint restoration - this whole project started when I contemplated repainting the car at a maaco or some other cheap place... then I went for the paint restoration instead =) I'll scrub those rims next time I wash the car...

drock: yup, I'm in SF/sunset

[hdi136]

Great job!

[Fritchard]

i notice the car has been repainted before, since the very bottom under the doors is not black like normal

[PrinzII]

Owl: You did a very good job on that Miata.

[sgtmattie]

Wow!!!! You've done a very good job. Looks great. I notice that your barndoors appear to not align with the hood. Actually they are easily adjusted. Just pull up on the rear of the barn door until it matches the same plane as the hood. Careful, the underside edges are sharp.........use gloves.

Sarge

[owl]

thanks for the comments and pointers guys

sgtmattie - yes, the hood is also a bit up toward the windshield... tried adjusting this a while back but coulnd't get it flush - I'll give the headlight tug a try later on in the week

Fritchard: I got the car about a year ago... I think I'm the 5th or 6th owner... there is also no "miata" on the front bumper so it seems it was repainted sometime back - there was red paint coming off on the pad at most stages of the detailing... so seems like a 1 or 2 stage paint job with no clear coat - though it must not have been a cheap cheap job since the paint hasn't peeled or anything yet... and I'm not sure how many years it's been on

[Twinsdaddy]

Owl
From my post count, I am considered a Noobie, but I am an Autopian through and through. I'm a lurker, I guess. Thanks to this site, I have accumulated an embarrasing array of products, but a most valuable set of skills.

I noticed that you started with the 3M Rubbing Compound. It obviously did the trick as your results were truly outstanding. Of course, using the rotary is almost cheating.

I am about to do a small red bimmer in a few weeks with similar, but worse oxidation as this Miata. I plan to use UPP as a starting place, but I may try a UPP - 3M RC side by side comparison.

Again, excellent transformation. Very good write-up too.

Boz