flatlander937
New member
- Jun 7, 2014
- 2
- 0
Hey guys, I've been heavily lurking/searching the forum for the past few weeks, what led me here was looking into waterless washes since my wife and I moved from a house to an apartment where hose washing isn't available.
I've got a 2011 Mazda2 in black... it was my least wanted color(aside from the super bright green... not a fan)... but the car was an original FL car it's whole life with zero rust anywhere at 40k miles... it just looks like the previous owner was slow to remove some bird dookey in some spots and the dealer I got it from did a shoddy job buffing the car.
It had some horrible swirl/holograms initially, they took care of some of them but it was still quite noticeable.. I'll mention I work at the huge used car dealer and I know the guy who did it is capable of quality work, but it's somewhat production based and it was OK to the common person but I knew stuff was still there.
It was better but still some present(no pics but imagine about 1/3 of the holograms from the first 3 pics... lol)
So I used this as an excuse to buy all the Meguiars stuff I could find locally to do a bit with it, found that working by hand was downright crazy, I bought the DA system drill attachment which sped things up using UP, and I used UC in a few worse areas, like some bird poop etchings on the roof which helps a lot, but I didn't go too crazy on it due to 1) lack of time and 2) I have a (nearly)2yo son so he keeps both me and my wife pretty busy. Then we had to make some plans to move due to some unforeseen circumstances, so cleaning up the paint got put on the backburner for a while.
I got the hood looking about how I want it, it's overall acceptable now. The sides I had a hard time getting by hand/with the Meguiars DA system, and I didn't want to start using too aggressive of stuff without having the time to do everything the whole way through. So this is why I joined AGO, taken are some pics with a basic LED flashlight highlighting the minor swirls/spiderwebs I want to get rid of/improve on.
Something I've learned is that it's probably silly for me to try and fix everything in it's entirety because 1) Mazda paint is horrible and chips easily 2) It's a daily driver, albeit garaged at night and 3) I autocross it... so cone hits will be somewhat frequent and it's usually covered in weird brake/tire dust at the end of an event.
So yeah, that's my intro.
What I'm planning on doing is removing most of the swirls, then going to do a one step and longer lasting sealant to get it looking good(leaning towards the Klasse twins in the Forum Favorite kit) from about 10ft. When I get a set of dedicated auto-x wheels that actually deserve a cleaning(unlike my crap steelies which will be relegated to winter use eventually), I'm hoping to get them Opticoated while still brand new and flawless to get a head start on keeping them looking great.
Also my name is Tony and I'm a master auto technician(work on all makes and models, the shop I work at I generally get all the German stuff)... so if you're in the Dayton area and am in need of some diag/some repair work I might be able to help you out if you know how to do good detail work:xyxthumbs:
I've got a 2011 Mazda2 in black... it was my least wanted color(aside from the super bright green... not a fan)... but the car was an original FL car it's whole life with zero rust anywhere at 40k miles... it just looks like the previous owner was slow to remove some bird dookey in some spots and the dealer I got it from did a shoddy job buffing the car.
It had some horrible swirl/holograms initially, they took care of some of them but it was still quite noticeable.. I'll mention I work at the huge used car dealer and I know the guy who did it is capable of quality work, but it's somewhat production based and it was OK to the common person but I knew stuff was still there.
It was better but still some present(no pics but imagine about 1/3 of the holograms from the first 3 pics... lol)
So I used this as an excuse to buy all the Meguiars stuff I could find locally to do a bit with it, found that working by hand was downright crazy, I bought the DA system drill attachment which sped things up using UP, and I used UC in a few worse areas, like some bird poop etchings on the roof which helps a lot, but I didn't go too crazy on it due to 1) lack of time and 2) I have a (nearly)2yo son so he keeps both me and my wife pretty busy. Then we had to make some plans to move due to some unforeseen circumstances, so cleaning up the paint got put on the backburner for a while.
I got the hood looking about how I want it, it's overall acceptable now. The sides I had a hard time getting by hand/with the Meguiars DA system, and I didn't want to start using too aggressive of stuff without having the time to do everything the whole way through. So this is why I joined AGO, taken are some pics with a basic LED flashlight highlighting the minor swirls/spiderwebs I want to get rid of/improve on.
Something I've learned is that it's probably silly for me to try and fix everything in it's entirety because 1) Mazda paint is horrible and chips easily 2) It's a daily driver, albeit garaged at night and 3) I autocross it... so cone hits will be somewhat frequent and it's usually covered in weird brake/tire dust at the end of an event.
So yeah, that's my intro.
What I'm planning on doing is removing most of the swirls, then going to do a one step and longer lasting sealant to get it looking good(leaning towards the Klasse twins in the Forum Favorite kit) from about 10ft. When I get a set of dedicated auto-x wheels that actually deserve a cleaning(unlike my crap steelies which will be relegated to winter use eventually), I'm hoping to get them Opticoated while still brand new and flawless to get a head start on keeping them looking great.
Also my name is Tony and I'm a master auto technician(work on all makes and models, the shop I work at I generally get all the German stuff)... so if you're in the Dayton area and am in need of some diag/some repair work I might be able to help you out if you know how to do good detail work:xyxthumbs:
rops:
