2010 Mazdaspeed 3 with really bad swirls

**Todd@RUPES** · 11-29-2011, 09:27 AM

Originally Posted by Chas

Did either of you guys notice how thin the paint on the Mazda3/MazdaSpeed3`s is. My PTG is saying anywhere between 85 to 105 microns max. Kind of a drag. Proper wash techniques are definitely coming in handy on this car.

Yes, there is literally no clear coat on this car. I used an ultrasonic PTG on the bumpers and found almost zero primer/etcher, a moderate base/flake, and little clear. Although the bumper isn`t necessarily an indicator for the rest of the car because they are painted off site.

**makeithappen** · 11-29-2011, 01:01 PM

sorry guys, I`ve been extremely busy as of late and am currently moving to another apartment complex, so once I`m settled in, I`ll have time to take some pics, also, I noticed on the front of the car where the mazda symbol is, that there are some light spider webs under direct sun light, not nearly as bad, I`m thinking because of such a small area and with the giant 8" pads, it wasn`t getting enough direct impact on the area, my Lake Country pads come in tomorrow. So this weekend I`ll probably give it another go.

**Todd@RUPES** · 11-29-2011, 01:20 PM

Originally Posted by makeithappen

sorry guys, I`ve been extremely busy as of late and am currently moving to another apartment complex, so once I`m settled in, I`ll have time to take some pics, also, I noticed on the front of the car where the mazda symbol is, that there are some light spider webs under direct sun light, not nearly as bad, I`m thinking because of such a small area and with the giant 8" pads, it wasn`t getting enough direct impact on the area, my Lake Country pads come in tomorrow. So this weekend I`ll probably give it another go.

Looking forward to the update!

**Old Pirate** · 11-29-2011, 06:10 PM

Great to hear this, I myself are looking forward on this one........

**makeithappen** · 12-12-2011, 12:52 AM

Alright, so here are the before pictures, note, that I only have done the hood.

Before

Just to give an idea about how bad these swirls are all over the car

After, note that I separated the hood into two sections and left blue tape in the middle initially to see how the combination was working and I left the tape in the end. So there are heavy swirls in the middle where the tape was, sorry for the crappy photo, can only use my phone for now. Notice the swirls in the middle and how there is virtually none around it.

Another before

Right after inside my garage sorry for crappy light it was raining outside

Alright so basically the combination of Ultimate Compound, Swirl X 2.0, NXT 2.0 worked really well. However what you can`t see is that there are still very light swirls mainly on the smaller areas of the hood, i.e where the mazda logo is, I believe this happened because of the 8" pads. Again I have the 5.5" pads from lake country and will be using those next go around. I`ve been real busy at work and have yet to detail my car. Hopefully by the time I do this again I`ll have a SD reader so I can use my nice camera to catch the details.

**Todd@RUPES** · 12-12-2011, 08:41 AM

Originally Posted by makeithappen

Alright, so here are the before pictures, note, that I only have done the hood.

Before

Just to give an idea about how bad these swirls are all over the car

After, note that I separated the hood into two sections and left blue tape in the middle initially to see how the combination was working and I left the tape in the end. So there are heavy swirls in the middle where the tape was, sorry for the crappy photo, can only use my phone for now. Notice the swirls in the middle and how there is virtually none around it.

Another before

Right after inside my garage sorry for crappy light it was raining outside

Alright so basically the combination of Ultimate Compound, Swirl X 2.0, NXT 2.0 worked really well. However what you can`t see is that there are still very light swirls mainly on the smaller areas of the hood, i.e where the mazda logo is, I believe this happened because of the 8" pads. Again I have the 5.5" pads from lake country and will be using those next go around. I`ve been real busy at work and have yet to detail my car. Hopefully by the time I do this again I`ll have a SD reader so I can use my nice camera to catch the details.

It looks a million and a half times better! Switching to the smaller pads is going to give you even better results. I am looking forward to the complete afters and the new pics.