What have you done to your CX-5 today?

Got some cutting and polishing pads in and a 5 inch backing plate. Gave my HF DA polisher a whirl on the hood yesterday.

Did alright. I applied some pressure while doing it slowly with several passes in little sections at a time. Used Meguiar's Ultimate Compound. Still can see a bunch of little scratches, but I think overall is looking better than it was....minus all the hood dings that I have hundreds of. If nothing else, the swirl marks are at least gone.

Still need to give it a proper polish and wax. Going to try that Turtle Wax Ice Seal and Shine.

I'll try the rest of the car another time when I have use of another workspace. My tiny detached garage was hot as hell and didn't leave much in the way for room to work on the sides of the car. Also think I will need to grab some 3 inch pads and a plate for some of these areas on the rear.


b35c7fee0653e55b645041b4cd0049b8.jpg
 
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ColoradoDriver said:
Got some cutting and polishing pads in and a 5 inch backing plate. Gave my HF DA polisher a whirl on the hood yesterday.

Did alright. I applied some pressure while doing it slowly with several passes in little sections at a time. Used Meguiar's Ultimate Compound. Still can see a bunch of little scratches, but I think overall is looking better than it was....minus all the hood dings that I have hundreds of. If nothing else, the swirl marks are at least gone.

Still need to give it a proper polish and wax. Going to try that Turtle Wax Ice Seal and Shine.

I'll try the rest of the car another time when I have use of another workspace. My tiny detached garage was hot as hell and didn't leave much in the way for room to work on the sides of the car. Also think I will need to grab some 3 inch pads and a plate for some of these areas on the rear.


b35c7fee0653e55b645041b4cd0049b8.jpg
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Looks great! Hopefully polishing/wax/seal n shine can fill in some of those leftover scratches for you. When I was cleaning my bumper last week I started to notice just how many rock chips it has taken on the highway. Holy cow!
 
ruthrj said:
Looks great! Hopefully polishing/wax/seal n shine can fill in some of those leftover scratches for you. When I was cleaning my bumper last week I started to notice just how many rock chips it has taken on the highway. Holy cow!
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Thanks!

Yep, that's what I am hoping too. Rear drivers side door has lots of scratches so that will be next up when I have the space to do it.
 
Love them or hate them (and legality aside) I installed a blinking third brake light module by Kahtec. Tired of nearly getting rear ended on my daily commute by inattentive drivers. I did the Smart version that flashes the light quickly 6 times and stays solid. It has an 8 second delay between brake applications so it doesn*t keep flashing like crazy in stop and go traffic.
 
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ruthrj said:
Love them or hate them (and legality aside) I installed a blinking third brake light module by Kahtec. Tired of nearly getting rear ended on my daily commute by inattentive drivers. I did the Smart version that flashes the light quickly 6 times and stays solid. It has an 8 second delay between brake applications so it doesn*t keep flashing like crazy in stop and go traffic.
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Price on this? I've installed an aftermarket 3rd brake light that also has a running light on it might be cook
 
Chris_Top_Her said:
Price on this? I've installed an aftermarket 3rd brake light that also has a running light on it might be cook
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The *smart* one runs $25. Pricier than the no name ones on amazon, but opted to go with Texas based KahTec. Might be the same product as the no names though. There were a couple typos in the instructions that I couldn*t tell were poor grammar or bad translation. Figured the customer service would be better and I*m extremely happy with the quick connect clips they use.
 
ruthrj said:
Love them or hate them (and legality aside) I installed a blinking third brake light module by Kahtec. Tired of nearly getting rear ended on my daily commute by inattentive drivers. I did the Smart version that flashes the light quickly 6 times and stays solid. It has an 8 second delay between brake applications so it doesn*t keep flashing like crazy in stop and go traffic.
Click to expand...

Man that sounds like a cool option to have....is that legal though?
 
CX-5um said:
Man that sounds like a cool option to have....is that legal though?
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I have this type of device on my current MX-5, CX-5 and all other vehicles that I have owned over the past 5 years or so. During that time, I have had many police vehicles behind me at stop signs or stop lights.

On my CX-5, my high mount stop light flashes 6 times in a strobe light fashion, quits for one second and then flashes 6 times again in a strobe like fashion. This sequence continues until releasing the brake pedal.

On my MX-5, my high mount stop light flashes in a strobe like fashion 6 times, then it flashes slowly 3 times and finally goes solid.

There are quite a few options available on the internet of which I have tried many. They are cheap to build and as a result, are cheap to purchase. Don't spend a lot of money for them as they all use the same components, regardless of cost. None of my current flasher units cost over $6 and I have never had one fail, even after many years of use.

Of course, anything man-made is prone to failure eventually.





According to the following law, rear flashing red lights are not illegal in AZ as long as they fit the criteria outlined in that law.

Arizona Laws 28-947. Special restrictions on lamps
 
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CX-5um said:
Man that sounds like a cool option to have....is that legal though?
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Federally on a vehicle? I don*t believe so. I saw that the federal government exempted Mercedes for a couple of years but other than that it*s fairly gray (leaning towards not legal if push came to shove). However, a quick google search didn*t yield any tickets being written for it so I went for it.
 
Jef said:
Have a buddy who*s a master installer who installed the unit for $200. I can use the factory remote(3 lock button press) to remote start or use a 1 button cheapo remote to start the car. Retained the factory keyless entry as well.

https://www.compustar.com/remotes/prime-r3-1bam/?systemId=26
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I went with the https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned) version myself. No aftermarket key-fob so it doesn't increase range, but https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)to set options as well. About a 30 minute install and programming total using the easy to install https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned).
 
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Wash, clay, Ultimate Compound with Harbor Frieght DA polisher and orange pad, Ultimate Polish with the DA and white pad, Turtle Wax Seal n Shine spray and wipe off. I will say the TW streaked something awful, but it was also hot as hell so I am sure that's why. Would probably work better in a temperature controlled environment of which I don't have. I hadn't clayed in a couple years, but it actually wasn't too bad, just the hood and a couple of areas on the doors were noticeably contaminated. The rest of the car came out mostly clean.

Now tell me that Gen 1 is dead sexy. (mj)

wbhy0p9.jpg


To Do:
Looking at this pic, probably need to clean/dress the tires.
Need to buy a smaller plate and pads to compound/polish some scratched up areas on the rear lift-gate.
I also didn't have a good way to polish the top of the car so that's on the list when I can make use of a bigger garage.
 
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I installed a cheap aftermarket rear bumper cover from Ebay. The CX-5 sticker on it is pretty underwhelming. The listing made it look like a piece of metal but alas, its a sticker that isn't adhered very well. I'll likely pull it off at some point but at least the black plastic looks nice.

More importantly, I finally got around to purchasing OEM all-weather floor mats. I installed those yesterday and they look really sharp. Much better than the generic rubber floormats placed over the OEM fabric mats. I'll probably vacuum the fabric mats I removed and list them on FB.
 
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