CX-5 Paint Quality

[Jester7677]

I waxed mine once, a few months after purchase, right before winter, to try to prevent salt corrosion. My biggest mistake was not being careful about avoiding wax on plastic trim. It left white marks on plastic, won't come off, even after six months.

I use an old, soft toothbrush, lightly, on the plastic that got wax on it. Might need warm weather with plain blue Dawn as well.


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[yugrus]

I recently picked up a great tip on dealing with wax on plastic. Pencil eraser. Works every time, very effective.

 

[inlinev]

Smooth peanut butter works too apparently. But the pencil eraser is very effective as well.

 

[MikeM.]

Smooth peanut butter works too apparently. But the pencil eraser is very effective as well.

Peanut oil, available from the supermarket, works perfectly. It's amazing how little it takes and how effortless it is. If you have some non-homogenized peanut butter that has separated, you could probably get by with stealing a Tbsp. or two off the top. Use a very small terry rag to apply and buff off with a dry terry rag.

 

[CC58]

Try using pink eraser worked wonders for me

Thanks for the tip! Pink eraser worked great to remove white wax film from plastic trim.

 

[blackmsp003]

IMO the black on my 2013 CX-5 is very "soft" I know it's common for black to show every imperfection, but it seems the black on this marks especially easily. Also, with recently removing the rear badges with only 30,000 miles you can already tell a significant amount of fade. Even though I have not fully waxed it with high quality wax yet, I have had to use the back to black kit to help with that and some scratches from Idk where lol.

 

[ColoradoDriver]

Yeah, the black paint on both side mirrors are scratched to hell and I mean deep. One of the doors is a little scratched up, but that's my fault because of my tiny garage, and the metal zipper on my backpack scratching it when I get in the car. Overall, hood still looks good as does the overall rest of the car. 33k miles.

 

[dblgoat]

Mike-- Top end professional auto detailers always use a paint thickness guage before polishing any car--multiple readings at many different locations. Everyone of them that have worked on Mazda's report the total paint thickness is about 30% thinner than most other brands, however, in general auto paint is getting thinner and thinner as the manufactures try to save a dollar here and there. As far as hardness goes Mazda paint is considered medium compared to traditionally hard clear coats like Audi, VW and Chev. How thick or thin the paint is only comes into play when you are polishing out swirl marks or scratches. Ideally you should only be correcting your paint with a heavy polish once then use good practices to keep it that way. As you polish or use compound you are actually removing a small amount of clear coat and if too much is removed over time it will lose it's UV protection and you may have clear coat failure.

The best and safest way to polish automotive paint is with a random orbital machine like the Porter Gable or Griots Garage 6. Doing it by hand usually doesn't produce good results and is not safe because you are putting uneven pressure on the paint when polishing by hand.

White of course hides swirls and scratches very well, but if your paint were clayed, chemically decontaminated and machine polished before applying your wax or sealant you would be amazed at how good it would look.

I would suggest to all of you who don't wax your CX5's very often to use a polymer sealant rather than a wax as the sealants will last 4-8 months while a wax is usually gone in a few weeks. You have to read the ingredients though because there is no standard labling for these products. You can find Megs Ultimate Wax at any Wally World and it's a good product but is not a wax, but a polymer sealant. But for the best protection and durability Finish Kare 1000p (also called a wax, but is pure synthetic) is by far one of the best products you can buy and it's inexpensive. It's self cleaning abilities and protection are amazing and when you do wash your car the dirt and grime slide off easily. A tin will last for years as best results are obtained by applying it very thin.

It's protection against etching from bird bombs is outstanding.

http://www.autopia-carcare.com/finish-kare-hi-temp.html#.Vxp1vTHH8_4

 

[Lbear]

Just had a bird dropping on the roof. Washed it off pretty quickly but it already created a blemish on the clear coat. It left like a hazy ring. I know bird poop is very caustic and acidic but the paint on these newer cars is very thin and easily damaged.

It's not a money savings thing as much as it is an EPA and environmental thing. Factories are mandated to cut back on spray and everything is water based now.

 

[dblgoat]

Just had a bird dropping on the roof. Washed it off pretty quickly but it already created a blemish on the clear coat. It left like a hazy ring. I know bird poop is very caustic and acidic but the paint on these newer cars is very thin and easily damaged.

Last May I applied 2 coats of Finish Kare 1000p 48 hours apart and then added a 3rd coat in late October. In January the car was parked at the airport in uncovered parking for over 2 weeks. When we returned there were two bird bombs on the car--it was evident they had been there a while--came off in a snap with some waterless wash leaving no etching behind.