tips for a mazda 3 paint correction?

so i'm going to start the paint correction on my gf's mazda 3 tonight, thought i might chime in to see if anyone had any tips/warnings about these specific cars or mazda's in general.

What am i looking at for CC hardness? honda like? BMW like?

her car is pretty heavily swirled, so im trying to plan my attack...

i've got the assortment of pads, but no yellow cutting, just yellow sonus (orange LC) and softer.

flex 3401, and a variety of polishes now.

megs UC
megs 83/80
optimum compound 2
optimum polish 2

what does everyone think i should go at it with if you've worked on a mazda 3 before?

 

ok.....my gf and i washed the car and clayed it. I then did a test run on the hood, and unfortunately krshultz was wrong (sorry dude).

this paint does seem pretty fricken hard. so now i am stumped...the paint is in real rough shape, lots of swirls, lots of rids, and i tried a few things.

of course, after hearing that it might be soft, i went to my go-to for 1 stepping, my white polishing pad + megs 80. After doing this...yeah it took a couple things out, but wow it really didn't make a dent in the whole sense.

so i tried to step it up to yellow sonus pad (orange LC), and megs 83. Nada again.

So then i try another aggressive upgrade, a sonus yellow pad with optimum compound 2. A bit better, but seems like it would take 3 maybe even 4 passes to get alot.

so then i tried even one more option. my megs optimum compound + yellow sonus (my most aggressive combo i think? unless optimum compound is more abrasive etc)....

anyways, i tried that optimum compound and after 1 or 2 passes in some areas, it is getting most of the swirling out, but i'm still seeing some heavy defects/rids. I did even try to do a somewhat of a KBM with megs UC since it has non diminishing abrasives, but i'm unsure as to whether i was doing it right or what.

So...where do i go from here? Of course im thinking i want 100% correction (swirls/rids gone), its starting to look like i might not be able to do that, but i would at least love to do pretty close. Can anyone shed some light on what i might be able to try on this? i'm absolutely stumped and feeling a bit down with how its starting to look...

 

Just curious, what kind of pressure are you applying and how long are you working the product in? Meg's in my experience tends to need a decent amount of pressure while working it in to get better results.

 

This post was a copy of a post on s2ki, so just to be clear...

I wondered aloud if the Mazda 3 would behave similarly to the Volvo S40 I once worked onk, which was super soft. Those two cars share a lot of their underpinnings, so it made me hopeful that maybe the paint would be similar. Turns out no.

 

i FEEL like i am applying quite a bit of pressure, maybe i'll put it to a scale tomorrow and see exactly what i'm putting down. what do you think should be the range im within? I'm not pressing down enough to stop the pad from spinning (is that even possible on the flex DA?) but maybe i'll go with a little bit more pressure. Also, i've been experimenting with the speeds, but should i just go to max speed 6 all the time? what about working up to the speed, do i spread at 2-3, work it at 6 (usually work it in for 3-4 "hatches"), and then "finesse" it at speed 3 for 2 "hatches".

Should i modify my process?

 

okay guys, still stumped here..

there was one section on the hood that i was able to get to a satisfactory level of correction, but it took like 3 passes of yellow+optimum compound, and a pass of UC done KBM. I then took a fresh area of the hood, and did a KBM to that one.

primed pad, put 4 dots on, spread at 3, worked over 3 "hatches" at speed 5, spritzed the surface of the paint, and did 2 more "hatch passes" at speed 5 again. Wiped it off and found that it did improve the finish, but now its still moderately-high swirled, rather than looking like someone dried the car with rocks in a towel.

Anyways, im thinking maybe im going to have to go ahead and order some 105/205, and maybe some wool pads? or yellow heavy cut pads? What do you guys think, i just don't think its feasible for me to be doing 4-5 passes on every section of this car, could take me months to finish!

im in desperate need of some advice here, don't know what to do and my polishing confidence is taking a hit now!

 

heres what im working against



after OC2, 2-3 passes, looks better in pics than it did in person



here is what UC did after a few passes





notice the minor swirls still in the paint after a few UC KBM's

before anything



after 3 passes OC, with 1 pass UC KBM and still some defects left



before anything



1 pass UC KBM



2 passes UC KBM



okay, thats what i'm working against right now. I know i varied alot of my processes on the hood, so if you guys want, let me know what combo of stuff to put together with what i have, and i can do 50/50's on the door to see if anything you guys can reccomend will be working.

All help is GREATLY appreciated!

 

well...crap.

today i moved onto the door, just to get myself a nice freshly swirled panel. I decided to just try one thing, to see exactly what was going on.

tried megs UC + yellow sonus pad (supposedly a LC orange equivalent)

did not spritz with water, just worked it in like a normal polish. Spread it at speed 3 on the flex DA, worked it for 4 cross hatches at speed 5

Here is what the paint looked like fresh





Here is it after 1 pass, still swirled!



After pass #2....see for yourself!


After pass #3...still got lots of defects that SEEM like they should be coming out




And this is what i took it to, all the way up to pass #4, and after this i kinda quit for the day to set up for a garage sale tomororw, and also because i was getting frustrated with getting minimal results for quite a bit of polishing





So once again im in a pickle, i think this just kinda shows me that i may need to step up my product/pad/machine even? I am hoping and putting faith in my flex DA that its still capable of helping me out here.

Here's what i've got in mind right now for options

1) buy 105/205, PFW and some LC yellow pads
2) Stick with megs UC/OC2, and pick up some megs W7000 burgandy pads locally
3) get a rotary, 105/205/pfw and all the works! haha

right now i'm leaning towards option 2, since i found a few places that carry the megs W7000 cutting pads locally, but nobody around here carries 105. I did end up reading though on MOL that the burgandy pad may not be able to used with a DA? can anyone confirm this? Does anyone think that that pad isn't going to be strong enough still and that i definately need some 105 + PFW?

Thanks again, hopefully i can hammer this car out, really want this one to end well!