New guy in Massachusetts!

[SuperGlide]

Welcome from Ohio!

[sillybinaries]

Welcome to AG from one town over, Sutton..

[Anthony@zerboautoworks]

Welcome

[ProDetail]

First off let me say, to AGO!!!

Second, I must say the paint on your MX5 is outstanding from what I'm seeing in the pics you've taken and I can see why your's is recognized at shows.

Third and lastly, from what you describe I would have to recommend against a semi permanent coating. If you love detailing your baby as much as you say then such a coating may take the "Fun" out of it. Finding ways to work without instilling damage may be much more gratifying.
If after that you are still insistent on a coating and your nervous about applying the coating then you can go two routes.

-1) Ask a fellow forum member (There are a quite a few, Bobby being one of the more active, I don't think he details full time but I can be wrong.) and they may be able to help you with application and possibly correction as you will need to go by machine if you need to correct the coating or any blemishes.

-2) You could pay a professional to do it, it may seem expensive but with that you get a quality coating without any risk of messing it up. I may add since your car seems fairly flawless a simple fine polish may be all that's needed before application which itself will save you alot of money.

Coatings are actually easy to apply per say because the companies have made them rather user friendly so I wouldn't be too intimidated. The choice is yours in the end, I would do a little more research, YouTube is a hell of a resource that can help you out immensely. Which ever way you go, have fun with it because in the end that's why we do what we do. Ever need any help just ask, my contact info is in my signature .

[Sicoupe]

Welcome! Glad to have you

[vet]

Welcome! The car looks great.

[Garnetmica]

Thanks again for the warm welcome everyone! I've spent a few weeks now going over different products. As a perfectionist on a budget, I'm having trouble picking a sealant product.

Today I went to work on my Sterling Grey 2011 Ford Fusion with 50K miles. I started off washing, claying, washing, drying and testing my new Harbor Freight DA, HF cutting, polishing and the finishing pads. The car is washed frequently in drive thru brushed washes. The paint is fairly good with micro mars and less than frequent RIDS.

I started with the Meguiars 205 and the blue polishing pad. The system worked nicely but some of the deeper RIDS remained. I bumped up to the orange cutting pad with the 205 and was able to sort out most of the RIDS. Then went back to Blue and 205, then another blue pad and the swirl remover. All I can say is wow! With minimal effort, the finish looked better than new.

I then cracked open the S100 solid carnauba and applied it directly to the Black finishing pad. Once hazed, I removed the carnauba with a microfiber and it's shinning like new and buttery smooth.

I'm disappointed that it took me so long to try this. I was really worried that I would end up with halos, hazing, micro marring etc.

The HF DA had more than enough power to turn the pads and keep them moving at a good clip. I tested various pressures, pads and product and was impressed by how well it worked. The head did heat up a bit and I did observe degradation of the pads where the overhanging 6" backing plate velcro rubbed on the exposed pad.

I will probably stick with the HF pads for the daily drivers because they are cheap, plentiful at the HF two miles from my residence and they worked. I ordered a 5" backing plate today http://www.amazon.com/Astro-Pneumati...+backing+plate I'll probably order a few LC pads for the MX5 when I finally pick a sealant.

[1Clean3]

to AGO!

[Kevin Cullen]

Welcome to Autogeek. Glad to see you made it here.

[Garnetmica]

Finally had a chance to upload a few crappy iPhone pics. I'll preface that the condition of my paint was already excellent. Many wondered why I wanted to do anything with the paint. This first pic is of a test square I did on the hood of the car. I taped a square off on the driver side of the hood, polished the section with the HF cutting pad, Meguiars 205, then HF polishing pad and Meguiars 205, polishing pad with Wolfgang Finishing Glaze. The red arrows show the tape line:



The paint was instantly more blue. Right side polished:



Polished outside:



Polished, Wolfgang Sealant 3.0 (applied with finishing pad, removed by hand), Wolfgang Fuzion Wax top coat (applied and removed by hand):