parttimer
Active member
- Aug 5, 2013
- 1,564
- 0
So I was conatcted to clean up a 1979 Mazda RX-7 Limited edition. Research shows a whole 3000 of these things were made and this one has a monsterous 30,000 miles on it. The owner says it has the ORIGINAL tires, not really sure but the stock photo does show these tires! Job was a simple exterior and interior, he wanted to get it cleaned up for sale. Car was NOT single stage and considering it was almost 30 years old, I am guessing it was a repaint. Some of the defects in the paint confirmed this since there were run in the paint and the CC was failing around the power antenna. Wheels were a bear since they were straight aluminium. Interior was not remarkable so I won't waste your time with those. This was not a 90% correction or anything similar, just revive it a bit and you will see, it needed revived!
He brought it over for inspection so I snapped some pictures with my phone:
Faded and swirl city:
So the following day it was dropped off and I started with a good wheel and tire cleaning along with a rinseless wash. Many of the rubber seals were cracked and the sunroof would occasionally leak.
First up was the wheel cleaning. I tried using Sonax FE and some elbow grease. That removed the caked on dust but I felt the wheels could be better. Tried Sonax and ZEP citrus with no change. I dug out some old Brown Royal wheel cleaner, I have NEVER had good luck with this stuff, however, boom it did the trick. I used the same brushes I was using with Sonax but the outcome was much better. Tires where cleaned with Tuff Shine tire cleaner, wells were hit with ZEP. Wash was ONR and the I then used a speedy prep towel with ONR as lube.
Before washing:
After the wash I snapped some pics:
Into the garage to begin the chore. I tried two one step products, Blackfire TPS and Duragloss 105. Blackfire did not remove as much damage as Duragloss and left a haze. So Duragloss on a white hybrid. Here are some before picturers and after speedy prep:
Here are a few 50/50 and finshed area shots with the Duragloss setup:
Area completed:
He brought it over for inspection so I snapped some pictures with my phone:
Faded and swirl city:
So the following day it was dropped off and I started with a good wheel and tire cleaning along with a rinseless wash. Many of the rubber seals were cracked and the sunroof would occasionally leak.
First up was the wheel cleaning. I tried using Sonax FE and some elbow grease. That removed the caked on dust but I felt the wheels could be better. Tried Sonax and ZEP citrus with no change. I dug out some old Brown Royal wheel cleaner, I have NEVER had good luck with this stuff, however, boom it did the trick. I used the same brushes I was using with Sonax but the outcome was much better. Tires where cleaned with Tuff Shine tire cleaner, wells were hit with ZEP. Wash was ONR and the I then used a speedy prep towel with ONR as lube.
Before washing:
After the wash I snapped some pics:
Into the garage to begin the chore. I tried two one step products, Blackfire TPS and Duragloss 105. Blackfire did not remove as much damage as Duragloss and left a haze. So Duragloss on a white hybrid. Here are some before picturers and after speedy prep:
Here are a few 50/50 and finshed area shots with the Duragloss setup:
Area completed:
