A good friend of my dad's was planning on selling his 1995 Miata M Edition (only 43,000 miles) and he asked me if I could detail it, saying it needed a ton of work. I hear this a lot but upon picking up the car, I saw what they were talking about right away. He loaned it to his son for a while and if I ever see that kid, I'll kick his ass. This car was utterly tanked and it looked like it had 200,000 more miles on it than the odometer indicated.

I used a Griot's random orbital with polishing pads and their fantastic polish.

Here is the hood before:



After the polish:



And after polish and wax:



And the car totally finished:

 

Nice job! What was your process and product choice?

 

Nice recovery. Keep that kid away from the car!

 

nice job process please

 

This was by far the most laborious car I have ever tackled. Thank God it was so small otherwise it probably wouldn't have turned out so well. I started the process on Sunday simply by washing the car. The polishing took up Monday and Tuesday night and Wednesday was for waxing...it was exhausting and I was sore for the rest of the week but man was it worth it!!!

1. Hand washed car with microfiber wash mitt, warm water, and generous amounts of Blue Coral car wash soap.

2. Dried car with soft towel; used quick detailer to touch up any small spots I might have missed.

3. Removed front license plate and bracket, taped off windshield washer nozzles and wiper arms.

4. Started with machine polish level 2 (for light oxidation and mild scratches); applied to the entirety of the car. The worst part was the trunk which required two runs; three in some places.

5. After level 2 polish, we moved up to level 3 which was for light scratches. That got the rest of the atrocities out. A lot of the imperfections in the car were scuffs and quite a few of the scratches actually came out which surprised me.

6. Use quick-detail to remove any hardened polish which is difficult to remove.

7. Apply wax and wait two hours.

8. While the wax was hardening, we put the car up on jack stands and removed all four wheels, thoroughly cleaned them and even the backsides.

9. Two hours later, we removed the wax and the next day we admired our work in the sun!

If anybody is thinking about getting the Griot's products, this is a testimonial that they are hands down the best out there!!!

 

A couple side notes:

- The spare tire had absolutely no pressure. We filled it up.
- The plastic rear window was pretty tanked. Shortly after I explained that it could be saved (but I didn't have the proper equipment), it ripped.
- Once clean, the engine bay looked brand new.
- The leather shift boot stitching had mud caked into it; that was fun to get out.
- The cup holder was covered in dried soda and candy wrappers. Again, a fun time for all...
- Surprisingly, the leather seats were very clean as I got almost no dirt off with my leather cleaner and conditioner.
- I learned that a CD player circa 1995 doesn't play CD-Rs. I figured it wouldn't...


And after all that, he decided not to sell the car. I think he'd forgotten what was under all that abuse.

 

Don't suppose you'd want to wax an '02 RL sometime this summer?

 

What color?

 

White

 

Whew...I was sweating bullets praying you weren't going to say black. I already have one of those to tackle.

But sure I'd be interested in taking care of her for you. Just PM me sometime and we can set up a date when the weather 'round here gets better (if it ever does ).

 

I'm going to wait for something better than hail...

 

wow... that is clean...great work