ok everyone, without further ado. The car was pretty nasty when I got it, stored for a while, infrequently washed, never detailed, and driven year round most of its life, in new england (accounting for some rust and rot). I wasnt going for a full correction, but wanted to do a massive improvement, as well as protect it.
First up, since it was a rainy day and I wasnt going to get to the paint yet, was the engine bay. It was covered in white stuff, which I thought was oxidization on the paint, but it turns out it wiped right off. Possibly salt dust? Anyway, my method here was clean with APC thoroughly, and coat lightly with CD2.
engine bay before:
engine bay after:
Next was the interior. the interior was neglected, but not super soiled. there was some mildew and sitting water around the top due to clogged drains, very common on miatas. Using a combination of APC and meguiars gold class, I cleaned up all the mildew from the top and interior. The upholstery got a "dry detail", just a thorough vacuum and scrub with an assortment of attachments. Dash and door panels got an armorall treatment.
And now we get to the exterior! First thing I did was a good old fashioned two bucket wash. I rinsed it then foamed with meguiars crystal car wash soap, hit the wheels with p21s, and the top with 303 convert top cleaner. I rain-x'ed all the windows and mirrors, and cleaned up the headlights using 105 topped with speed.
Looking good already, but now its time to decon. Using the 6" nanoskin scrubber, I went to town on a low speed over the whole car. It worked well, only getting hung up on two areas of sap, which needed further attention. lets see how it looks.
yikes. After doing a test panel, my approach was decidedly m105 with orange, followed by m205 on green. This car really would have benefited from a wool pad, unfortunately I dont have one in my arsenal yet, and this was not a full correction anyway. after the m205, I applied HD Poxy to protect and add gloss. the finished product!
hopefully its dry enough tomorrow to work on it, today I will try to tackle the engine bay and some of the interior. here are some of the products I have lined up for it that I havent tried before:
