93 Mazda Miata paint correction, Megs VS. Mothers

[tuscarora dave]

This paint correction was initially going to be a review of the Lake Country One Pad System. Prior to starting this correction I was searching the threads to get some info about Miata paint systems and read that some were single stage paint and some weren't. It turned out that this particular Miata does have single stage paint and it is extremely soft paint as well.

A little background on this car and this job.
This car belongs to a co worker at my day job. He said it hadn't been washed in a year. Upon seeing the car and it's paint condition, I thought "This paint is a mess", I began thinking about what a drastic difference I could make if I had this car for a weekend to play around with and that it may be a good candidate for the One Pad System. I talked the owner of the car into bringing the car for a free paint correction, all he would have to do is man the camera and take as many photos of me working on the car as he could get. Well things turned out a lot different that what I had envisioned.

As I began working on the car Saturday morning, the wind began to pick up with gusts up to 50 MPH and the temperature began to plummet down in to the high 30's. I could clearly see that the car's owner wasn't going to be able to hang with me in those weather conditions so I took him home after securing the car for the entire weekend.

After washing and claying the car I began to compound the paint using the One Pad System orange pad and found that the orange pad was way too agressive and that the paint was very soft. With the curved design of the One Pad System pads, I was getting very limited contact between the paint and the pad (pretty much just the center of the pad) and the outer edges of the pad were preventing me from seeing exactly where I was compounding in relationship to the edges of the panels and to compound close to obstructions such as the antenna or mirror housings, I found that all I could do was tip the polisher and use the edge of the pad. This was causing deep holograms and I began to fear cutting through the paint as I really couldn't see where I was compounding.

I actually got a few slight burns in the paint because of the limited contact of the One Pad System's pad design so I decided to abort the One Pad System review and just use the pads I like the best and am used to which are the 5.5" Variable Contact pads that Poorboy's World sells for use on Flex Polishers.

Meguiars VS. Mothers

Megs M-105/M-205

I have become accustomed to the short working cycle of Megs M-105 compound and have come to rely on it's ability to quickly cut through severe paint defects while leaving a very nice finish. M-105 is pretty much the only compound that I reach for anymore. If the paint is hard it works very fast with the rotary to cut through defects. If the paint is soft I simply increase the size of the section that I work at one time. Now that I have figured out how to best use this compound it has literally cut my compounding time in half or better. I will be buying it by the gallon.

Following M-105 with M-205 on the rotary, very quickly cleans up any swirls or holograms left behind by the M-105. I find that after doing the swirl removal step with M-205, I can simply kick the speed of the Makita rotary down to 600 RPM and go over the entire panel to jewel the paint. I find no need for any other polishes or the use of a DA polisher to further refine the finish. If I were to go with a polish like PO85RD it would be out of experimentation or just plain old fun but not out of necessity.

M-105 and M-205 have essentially ended my search for the perfect compound/swirl remover for full paint corrections.

Mothers Machine Glaze/Foam Pad Polish

Some time back while at a body shop supply in my local area, I picked up a quart each of Machine Glaze and Foam Pad Polish from the Mothers' Professional line. I really hadn't had much of a chance to test these two products out so I decided to place a tape line down the center of this car and correct one half with my go to products and then after getting a few 50/50 photos correct the other half using these two Mothers products.

Machine Glaze

I applied the Mothers Machine Glaze to my orange pad just as I do M-105. A thin light priming coat to ensure 100% of the face of the pad is working for me. Quickly after beginning my first few section passes with the Machine Glaze, I noticed that the paint had glossed up almost immediately. I assumed this is the result of fillers in the product. I am just assuming this (maybe Forrest from Mothers can clarify if this is true or not) but being that I didn't want returning buffer trails or holograms and I wasn't messing around with IPA wipedowns, I just payed particular attention to the RIDS and worked the product until the RIDS were somewhat reduced.

Unlike M-105, Mothers Machine Glaze has a very extended working time and zero dusting. It feels a little grabby against the paint toward the end of it's working cycle. I was told that it uses non-diminishing abrasives. Overall I think it is a very nice product to work with and cuts a lot slower than what i am used to but finishes out very glossy. With a polishing pad on a rotary polisher this product could finish out LSP ready for cheaper details where total correction is not the end goal.

Foam Pad Polish

Mothers Foam Pad Polish works a lot like the Machine Glaze in that is has a very long working cycle, however it was smooth running and not at all grabby against the paint like the Machine Glaze was. It finished down super glossy on this particular paint system (very soft single stage paint) and was also a zero dusting product. I will continue to use it on other jobs

The process for this paint correction

Passenger's side
Pre-wash soak with "Bug Off" (a product similar to Bug Squash) because this car hadn't been washed in a year. and then sprayed with the soap cycle and then rinse cycle at local coin op car wash followed by an ONR scrubbing.

