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?

 

If the car was repainted, than I guess it would be a moot point saying that the Mazda paint quality is horrible. My Pro's engine bay and door jams are painted the same color as the exterior of the car. I don't know about the 2nd gen 323s though.

 

the repainted panels (rear right door, right fender, driver door, bumper) are obviously repainted and I'm not questioning about that (the repainting job sucked)... But the other panels are not repainted and these are the panels that exhibit the primer to clear corrosion.

 

In my moms 2nd gen the door jams are painted body colour, and I havent noticed any problems like this.
Its a 97 aswell.