San Diego Miata Club at Meguiar's

[Mike Phillips]

It's kind of funny how some people on the Internet have some how managed to convince people that if a product changes the color of paint that's a bad thing. It's not.

I used to post how Meguiar's products would darken a paint color and make it look better, then I would see someone post how that this effect was somehow a bad thing, as is a negative result and that they preferred a product that didn't change the color of the paint but left it optically clear.

This black Miata and the red one to follow in this thread are superb examples of how Meguiar's polishes add richness and optical clarity to automotive finishes to really bring out the beauty.


Which side looks better, the passenger side or the drivers side?

In the garage backing the car out


Outside in natural light (bright natural light)


And before,


And After,


Mike

[Mike Phillips]

Up next...

The power of the hand!


We're going to take the below red dull, hazy and swirled-out Miata and give it a deep, rich, optically clear, show car shine!

Before


Original, untouched section cropped out of the original photo above


Before


Original, untouched section cropped out of the original photo above


And the results... by hand...



Oooo.... ahhh....


See the dramatic results tomorrow!

Mike

[gone2vegas]

aaahhh you're killing me Mike!

just kidding. I know there are only 24 hours in a day and you have to have a life of your own.

[Desertdawg]

I have to say, that black miata was just amazing. What a transformation...
I would've loved to hear the owners comments after you showed him the difference...

And now we have to wait for the red

[Mike Phillips]

First things first, a number of club members wiped the car down using Meguiar's Quik Detailer. Then we learned how to use the palm of our clean hands to inspect for above surface bonded contaminants.



We all felt little bumps on the finish as though it had a texture to it so next we clayed the finish. Anyone that had never used a clay bar was encouraged to step to the front of the line and get some hands-on experience.



Mike

[Mike Phillips]

At least half a dozen people helped out to clay this Miata!









Mike

[Mike Phillips]

After we clayed the car and the wiped down the car to remove any Quik Detailer, we taped the car off down the middle of the hood using some blue painters tape.



I had everyone re-inspect the finish to feel the difference in smoothness after claying, again using the palm of their clean hand.



It's important to remove all the above surface bonded contaminants before before using a liquid paint cleaner to insure maximum gloss and clarity. Meguiar's always recommends claying first and then applying the paint cleaner afterwards. The idea is to remove the contaminants on top of the finish and then go after the defects below the surface, such as swirls, scratches, etchings and oxidation.

Mike

[Mike Phillips]

Next we'll apply three applications of ScratchX using the techniques outlined here,

How to remove a defect by hand with ScratchX

After each application of ScratchX we immediately removed it with an microfiber polishing cloth as paint cleaners like ScratchX do not need to dry.



Followed by one thin coat of Deep Crystal Polish,



After applying the polish and working it into the finish, we removed it immediately also as pure polishes do not need to dry either.

After removing the polish we applied a thin coat of NXT Tech Wax and worked it in well.



We allowed the Tech Wax to dry for approximately 15 minutes. We did the The Swipe Test to insure the wax was ready to remove and it was.



Mike

[Mike Phillips]

After removing the Tech Wax, the owner backed his Miata out of the garage so that everyone could see the results of three hand-applied products.



Mike

[Mike Phillips]

Before


Original, untouched section cropped out of the original photo above


After



Original, untouched section cropped out of the original photo above



In the above after photos, you can actually see the area we worked by the way the swirls and haziness begin to show up about on the drivers right side of the hood as we only worked a strip about a foot wide out from the tape line.

Mike

[Mike Phillips]

After





Mike

[Mike Phillips]

After





Mike

[benhui86]

im gonna do that w/ my 02 frontier tmr.....