Mark had called a few weeks back and wanted to book his brand new Mazda MX5 Coupe in for a Gold Waxxx Detail. He explained that he had purchased the car from Mazda and was not entirely happy with the few surface scratches the car arrived with. He had actually taken this up with Mazda and was not too impressed with the Mazda valeter who did not seem to have a clue what he was doing. Mark had pointed out a few of the scratches on the day of collection and the valeter hesitantly put polish to cloth and rubbed very gently at the surface scratches with little success. Mark was not too impressed with what he saw and explained that he would sort it out himself - hence the call to Hotwaxxx.

Mark arrived just before 9.00am in his brand new Copper Red Mazda MX5 Coupe. The car looked absolutely stunning being just 400 miles old and was very clean bar the usual winter road salts. Mark took me around the car and highlighted the scratches we had talked about over the phone. He explained there was one on the rear bumper below the number plate, one on the front bumper just under the offside light cluster and one large area on the offside door which looked as though something had brushed against it and had been dragged about a foot leaving a surface scuff. Being very feint surface scratches, they were not highly visible in normal daylight but under the halogens they did indeed show up and spoilt what was a fantastic looking car. Mark also explained that he had washed the car on a number of occasions over the past month or so of ownership and had used one bucket with a wash mitt which would explain the swirl marks which were coming through. Mark then left and said he would return upon my phone call.

I began the detail by rinsing the wheels and applied a dose of Meguiars All Purpose Cleaner diluted 4:1 and left to dwell for 5 minutes. The arches also received the same and were agitated with a long-handled brush. I then worked the wheels with a range of wheel brushes and rinsed clean. The wheels and arches only took around 20 minutes as they were relatively clean and only had a light dusting of loose dirt and grime. The car was then rinsed over and shock horror. A small flake of paint came off just under the offside front light cluster. After quickly turning the water off I had a closer look and it was clear that this had been smart repaired as there was a dark maroon-coloured primer where the top coat of paint had come off. Normally, when a stonechip chips away the paint or you suffer flaking paint, you are left with a white or grey-coloured primer. However, when a smart repair is undertaken, paint is often built up using coloured primer and this is what gave the game away on this occasion.

The car was then washed with Meguiars Shampoo Plus and the two-bucket method and rinsed clean before being tackled with CYC Yellow Polyclay which surprisingly removed a large degree of embedded contaminants even though the car was only a few months old. The car was rinsed again and dried with my new Miracle Dryer. I can honestly say this is the best drying towel I have ever come across and will be purchasing a few more very shortly. The car was then wheeled into the garage ready for polishing.

Under the halogens and the scratches Mark had talked about became visible and there were indeed a few swirl marks coming through as well. Paint readings were taken and they showed the paint to be relatively thin with a range of 105-130 microns all round. With only minor defects to correct and the paint being on the thin side, a taped up area on the bonnet was hit with an old favourite; Sonus SFX-2 Restore Polish on a Meguiars Polishing Pad on the Metabo Rotary. The polish was spread at 1100 and then worked at 1500 and as per usual with Sonus polishes, it was broken down rather swiftly. After a wipe over, I was left with a 90% correction with a fantastic gloss brought to the paintwork. However, with this being a new car, I wanted 100% correction and the same area was hit once again with the same pad and polish combination albeit this time with a small pea-sized blob of Menzerna Final Finish PO85RD. The same speeds were used on the rotary as before although the polish took a little longer to breakdown this time around. After a quick wipe over, I was left with a 100% correction. The remainder of the bonnet received one hit of the same pad and polish combination (with a blob of Final Finish PO85RD) and full correction was achieved. The same pad and polish combination was then used on the whole of the car and 100% correction was achieved throughout. The offside door scuff was cut back as far as possible without compromising the paint. Overall, the polishing stage took just under 3 hours to complete. The paint was extremely soft which meant the defects were removed with ease although inflicting further ones shouldn’t be too difficult to achieve.

Onto LSP and Mark had left the decision entirely up to me. Since I was working on an awesome looking Copper Red paint, I decided to treat it with one of my all-time favourite waxes; Victoria Concours. The wax was applied to the whole of the car with an applicator pad and left to cure for 30 minutes within which time I treated the alloys to a coat of Chemical Guys JetSeal109. The wax was then buffed clear and finished with Zymol Field Glaze to remove any signs of sweating and wax residue. The alloys were treated to a further coat of JetSeal109 and the tyrewalls dressed with Chemical Guys New Look Trim Gel. The same was used on exterior rubber and plastic trimwork. The windows were polished inside and out with AutoGlym Fast Glass and finally, the two exhaust pipes were polished with Meguiars NXT Metal Polish and received a coat of JetSeal109 for added protection.

A call to Mark and he was over within 15 minutes or so. He was immediately shown the area where the paint had flaked off under the front offside light cluster and he was upset to say the least. I had explained what had happened during the rinse stage over the phone so Mark knew about the horror beforehand. Mark explained he had had his doubts when he received the car with a scratch around the area where the flake had peeled off. He said the valeter was reluctant to remove the scratch around this area when asked to do so. Mark then immediately got onto the blower and gave Mazda a call and explained what had occurred in no uncertain terms and said he would be coming over right away. Mark, after calming down a little, then looked over the rest of the car and was extremely happy with the finish under the circumstances. I explained I had removed all the surface scratches and swirlmarks and had corrected the offside door scuff as far as possible. Mark said he would be asking Mazda to rectify this defect as well since this was how the car was presented to him. Mark then paid his invoice and was very gracious of the detail carried out and left for the Mazda dealership.

After a couple of hours, I received a call from Mark and he explained Mazda had taken responsibility and would be remedying the defects under warranty by the end of the week failing which, a new bumper and door would be in order. Mark thanked me for the detail once again and said I had done a fantastic job and the paintwork was looking great. He also thanked me for the fact I had highlighted the flaking paint as had he noticed 6 months down the line, Mazda may not have agreed to correct it as graciously as they had agreed to on this occasion.



The photos - click thumbnails to enlarge