I’m buying an mx5 in the next week hopefully, and I’ve decided to really make an effort to keep it looking tip top as I’d like to go and do some car shows and meets next year! With this in mind, and the fact I have to prep my old car for being stored, I’ve invested in some cleaning gear. I went to Chemical Guys as I’ve read that they are really good and bought myself a DA polisher, along with some clay, wax shampoo, extreme detailing lube, woolen mit and microfibre cloth + bucket. Inside the kit I got as follows:
Kestrel Dual Action Polisher+Backing Plate
1 x Chemical Guys V34 Optical Grade Compound 16oz
1 x Chemical Guys V36 Optical Grade Cutting Polish 16oz
1 x Chemical Guys V38 Optical Grade Final Polish 16oz
1 x Chemical Guys Orange Hex Logic Cutting Pad 5.5 Inch
1 x Chemical Guys White Hex Logic Polishing Pad 5.5 Inch
1 x Chemical Guys Black Hex Logic Finishing Pad 5.5 Inch
My question is really to see how you guys clean your mx5's, and if you have any tips for someone starting out on detailing and cleaning. I've been watching video's on youtube on how to clay and use a polisher, but I'm hoping you guys can help me avoid any pitfalls when it comes to mx5's specifically such as any tricky bits to clean etc. I'm looking for a v-special mk1 in BRG, so anything particular to looking after that paint would be particularly useful!
Blimey! I’ll be extra careful then! Once you have cut a car to remove swirls initially, if you continue a regular shampoo, clay, glaze and wax every few months, am I right in thinking you shouldn’t need to cut it again? That is unless you get a serious scratch etc!
Me too!! Luckily I went on detailing world beforehand and found a code to give you 15% off so saved myself a fair bit of cash!
I’ll probably make some of the cash outlay back doing my parents + mate’s cars for 40 quid a pop, covers costs and leaves enough for a round of beers!.. Doubt I’ll become a millionaire but I like helping others out!
Incidentally, my mate vinyl wraps cars as he’s a graphic designer, I asked if he could wrap an entire mx5 for me in dark metallic green and he said it would be £500 for just the materials!
Perhaps I can butter him up with a you scratch my back and I’ll detail your car for you if he’ll wrap my wing mirrors in reflective nickel!
£500 what!!! you only need about 14 metres for a mx5…i’ve just bought some purple/black flip wrap and that was less than £20 a metre…so what’s he buying??
No idea! Either he was talking out of his arse, is getting ripped off for graphic designer prices or is buying some sort of super amazing vehicle vinyl by the sound of it! Perhaps it isn’t so uneconomical, which is what put me off it in the first place as it has to be replaced every 5 years!(unless he was talking rubbish about that as well!)
As Muppet says, the paint on these cars is very thin so be careful with the mop. Mask up the panel next to the one you are doing so you dont bust through the paint on the edges. On a BRG car, one good mopping followed by regular coats of a good quality wax will leave it looking perfect.
Hmmm, now I’m slightly worried that the polishes I have will take too much paint off if I’m not too careful! What would you reccomend to be a safe grade of polish and pad combo to avoid cutting the paint too deep? Great tip about masking the edges btw, I havent seen that before but I can imagine how easily the paint would burn on the edges of the panels! how would you reccomend I polish the rear lip and spoiler area, as that looks like a tricky section to do! Will I be safe using a DA polisher on it or will it be up to elbow grease to sort out?
Personally I would experiment first using elbow grease if you have no experience with a polisher. I’ve seen so called experts go through the paint on an MX-5 on edges, without much effort using machines, its very easy to do. Start gradually and build yourself up to this, just buying all the pro kit is not going to make you an expert is it. Be careful…!
As has been said the paint on the panels is very soft, if you are not sure at what is possible with the DA and polish you have, go down the scrap yard and get a Door or a Bonnet from a MX5 and have a practice on them before tackling your own pride n joy
Martin , Thanks for the advice, I’m not expecting to become an expert overnight, and I’ll be careful as possible! I have an old Rover which I shall be practicing on first, so I shall work as gently as possible on the mx5 once I have the hang of it all!
