My New Daily Driver Pics - 01 Blue Protege MP3

blue-sun

New member
My buffer pad died on my about halfway, so it wasn't cutting the paint as much as I wanted, so I'm going to have to buff her again, but I'll probably wait until spring to do that, unless we get some more 50+ days (have 3 details scheduled for this weekend!)



Process/Tools/Materials used:

2 bucket method

Meguiars Gold Class Shampoo

MF Wash Mitt (sheep skin mitts in the wash)

Meguiars Dual Action Cleaner & Polish (#84 IIRC)

Meguiars red cutting pad

Porter Cable 7424

Stainless Steele wool #0000 extra super ultra fine (the finest you can buy) for the exhaust tip

Meguiars Hyper Dressing, diluted 3:1 for the tires

Stoners Glass cleaner

Sonus Vinyl Protectant on exterior plastic

No wax or sealant just yet, will do that later this week.



Swirls before:

4.jpg




After 1 pass

5.jpg




After 2nd pass

6.jpg




10.jpg




11.jpg




12.jpg




13.jpg




14.jpg




15.jpg




16.jpg




17.jpg




18.jpg




19.jpg




Thanks for looking!



David
 
was the paint really that hard that two passes of 84 and a burgandy pad didnt take them out? Thats a pretty aggressive combo....maybe the PC wasnt breaking down the 84 - rotary only
 
DACP is #83. ;)



Lookin' good. I love everything about the styling of the MP3. And the chrome Mazdaspeed door sills add a nice touch.
 
Looks great. Nice car, nice color, cool wheels! We had a Mazda Speed Protege at work not to long ago, and I really liked it. Congrats on the new ride.
 
#83 is DACP, I would try it on a light cut pad or even a polishing pad, I think that the W7006 was too aggressive
 
I have a 2002 Mazda protege 5, I have NO PROBLEM with correcting my swirls with a cheap ROB, and some Zaino ZPC, it only takes one application to get them completely deminished, however, I find that the paint must be EXTREMELY soft, because when I just go to feel the smoothness of the freshly polished paint, I induce swirls.
 
My pad was gumming up really badly when I was working today, to the point that after ever pass I had to scrub off the residue left on the pad. The pad was also starting to die, a few rips and tears.



I've done about 99% of my swirl removal with DACP/Burgandy pad without ever having an issue, so I'm 100% sure it was due to the pad. It probably had about 3 full cars too many on it. Since the weather here has been so sparatic lately and my jobs so few and far between also, I though I could ride the pad out until the backing fell off. I guess not. I'm confident that with this new pad, next time I give it a pass, she'll be swirl free.



On the first 3 pics I posted, I had to use the 1" edge of the pad, that wouldn't gunk up to get the results that you see.
 
If the pad is gumming up, use less DACP. Keep buffing it until it looks nearly clear with the speed on 5-6 applying moderate pressure (light bogging) and that should help. I found again and again that with polishes, almost always, less product works better.



You are definitely on the right track though, the pictures show significant improvement! :)
 
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