Paintwork on my 8 year old red Mazda MX-5 is losing its lustre and looking patchy. Any ideas to solve this?

Question

Paintwork on my 8 year old red Mazda MX-5 is losing its lustre and looking patchy. Any ideas to solve this?

Answer 1

It sounds like the laquer (the coating of clear paint used to make the car shine) is beginning to peel away. As above a respray is more than likely required It's gonna be pretty pricey for a full respray though.

Answer 2

Only a nice complete respray    

Answer 3

Damaged clear coat can take two appearances.

One is peeling, and lifting.

The other is it turning milky and or dull.

Both are hard to fix, as the clear coat or at least the damaged clear coat has to be removed.

Monday I am taking my car in to have the clear coat fixed and some other body work done. The body man thinks he can buff it out and respray it.

My other Miata has lifting clear coat. It looks like it was painted two different colors. I am just letting it peel (lift). Sooner or later it will all be off.

Dead or damaged wax can be another problem. Especially when spray on waxes are used. Stripping the wax is also a tough job. Maybe best left to an auto detailer as they will know what to use to get the job done easiest.

Answer 4

Clear coat is fading.  You can take it to the shop to get it resprayed or do it yourself.  Taking it to the shop will cost a lot.  Not for material but for the labor.  It can take up to 24 hours just to sand, paint and buff the clear coat.  Which will be expensive at the end.  Do it yourself and you can save up to $800 or more.  What you need is very high grit paper to sand up the old clear coat, but just to dull it.  Spray it if you got the products to do it.  Do couple of layers of clear coat so dirt that sticks on gets filled.  When done with that get a buffer and use the steps of buffing.  White pad then last is the black pad.

Answer 5

hi personally i would give it a good T CUT all over then give it a very good wax polish to finish it off  

Answer 6

get a buffing machine and some frecla and work hard at it then it will look like new

Answer 7

ive my two brothers  in the mx5 club who go to convoys and meet ups

yes full respray for their black  one was what they had last yr, about £1 k they stay in Glasgow

Answer 8

Sorry if this is a silly answer but are you waxing it? Good quality polish such as Autoglym removes traffic film and protects against the atmosphere. If no joy a respray is the expensive answer.  

Answer 9

First question is... Is your car lacquered, or not?  I personally don't believe in lacquer!  It used to only be applied over metallic colours, as it was believed to be NEEDED to stop the paint becoming porous and prevent the metallic particles in the paint from oxidising...  As I have had "INFURIATING" results with the solvent in the lacquer causing the nice smooth paint I have sprayed to run, I tried some years ago just using the paint, no lacquer.  The results are just fine!  The paint takes a quality protective wax just fine, and I could show you some paint over five years old, which still looks as good as you could want it to!

       In recent years, manufacturers have been lacquering cars which are in solid colours!  This is bad news, as you can have the paint fade or dull under the lacquer (like my red Alfa Romeo has) or you can have the lacquer itself  'pickle'.  Either way, it looks just awful, and you cannot just T-Cut it out (T-Cut, or the similar Farecla products, are abrasive polishes which remove the top few moleclues of oxidised paint, and if you use a good wax afterwards, you can do a great revival of a tired paint-job!)  

      To test if you car IS lacquered, take an old white cotton sock or t-shirt, and rub it around in a circle a few times on the clean paint.  if no colour comes off, you have lacquer on top.  If red paint is transferred onto the cotton, your paint isn't lacquered, then you have a chance at T-Cutting it.  

     T-Cut is horsework!  Wash the car first, let it dry.  Get it OUT of the sun. Only do a square foot at a time, don't let the T-Cut dry out too much, and make sure you finish one panel completely before you start another one, probably another day!  Wax that panel afterwards.  A red-colour-polish will give a good result, and afterwards you can use a regular wax.  Be wary of using mechanical polishers, it is all too easy to polish a 'hologram' into them, and then you need to sand and re-spray to remove it!

    When the whole car is done, it will look a lot better, and you will have arms like Popeye.  Good luck.