Pink MX-3 owners, do not suffer in silence!
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**So, I have a 1998 in Blaze Red. She's even called Red. But she's pink. And, given that she's pretty much as new as you can get and has been in my family for 8 years, I honestly dread to think just how pink some of my fellow Blaze Red owners' cars are.
But all is not lost. No. With the simple outlay of a day of my life, the red has returned to Red (except the bits that are rustier than Anne Widdicombe's vagina) and you too can manage this.
1. Wash
The car. Yourself too if you're feeling sporty. Now, there's a right way and several billion wrong ways to wash a car and… well, since I'm not a professional car detailer, my way is one of the wrong ways but it works so sod off.1a) Pressure washer. Get all that volcanic ash crap off your car with some decent hosing.
1b) Wash. A sponge and a nice big bucket of soapy water with a decent quality car shampoo. AutoGlym works for me, but do your own thing. The key to this step is a second big bucket of not soapy water and periodically rinsing the sponge off in it.
1c) Pressure washer. Get all that soapy sud crap off your car with some decent hosing.
1d) Dry. Microfibre cloth or a chamois. Whatever works for you. Just don't let it air dry or, worse, sun dry.2. T-Cut
Bog standard T-Cut on a nice, dry duster. Apply in gentle dobs to the duster (I cover the top, and invert the bottle briefly), NEVER DIRECT TO THE CAR, and rub on hard in circular motions. The amount I use is good for 10"x10" at a time.Allow the first area you did to dry to a white bloom - a good 15 minutes - and reapply to any parts that, now you can see it white, you missed. When that's dry too, rub off with a second nice, dry duster. I do it either in straight lines or with the flow of the body, but again you want to do this hard.
You can't polish out scratches with T-Cut (that's not the point of it anyway), so don't bother trying. It's like Magic Eye pictures - everyone reckons they can do it, but in reality it's just an elaborate con made to make you feel inferior because you can't.
3. Clay Bar
Girl! I wanna take you to a clay bar! Clay bar, clay bar, clay bar!Anyway. Meguiars Quick Clay. Great product. Ignore the wax that comes with it as it's utterly useless. Squirt the detailing compound on as and when you need it to lubricate the clay's passage (fnarr). Don't overdo it as you end up with patches of drying liquid all over the place.
Clay bars pick up what T-Cut leaves behind and give you a nice, smooth, flat surface to put your wax onto. So squirt a bit of detailing compound and rub that sucker hard over the surface. Examine every 30 seconds or so and, if it's getting a bit black/red, fold it in half. Oh and careful where you store it because there is nothing worse than having a bit of grit or sand in your claybar undetected and dragging that bastard over your paintwork.
Run your hands over the surface of the paintwork and, if it's not smooth yet, keep claying it - and when you're happy with the finish, dry the excess compound off with a microfibre cloth. It will probably look a bit blotchy but don't worry.
4. Wax
People have their own preferences here - I've tried Turtlewax, Colourmagic (which is also Turtlewax) and Mer, but have latterly plumped for Meguiars Tech Wax.Whichever wax you use, the principle is largely the same. Apply the same way you applied the T-Cut - small amount of wax on a clean duster, applied firmly in small patches in circular motion, leave to bloom, then firmly rub off with a second clean duster.
Now, I went out and took some photos before and after and… well, photography hides a lot of the original defects. But here's an after and before close-up shot of the same panel:
I didn't think that quite told the whole story, and certainly not enough for a 2-hour-per side, 4-step plan. Though you can see a difference, it's marginal and in no way reflective of reality. So I put that image through Photoshop's auto-leveller (and you can do this yourself and check if I'm lying)
:D
Steps 2-4 should only really be done once every 6 months at most - start of summer (for showing off) and start of winter (for protection) are good ideas - otherwise you'll end up with paint so thin you could peel it off with a good hard stare. There are spray-on, quick maintenance waxes which are good for use every couple of weeks - good wash, spray-on wax - to keep the lustre.
So don't suffer your pinkness in silence, fellow Blaze Red-eers. Get out there and do something about it.
(and all the above applies to the inferior colours too)**
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Well done fella, i know from experience what its like to own a red/ pink car… and with a little effort as you say it can look good...
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heh heh!! I felt your pain last week … I got a good result exactly as you described but a one inch square (..just to try it ) turned into a quick once over. I'm gonna do it properly this weekend and press on a bit harder.. "Wax on.. Wax off..." as they say .
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lol i was just looking for this thread for you but you beet me to it lol he he he keep exploring the site its amazing what you find. :lol: :lol: :lol:
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This place is wicked but if I start annoyin anyone just tell me to crawl back into my hole… heh heh!! I saw somebody the other day in sheffield in a red mx3, I was tempted to give em a flash (the lights I mean) ...is that geeky...lol
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I have tried the clay bar already and the difference is amazing, would recommended it definately
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@73efbff907=Nathan:
This place is wicked but if I start annoyin anyone just tell me to crawl back into my hole… heh heh!! I saw somebody the other day in sheffield in a red mx3, I was tempted to give em a flash (the lights I mean) ...is that geeky...lol
i alway wave or flash my light at other mx3s 9 time out of 10 thay wave back so flash away…... with your lights lol :lol: :lol:
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@ecbd340b10=Nathan:
This place is wicked but if I start annoyin anyone just tell me to crawl back into my hole… heh heh!! I saw somebody the other day in sheffield in a red mx3, I was tempted to give em a flash (the lights I mean) ...is that geeky...lol
That may have been mine before I bought it
Its now in Essex