Crystal White Pearl paint- mazda3

[felixtibs]

Hey guys,

Did not see any specific threads for this type of paint so I thought I would ask.
I manage it as according to the 5 step method here but i was wondering if thre was anything else recommended. The swirls are really hard to spot so I wonder how critical it is to remove the extremely fine swirls? Currently I use UC, followed by DC2, then NXT2. Anything specific that dramatically increase both the metallic pearl flakes and the subtle creamieness to the paint?

[speed3blackmica]

Re: Crystal White Pearl paint- mazda3

well whattaya know...lol your on MOL too ? this is basspumpindj from m3forums

[the_invisible]

Re: Crystal White Pearl paint- mazda3

What year is your Mazda3? I had a black 2006 Mazda3 GT that had moderately soft paint. But my friend's 2007 Mazdaspeed3 white paint is ridiculously soft. We managed to marr the paint with a microfiber cloth.

I don't know how bad your swirls are, but on my friend's white MS3 we used M105/M205 with excellent results. No marring from M105, but there was definitely hazes. We are going to try 3M Perfect It 3000 polishes next time.

[speed3blackmica]

Re: Crystal White Pearl paint- mazda3

[QUOTE=the_invisible;373689] We managed to marr the paint with a microfiber cloth.

QUOTE]


wow that is crazy..i have an 09 ms3 in black mica..my paint is very hard.

[Murr1525]

Re: Crystal White Pearl paint- mazda3

Hey guys,

Did not see any specific threads for this type of paint so I thought I would ask.
I manage it as according to the 5 step method here but i was wondering if thre was anything else recommended. The swirls are really hard to spot so I wonder how critical it is to remove the extremely fine swirls? Currently I use UC, followed by DC2, then NXT2. Anything specific that dramatically increase both the metallic pearl flakes and the subtle creamieness to the paint?

Nothing is critical... it only matters what you feel like doing.

You may not want to use UC every time. In general, you would apply UC with some passion to remove the swirls to your liking, then use a milder product like SwirlX to maintain the finish in future details.

Hopefully you are not doing something to damage the finish so much that UC is needed every time.

---

White soft paint and black hard paint... now that is rare....

[felixtibs]

Re: Crystal White Pearl paint- mazda3

Yeah im a bit of a car junky since getting the Mazdaratti! So the white pearl paint is soft? I dunno about that, it seems fairly resiliant to me! It does rock chip easy though.

How could I tell if its soft?

Like i said the swirls are very fine and you cant see them unless you are car crazy like us! I am using UC for the very first detail and fairly lightly at that. Then I will use swirl X for future applications every 4-6 months or as needed.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Crystal White Pearl paint- mazda3

Unless you've worked on a fairly wide variety of vehicles using a wide range of products, it's a bit difficult to fully judge if a paint is "hard" or "soft". And whether or not the paint is susceptible to rock chipping is a totally different process and has more to do with brittleness of the paint rather than polishing ability. For example, glass is extremely difficult to polish successfully, but it will chip like mad.

As to the original question of "The swirls are really hard to spot so I wonder how critical it is to remove the extremely fine swirls?", the simple answer is How critical is it to you? Obviously the only thing "damaged" by having some very fine swirls left behind is the aesthetics of the vehicle, but if you can only see them under super critical evaluation, it may not be a big deal. If you're chasing near perfection, however, then like the rest of us, you probably want them gone.

You don't mention if you're working by hand or with a D/A polisher, but to achieve maximum clarity from the finish we would suggest removing your defects with Ultimate Compound on a W8207 Polishing Pad and then following with M205 on a W9707 Finishing Pad at speed 3 or 4 and work it for a good long time. You can get a crazy long buffing cycle out of M205 and it really can do wonders for the paint. If you already have SwirlX you can give that a shot first as an alternative to M205.

A few months ago we worked on a white Chrysler Crossfire (admittedly with very hard paint) and used M205 on the G110 as a finishing step prior to applying our wax. We took it from the swirled mess you see below....



.... to this little jewel. And M205 played a vital role in the final finish.