Clayed with Clay Magic Red Medium aggressive clay, ONR as lube.

Taped off all rubber and plastic trim pieces and then ran a piece of 2" tape down the center of the car length wise. The passenger side was done with Meguiars products.

Compounded with M-105 using Makita with Orange 5.5" VC pad @ 1100-1200 RPM

Swirl removal with M-205 using Makita with red 5.5" VC finishing pad @ 1100-1200 RPM
then slowed down to 600 RPM for a final jeweling pass.

LSP was AutoGlym High Definition Wax.

Driver's side

Compounded with Mothers Machine Glaze using Makita with Orange 5.5" VC pad @ 1500 RPM

Swirl removal with Mothers Foam Pad Polish using Makita with Red 5.5" VC finishing pad @ 1100-1200RPM then slowed down to 600 RPM for a final jeweling pass.

LSP was AutoGlym High Definition Wax.

Tires, wheels, trim and vinyl convertible top cleaned with Citra-Plus All purpose citrus cleaner.

Tires and wells dressed with "Dress Up" Silicone dressing.

The photos

Before, this paint was an absolute wreck.








Note the pinstripe mark on this door, this door was replaced at one time and the rear fender showed signs of shotty body repair work in scratches below the repainted surface.



Cruddy wheel before, i was mainly concerned with the paint work on this particular job so only the face of the wheel was cleaned and not the barrel portion of the wheel.



All taped up and ready to work




Some 50/50 shots after the Meguiars side was finished and LSP applied.





More pics of Meguiars side




These 2 pics are after Mothers Machine Glaze on orange pad.



The door where the camera's flash is seen below was not yet compounded, the left side was.




Wheel after cleaning.



These are all after pics.





This shot makes me look as fat and round as a beach ball.



The rest are all finished pics of the whole car.








The End, thanks for looking. TD

[Klink10]

I'm impressed. Thanks for posting the info.

[LuxuryMobile]

Wow. What a clean up. And great write up to give us some insight of the One Pad System as well as some information on the Mother's products that dont seem to get much attention on the forum.

Miata's can be a blast to drive. Hopefully the owner will take care of the car a little better now that you gave the paint a fresh start.

[LegacyGT]

What did the owner say when he saw your work?

Very nice writeup, great correction.

This reflection makes it look like a much larger pad than 5.5''

[tuscarora dave]

I'm impressed. Thanks for posting the info.

Thank you, you're welcome.

Wow. What a clean up. And great write up to give us some insight of the One Pad System as well as some information on the Mother's products that dont seem to get much attention on the forum.

Miata's can be a blast to drive. Hopefully the owner will take care of the car a little better now that you gave the paint a fresh start.

Thanks. Mothers will have a place in my detailing arsenal for maybe around 50% of the jobs that I do get a quick single pass polishing and I think their Machine Glaze fits that bill better than most of what I have used so far. I believe the owner will try to take better care of the car.

What did the owner say when he saw your work?

"Wow!!! Look at that shine!!! The scratches are like....Gone!!! This thing is going home and isn't coming back out until all this salt is gone!" They were amazed with the quality of work because around here buffer trails are the norm.

Very nice writeup, great correction.

Thanks, the job took 16 hours because of constant pad cleaning, testing the Mothers products and making time to take pictures along the way.

This reflection makes it look like a much larger pad than 5.5''

These pads actually measure out at around 6.5" but poorboy's World still calls them 5.5" VC for Flex Polishers. Funny thing is that for me they work much better on the rotary polisher.
[/QUOTE]

[SeaJay's]

Nice work as always Dave!

[Shawn T.]

Wow! Great job on the review and the detail! I might have to now pick up some of those Mothers polishes.

[AngelSI06]

Thank you for the write up. Great job on the car!

[BobbyG]

Dave,

Great writeup for sure!

The photos clearly illustrate how the right products / machine in experienced hands can make a car look better than new.

My guess is the owner of the car asked you if that was the car he dropped off!

1st rate work
1st rate writeup

[tuscarora dave]

Nice work as always Dave!

Thanks!

Wow! Great job on the review and the detail! I might have to now pick up some of those Mothers polishes.

Thank you Shawn, I really liked working with the Mothers Products, I can definitely recommend them for ease of use and outstanding shine too.

Thank you for the write up. Great job on the car!

You're welcome,Thanks.

Dave,

Great writeup for sure!

The photos clearly illustrate how the right products / machine in experienced hands can make a car look better than new.


My guess is the owner of the car asked you if that was the car he dropped off!

1st rate work
1st rate writeup

Thanks Bobby, I'm glad you liked it.

Funny story, On Sunday while I was getting the wax out of the cracks this little boy come riding his bicycle up and stopped and asked..."what are you doing?" I told him... "well, I'm cleaning this car." He looked at me as if I were weird and said..."well, it looks new." I laughed and told him thank you.