Mx5 paint is typical soft jap paint generally buy not always, best option is go for a polishing pad like a chemical guys hex logic white, with a polish with light cutting abilities, when i did mine i used poorboys ssr1. This for me corrected about 75/80% of the defects in my paint, which i was happy with in october as a pre winter protection detail, i finished the car with poorboys blackhole on a black hexlogic finishing pad before sealing with bilt hamber finis wax.
In spring i plan to do a full correction so will go to a more agressive poilsh first(ssr 2.5)on a white pad, if that fails i have an orange cutting pad which will once again be stepped up through different polishes till the level of correction required is achieved, its then going to get coated in some concours car care’s ceramishield which is a ceramic coating thats supposed to be a easy gtechniq c1 rival as it adds 2 microns of clear ceramic coating to the paint that should be harder and more durable than the jap laquer.
Best advice take your time work up the poilshes and pads till you achieve desired level of correction and you will be fine:)
Hello everyone, my tips would be to go easy, you can always come back and take a bit more off but it’s hard to restore it if you go through.
Try and get it under a broad flourescent light in the garage to see the scratches and swirls. If anything can be felt with a fingernail don’t even try to get rid of it or you’ll be through the laquer.
My exp goes back to cellulose which was very soft and oxidised easily so a light cut and wax each year or so (if the car lasted that long!) was in order. These days almost all finishes are base with laquer so if you ever see colour on the rag stop and take a closer look for repair work or going through.
You get used to the products and most are hype. Try not to use power unless it is really bad and you know you’re going to have to accept some damage. I use T Cut Original (easy to control the results but fine scratching is visible for the critical), T Cut Metallic (finer abrasive and can be polished very finely), Turtle Wax Original (has mild abrasive for infrequent cleaner/waxing use), Turtle Wax Metallic (pretty safe quick lift polish).
Once it’s up and kept clean I mostly just use Turtle Extreme Nano wash/wax and a leather off.
T-Cut should not be used on Japanese soft paint, it will do more damage than good, as you have found out with fine scratching, there are a shed load of better products on the market, they are not all hype, it’s results that sell products. Chamois leathers have also been surpassed by really good drying towels that can be washed time and time again.
Yes good points Ian. It’s all a matter of degree (all abrasives scratch - that’s how they work) and using what’s suitable for the finish. People will work out their own methods but the OP asked for tips and those are mine
I agree with most of the above particularly the right angled corners of any panel. use your electric polisher on the slowest speed setting to get used to the polisher. If the polisher doesn’t have variable speed controls I wouldn’t use it all. If you do end up cutting through paint, say on your door panel you will need to have the whole door panel painted as it is very difficult and a skillful job to paint and blend in a small damaged area, and then you end up with trying to match the new paint with the old paint due to the old paint fading and the new paint being bright and vibrant even if it is the same code. It is a lot more time consuming to do the whole of the car by hand, one panel at a time but it could save you a lot of grief.
Yes you are correct the OP did ask for “Tips on detailing and cleaning his 5” after he had purchased a shed load of potions, he was interested in how to use them especially on a BRG MK1 which as we all know is base paint, he was especially keen to know of any pitfalls in detailing this type of paint to give a show finish as he intended to show his efforts, using T-Cut on this paint is not a very good way of achieving the results he desired.
Ian, yes and we both offered our experiences, mine going back to complete cars in week-old cullulose.
There’s no problem with T Cut Original and the milder version T Cut Metallic (which is just a finer abrasive version and can be used on solid or laquer finishes) when used appropriately. I warned of slight scratching with Original T Cut and you wouldn’t use it straight off, only if needed, then move to Metallic or a similar fine one; down through the grades, you might even start off with paper in some areas if needed on some cars and I’m sure you understand this.
Blimey! I’ll be extra careful then! Once you have cut a car to remove swirls initially, if you continue a regular shampoo, clay, glaze and wax every few months, am I right in thinking you shouldn’t need to cut it again? That is unless you get a serious scratch etc!
