[Mk2] [Generic] Corrected my MR2's Paint

[alan_d]

When I bought my mr2, I knew from the outset that being NA I wouldnt be faced with too many tuning options, so set out to make her look great instead!

Ive always been into a bit of detailling, so thought it was about time I bought a porter cable setup, and a stack of Sonus pads and chemicals.

My 93 NA had seen some action in its 14 years of life, and although virtually dent free, the paint had gone chalky and lost all its shine, so I set about the following:


5pm and the shutters came down, and the fun and games started!
after a shock start where my Lake country CCS pad disintigrated after one and a half cars worth of use, and 15 minutes break while I recovered from being hit square in the balls with it from near point blank range, Things got underway with:

-Clayed with magic clay and magic lube,
-2 sets of passes with power gloss (yes camo can confirm it needed two full sets of passes!) on a sonus restore pad
-residue removed with sonus green microfibre
-1 pass with sonus swirlbuster and residue removed again with sonus green microfibre
-1 pass with Klasse all in one (residue removed with sonus terry towel)
-1 pass with Klasse hand glaze (residue removed with sonus terry towel)
-2 coats of Swisvax Samurai (buffed with Megs lambswool towel)

Heres the results!


Heres a before, just after claying and ready to get buffing, note the hard swirl in the paintwork

and.....

After!!!


















This one for me sums it all up as im sat here at my desk looking at her now!!!

[matt_mr2t]

Are they taken with a phone camera?

I've never got the point of all this work when it'll get rained on and look bad again within a week lol.

[alan_d]

the point is all the damaged 'swirled' paint is now buffed away, and fresh 'perfect' paint is left.
The surface is so smooth that dirt finds it harder to adhere to. plus the wax I use - 45% pure grade 1 brazilian carnauba- sets as hard as concrete - thus protecting the perfected paint underneath, while maintaining fantastic glaze, and thus amazing wet looks.

Apologies about the quality of the images as they are shot at 2megapixel, and downscaled by bebo's system to 640x480 (which makes them a bit more website friendly!)

Heres a great link to why Ive gone through all this - and disproving your point about the rain too!
Dont forget rain carrys dirt, which is displaced by the wax, which simply sheets the water away to the ground- keeping my car cleaner as a result!!!

Click below to see how a good concours wax sheets water away
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd5MwpLohUk

[CosmosblueMR2]

Dont forget rain carrys dirt, which is displaced by the wax, which simply sheets the water away to the ground- keeping my car cleaner as a result!!!

doesn't wax make water "bead" though ? - not "sheet" away

i ask the q becuase you can get products that specifically "sheet" water away because beeding is bad - especially if sunny as the droplets act like a little magnifying glass, not to mention the water marks left behind if the rain has any contaminents in it.

[adrianl7]

Some great work there!! That looks amazing. I think it's incredible you can achieve such results on a car as old as that. It looks as good as brand new. I'm thinking of taking a similar approach to mine, although I have a couple of bothersome patches of rust to deal with first.

Dare I ask how long this transformation took?

[splashnatz]

you've rubbed all the colour off it, just looks white now.

[Spittinflames]

Errr where the pics

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[Leon.]

doesn't wax make water "bead" though ? - not "sheet" away

Does it not depend on the size of the rain drops and amount of rain? For example, a large angled area will sheet, but will still have beading at the edges where the water is 'just' clinging on, and a light drizzle will cause lots of beading as there's not enough water for the drops to be too heavy to hold surface tension...

[alan_d]

you've rubbed all the colour off it, just looks white now.

Damn!
Ive been caught on!!!

lol thanks for the kind words people.

All in all bodywork alone can take upto 9 hours work, but boy was it worth it when i took the last bit of wax off!!!

cant wait to see peoples reactions when shes on show on saturday, anyone who has seen it is convinced its a respray!

[adrianl7]

I've been swayed now, this weekend the car is in for a super clean!! Roped my brother into it as well, hopefully we'll see some good results.

The pictures have also convinced me to buy some clear indicator lenses, just need to find some!!!

[craig]

Nice work mate.

[alan_d]

I've been swayed now, this weekend the car is in for a super clean!! Roped my brother into it as well, hopefully we'll see some good results.

The pictures have also convinced me to buy some clear indicator lenses, just need to find some!!!

Those indicators are US spec clear ones, dont forget if your buying them that they dont feature a side light! you'll need to get a set of the US halo lamps or an alternative (ive wired my halo's as sides) to get a side light!

If your simply cleaning rather than correcting and de swirling a car, I strongly advise 'claying' the car first with a good clay, even meguiars clay from Halfords will do. You'll be in total shock at how much rubbish it will pull from your paint, and the smooth as glass feel that is left behind!
I recommend using a 'backfill' polish, like Autoglym Super Resin, which will hide small imperfections, but again, this is only a compromise if you are not correcting or swirl removing.

Ive heard good results can be had with 'prima amigo' which is a heavy backfill polish, and its reasonably priced too, though you will definitely need to order it online!