help with strategy on this single-stage yellow Mazda

[Astral]

I just got a winter car/people hauler. It's a 2002 Mazda Protege5 in a striking Lightning Yellow color, which is a single-stage paint.

Unfortunately, the previous owner did not take very good care of the paint (though he took great care of all things mechanical). The car got its first claying 5 years into existence. Parked in the sun at all times. Regular swirl-o-matic washes.

The state of the affairs is: front and rear bumpers are quite faded, so are the side view mirrors and all the plastic bits (e.g. door handles are less shiny than the doors).

So it seems that anywhere the paint was over plastic has faded. By faded, I mean it's not as shiny. I think it's all oxidation.

GOAL: I want to bring the shine back on the bumpers and everywhere else. From 6 feet, I want people to look at the yellow paint and be amazed at its wetness and brightness. But I don't care to remove all the swirls.

The car has a ton of New England miles and so there are paint chips all over the hood. There are also a couple of spots where the paint is bubbling. So I can't get this car to a perfect state, I just want it to look nice from a distance.

Some pics now. The only recent picture I have now is this at-night in-garage pic, which doesn't show the fading very well:



But I do have pictures from a year ago that should convey what I mean. This pictures shows the hood and bumper dullness well:



Later that year, I did polish the hood with some SSR 2.5 and you can see hood polished on the far side and the unpolished on the close side (and just-polished-but-not-yet-removed middle):



..

So now, how to go about it?

The products I have now are:

Poorboy's SSR 1, 2.5, 3
Menzerna PowerGloss
Blackfire SRC Finishing Polish

Meguiar's #5 (New Car Glaze, bought for friends' repainted panels)

Collinite 845
DP MaxWax
Zaino Z3 (for single stage, never actually used it though) (+ all other Zaino)

Jeff's Werkstatt Prime Strong
Four Star Ultimate PreWax Cleanser

Zaino collection (Z2/Z5/Z8/Z6)

PC w/ yellow, orange and blue pads

However, I'm open to buying new products if they make the job significantly easier/better.

I'm not sure I want to hit the paint straight away with a strong polish like Menzerna PowerGloss or SSR 2.5/3. I read a suggestion to remove as much oxidation chemically first as possible (as opposed to using abrasives first).

I read some suggestions that Meguiar's #80 is good to use for single-stage paint to break up oxidation, followed by one or more applications of Meguiar's #7 to "re-oil" the single-stage paint.

I don't have Meg's #7, is #5 a just-as-good substitute or should I go and pick up #7 for that?

I read that ClearKote Blue Moose Cutting Cream is really good for oxidized paint and is like "AIO x 100%". If I'm ordering ClearKote and using the cream, maybe I should use RMG instead of Meg's #7 as a glaze?

Or should I use Meg's #80 instead of Blue Moose because #80 has more single-stage-beneficial oils?

Is it even worth doing all of this, or should I just use the stuff I have and hit the paint with AJ Prime Strong and/or Four Star Prewax Cleanser once or twice and then go to town with SSR 2.5 or Menzerna PG?

For a final wax, should I use Collinite 845, as it seems kinda "oily" to me, so maybe it has oils that benefit single stage?

Any advice or perspectives are appreciated!

[qwertydude]

If you want to really "re-oil" the paint use megs DC polish. It's heavy on the fillers and seems to do a great job on deepening the color on most paints.

[NCZ13]

I dunno what mazda was thinking when they put decided on a single stage paint for vivid yellow.

I would say go to town w/ a compound remove all that oxidation and flatness. then polish it up.

Ive detailed my friends former vivid yellow p5 (he now has a sunlight silver rx8) and i was taking paint off applying NXT liquid by hand.

[RDAVEX7]

IME with ss mazda paint in that condition or worse youre going to have to compound. Mainly RX-7's but they are also much older original ss paint.

Long story short, my polish process on the last SS RX-7.

Presta Strada Ultra Cutting Creme w/ Edge Black Wool Pad

3M Swirl Mark Remover w/ Edge Light Cut Foam Pad

Sonus SFX-2 w/ Edge Polishing Pad

Sonus SFX-3 w/ 3M Finishing Pad


Other Products that have worked awsome on this type of paint in no order:

M105

M80

M83

Megs #7 (high in fillers but better than DC IMO and awsome on trim)

Megs D151

SS loves the Megs oils and there is alot of products out there that may work just as well as these have for me. Just my experiance with this paint and I found that M105 works well with a pc and PFW or cutting foam pad. I mainly use a rotary.

[Astral]

Thanks for the input folks!

So sounds like Meg's line is a good line to use. Should I go straight to M105 or try M80 first? Reading Meg's forums, it seems that M105 is fairly effective by hand (though with plenty of elbow grease), maybe it's worth trying that on a few spots first to see how it works.

[RDAVEX7]

Try M80 first and if it doesnt do it step up to M105 and play with pad combo's. Also do an IPA wipedown, Megs has fooled me before lol.

[Astral]

Originally Posted by RDAVEX7

Try M80 first and if it doesnt do it step up to M105 and play with pad combo's. Also do an IPA wipedown, Megs has fooled me before lol.

I forgot to do an IPA wipedown! But I hope I won't be fooled. I guess I'll find out after a few washings.

Thanks to everyone's advice, I picked up M80 and M105. M80 with an orange pad via PC seemed to do a great job almost everywhere. I tried M105 on the front bumper and it seemed to cut more, but not that much more, so I think I was using it without a sufficiently aggressive pad. Anyways, the front bumper needs more work and I didn't have the patience to finish it.

I got the color back and the shine back everywhere. It's not true Autopian OCD quality, but it's about 85% of the way there.

The rear hatch, door handles and mirrors took only one pass with M80 to remove oxidation and be hugely improved. I did do two passes on the side view mirrors.

Anyways, I detailed what I did in this thread with a bunch of pictures, but here is a small selection of before/after pics.

In short, before/after:





Left side "after", right side "before" (look around the keyhole):



Now all is "after" (compare around the same keyhole):



And one full pic, after being topped with Collinite 845:

[DSVWGLI]

Looks nice good job.