I own my Mazda not for a long time but have been working on it slowly improving it ,what I wanted some advice on does anybody know the best way to get rid of stone chip marks and minor scratches .Any advice will be grateful.
I cant advise on Stone Chips , but can regarding scratches
Mazda paint is soft and scratches fairly easily, but can also be Machine Polished to remove them fairly easily also
If you’ve got Popeye Arms, you can polish by hand…Finishing Polish ONLY
If you’re near West Yorks, I can do it for you
Please update your location
Hi
when I got my MX5 the paintwork was basically good but covered in light scratches and swirl marks. Most probably from bad washing and polishing techniques over the years. First thing to do is thoroughly wash the car as working on it with any trace of dirt or dust might make the problems worse. Use a good wash mitt and the ‘two bucket method’ where one bucket has the wash water and another used for rinsing the mitt frequently as you go. Google this for more info. Then I’ve found Meguiars products excellent. Try Ultimate Compound on the light scratches and if there are some deeper scratches try their 105 body shop compound. Both of these can be used by hand. As ChrisRs says machine polishing is easier! Either way this can make a vast improvement to the finish. I actually used a clay bar and lube before the compounding on my car and this makes even more improvement and gets the car really clean prior to the compounding. Depends how far you want to go. You now need to seal the paint with a wax or sealer of which there are a vast range of course. Personally I like Autoglym Super Resin polish. If you’re then happy with the paintwork maintain it by washing with the two bucket method and a mitt - don’t use a sponge or leather! In between waxes I use Meguiars Ultimate Quik Detailer to top up the protection and gloss. It makes washing easier as the water beads off easily and drying is easier to. Oh and lastly I only use microfibre cloths on the paintwork as well as microfibre drying towels.
Might sound like a right faff but once you’ve got it clean and shiny keeping it that way is easy and washing is a quick job too! I repeat the whole process every spring as I use the car through the winter. It’s no show car but does look very presentable.
Like ChrisRs I can’t give any advice on stone chips and for that reason my car goes in for a front end respray next week! Can only add that any time I’ve tried those coloured waxes/polishes like Colour Magic they don’t seem to work very well. There are some kits around now using colour matched paints that you might take a look at like Dr.Colourchip Yeah naff name!) which looks interesting but I’ve never actually tried one. Pricey but if they work might be worth a try.
Cheers
The only thing i can suggest on stone chips is, go to your local dealership and get some touch up paint, apart from that give chips away a ring and get the professional in to do it
I have numerous stone chips on the front of my Mk3. I have tried using Mazda OEM copper red touch up paint but have found that it shows up as being lighter than the paint on the bumper.
I was considering getting the bumper repainted when this was decided for me when I caught the front bumper on the garage wall last week. Took it to a body shop today and was quoted £200 to repaint the bumper with another £50 to polish out the swirl marks on the bonnet. The body shop also pointed out that the paint on the bumper darkens with age when compared to the wings and bonnet. They said this was due to the reaction of the paint to the black plastic that the bumper is made from, hence the reason that the touch up paint shows lighter.
^^^ That’s a good price for the bumper respray. My Mk1 rear bumper cost £150 around 8 years ago, off the car respray.
Never had much success with touch up paint! They can disguise the chip a bit but never does a complete job. Maybe it’s just because I’m ham fisted! Even using a cocktail stick rather than the brush supplied.
Good price for the bumper respray, I was recently quoted £250 for the front. Then I have stone chips on the bonnet and wings and a bit of rust coming through round the side repeaters. So I’ve decided on a front end respray for bumper, wings and bonnet. New paint will be faded in along the doors and those completely clear coated. That’s £600 which seemed better value. (Not a view shared by her indoors!) Used the guy before and he does a top job too.
I’ve used Chips Away before and they do a good job but expensive. For example they wanted £220 just to do the rust around the side repeaters.
I’ve mentioned this on similar threads but I used the Chipex system on my NB (http://www.chipex.co.uk/) and it worked reasonably well although the colour (gold) was a little difficult to fully match. On my NC I just bought a small vial of touch up paint from Halfords and used with the blending solution from the Chipex kit. Works an absolute treat particularly in the deeper stone chips where you can get a reasonable amount of paint in. One thing I have found is that for best results you need to have removed any wax and polish around the chip otherwise the paint tends either not to adhere or the blending process is less effective. Depending on how many stone chips you have the basic Chipex kit is well worth the money (about £30). I’ve done countless chips and still have plenty of paint and blending solution left.
Chipex claim you can use their kits for dealing with scratches but to be honest I’m sceptical. I tried it on my NB and it didn’t really work. Maybe my application technique was poor, I don’t know. Can’t fault the product for dealing with stone chips though.
For minor scratches I use auto glym paint restorer.
Thanks for heads up on Chipex. I’m going to try some.
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Did you know that there are two different copper reds touch ups colours, one is lighter then the other make sure you get the right one
Wow - you live and learn!
No, I didn’t know that, but I can certainly testify to the nose-cone on my 2007 copper red NC having darkened more than the other panels. Does the same thing apply to the rear bumper panel? That’s plastic too, but doesn’t seem to have suffered similarly.
Can you designate the paint codes for the 2 different shades? Or are they only aftermarket paint shades?
What source did you use? Halfords only show one shade…
Thanks,
Aldi
I’ve had several panels resprayed on my car by a professional, and on one occasion when I picked my car up I notice that it was slightly different shade , the professional couldn’t make it out when he went through all his paint cards he found two different codes for copper red and then he release what had happened
Next time I see them I will ask him for both codes for future reference
The touch up paint that I used was Mazda OEM bought through a main dealer. They only have the one paint code for Copper Red, 32V.
It has blended in fine on stone chips on the bonnet and window frame but does appear lighter on the bumper area where when the bodyshop pointed it out you can see is slightly darker than the wings and bonnet. In repainting the damage to the bumper they are going to paint match with the wings.