Swirls, stains scratches on a 98 Miata

[BluesBrother]

Hello everyone,


I have been following these forums for a while and finally decided to try detailing on my Emerald Mica 1998 Mazda Miata NB. I've been the owner of this vehice for five years and I believe it still has the original paint on it except one fender and bumpers.


There are some fine swirls, light scratches and bird dropping stains here and there. Paint is shiny but definitely needs some work on it for the swirls. Pictures attached.


Since the paint is old I don't want to use very strong products like m105 and would like to get your opinion about the following products I decided to use;(I will do the detailing by hand)


After washing and claying:


1) M83 for swirls, light scratches and cleaning
2) M205 for fine cleaning and polishing
3) M26 for waxing.


Since Meguiars products are double the price of U.S. here in Istanbul (and not all products are easily found in stock), I don't have the chance to test multiple products in small areas of paint, this means I have one shot.


Are these products and applying by hand sufficient for this job? I am planning to do a piece a day such as afender a day, a door another day etc.


Any advice will be appreciated.


Thanks


Emrah

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Swirls, stains scratches on a 98 Miata

First off, welcome to MOL, Emrah!

Second, you're in luck - I used to have that exact same car! Here's a shot of it in the Meguiar's parking lot back in March of 2007, just a few months before I sold it (and a year before I came to work here!).



Same Emerald Mica paint, same tan top and interior as yours. I changed the wheels and exhaust but found the paint actually quite easy to work on.

Now, having said that, I always used a DA polisher on the car and never did any correction work by hand. The paint is fairly soft on these - they were all built in the same factory in Hiroshima, Japan and I've always found the paint on the NB series to be very consistant. Of course, depending on how they've been cared for over time the paint can "season" and change characteristics a bit, so we can never say they're all exactly the same.

Your car, unfortunately, has some pretty extreme swirls and more than enough nasty looking scratches. Some of those scratches are likely not going to come out, and you probably shouldn't even try too hard on some as they look pretty deep in places. The swirls, on the other hand, are a different story. If you have access to Ultimate Compound rather than M83 we would suggest using that instead. If not, then M83 isn't a bad choice for this paint when working by hand. What you need to be careful about is how you hand apply it; make sure you're not using an aggressive applicator like cotton terry cloth, and make sure you aren't getting pressure points from your finger tips through whatever applicator you're using or you run the risk of marring the paint. We would actually experiment a bit with both M83 and M205 to see which one works best on this paint, and gets you closest to your goal. This can be done by hand, but even on a small car with paint that responds as well as these usually do, it's going to be a lot of work.

[BluesBrother]

Re: Swirls, stains scratches on a 98 Miata

Hello Michael,

Thank you for your reply. This is one great coincidence! I am really lucky that you as a Meguiar's expert have hands on experience with the same car that I have. Your ex Miata looks great btw.

I will use these pads for applying, hope they are the right ones: http://www.meguiars.com/en/automotiv...d-(pack-of-4)/

Can I also use the same for polishing?

Regarding the scratches I've added a video which shows better detail, scratches don't look that deep, scratchx 2.0 helps maybe? :

Thanks again for the advice

Emrah

[GLOCKer]

Re: Swirls, stains scratches on a 98 Miata

This looks like a cool project. Like the man with the knowledge said, I bet some of those scratches may be too deep to come out, but I would also bet that you could do a lot to diminish the appearance of them! Please post up progress pictures and often as this looks like it could be a cool "before and after" thing!

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Swirls, stains scratches on a 98 Miata

That brings back so many memories!!

Yes, those are the correct pads to use for everything from M83 to M205 to wax. But what's really important is that you NOT put down fingertip pressure when using those pads or you will create a cheetah spot effect in the paint.

[BluesBrother]

Re: Swirls, stains scratches on a 98 Miata

Michael I believe you saw the post with the video but no one else can see it including me

[BluesBrother]

Re: Swirls, stains scratches on a 98 Miata

This looks like a cool project. Like the man with the knowledge said, I bet some of those scratches may be too deep to come out, but I would also bet that you could do a lot to diminish the appearance of them! Please post up progress pictures and often as this looks like it could be a cool "before and after" thing!

Thank you, i will definitely post pictures and i hope they will be the pictures of a successful end result. I also posted a video that shows better detail yesterday but the post did not show up. Mods did not approve it i guess.

[davey g-force]

I agree about getting some UC.

Keen to follow your results!