I cleaned my officemate's 97 Mazda 323 Familia (aka Protege in the US), black... The paint was horrible... Not because of all the swirls and scratches, it's the quality of the paint. 80% of the car's surface contains little dots of white specs (even under the hood and trunk) that looks like acid corrosion (like what you get from battery terminals), door jams aren't even painted (only the grey primer shows)... Take a look at the interior sheet metal, there's a hole in there... and the trunk!

I used my 9227C with a W7000 foam cutting pad and M84 Meguiar's Compound for cutting, W9000 buffing foam pad with DACP for polishing and top off with #26... I had to use a wool pad on the hood. Speed 2-3.

The result on several panels were good (not great), such as the hood, passenger door, the rear driver door and the rear left quarter panel. The rest of the paint had too much of those white corrosion specs that can't be helped even after claying, compounding and sanding. BTW, the other doors/panels were poorly repainted, almost no wet sanding, uneven finish.

http://pub45.bravenet.com/photocente...num=3805653559
http://pub45.bravenet.com/photocente...num=3805653559

See those white spots beside the rust spots? Those are everywhere in pinhole sizes on the exterior as well. It seems that most non-clearcoated areas exhibit that problem.

Take a look at the engine bay (after detailing and polishing of valve cover) and take note of the shock towers, those white spots are there as well.
http://pub45.bravenet.com/photocente...num=3805653559
http://pub45.bravenet.com/photocente...num=3805653559

I've detailed several cars older than that (including my own 94) with the same, if not even less aggressive, techniques and products but this is the first paint I've experienced to show such factory defects.

Any experiences on these situations?

 

I guess by reading your post that the car has been
repainted. That would explain the half effort on the door
jams, leaving primer only....

The white pitting on the exterior is due to one of the
following.

A mismatch between the primer and paint.

or

Painting over a wet primer

or

some kind of enviromental residue, ie. acid rain or
highway grime by truck exhaust, or overspray of some sort.

Black paint gets very hot in summer and that may also be
a factor, causing the finish to breakdown, and may result
in the white pitting you describe.

The intersting thing is that it can be found on the inside of the
engine compartment. I can't say if its related to the
exterior problem, but it probably is.


As for the rust under the seat and trunk, its obvious that
gouges or some scratches occured there and it spread
out. Add any moisture to exposed metal and you see
where it goes..... corrosion needs air to due its thing...

The only thing that you can do there is sand it down to
the bare metal and remove any flaking metal left. Then
apply a heavy zinc primer followed by bondo/metal tape
then prime and paint. This may cure the problem or just
prolong the rusting process. If done properly, it can cure
it entirely. If it was my car, I'd get on it.........before it
gets worse.

The paint on my protege looks flawless, no pitting whatsoever.
I wax it with carnuba 4 times a year and don't let any
residue or sap or bird/bug residue stay on the finish.
Under the hood is excellent, the shock towers are excellant
and the door jams have never had any primer whatsoever.
I am the original owner.

Those valve covers and intake look sweeeetttt.......kudos.....


obx

 

Thanks for the lengthy reply... it was extremely helpful... I feel bad for my friend coz it's his first (I think) car and he just got it a month or so... only to find out such defects that can't be fixed that easily...

Thanks for the valve cover comment... wasn't that hard, but took a while... I don't like how the spark plug wires are recessed into the cover, it becomes a water valley down there...

It's a very nice car for its class... too bad the paint was kinda screwed.