Mazda Soul red crystal paint care and maintenance advice?
- Thread starter CX52024
- Start date
rochrunner
Member
PPF?
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- 23 CX-5 Premium
Paint protection film (or protective paint film?)
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- 23 CX-5 Premium
Leon: If you don't already know, you've chosen what is arguably the most difficult Mazda paint color to maintain. But it looks GREAT! Right? My wife had to have this color when we got her a CX-5 in June of 2023. I warned her about the reputation of this paint finish and how difficult it would be to touch it up as it acquired the inevitable assortment of nicks and scratches. But she had to have it. So here's my take on maintaining this finish with regard to touch-up. I don't like touch-up pens such as the ones Mazda sells. I prefer to apply touch-up paint with a micro-brush out of a small paint jar. I buy my paint from these folks Exact Match Car Paint Made Easy | AutomotiveTouchup. When you do, they supply two bottles, one the base coat, the other the top coat. I've tried using both as recommended, but have not even come close to mastering the technique. So now I just use the use the top coat very sparingly. Basically, just enough to cover the exposed white primer and ad enough color to disguise the nick/scratch. As discussed elsewhere on this forum, the more of the top color coat you apply, the darker the red becomes until it almost looks black in certain light. So the trick is to just use enough to look convincingly red under average lighting and settle for that. Otherwise, this paint will drive you crazy!
N7turbo
2023 CX-5 2.5T
A lot of people will say PPF, but I can't agree that it's ideal for most people. A clear bra up front in some situations, sure (not everyone spends a lot of time on highways with vehicles in front of them). But PPF is a sacrificial layer and thus ends up looking bad over time and is very expensive to replace. Food for thought.
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- Upstate NY
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- '23 CX5
That would be me. I live in a rural area, rarely behind anyone. My red ‘23 just turned over 10,000 miles, don’t know if it has any chips or not, never really looked. It’s just to get me from point A to point B.
N7turbo
2023 CX-5 2.5T
And the bug splatter is awful! Comes off easily from my ceramic coated paint, however. So pick what is best for your situation.
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- Upstate NY
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- '23 CX5
I live on a dirt road, so keeping it clean for more than a couple days is not really possible.
Thanks for the replies. Yup, it's what the Wife wanted... but, it is a fairly decent replication of candy apple The Avalon she traded in had the protective film on it, you can't get it anywhere close to looking like wet paint, when it chips ya can't fix it and after you wax ya hafta take a detailing tool and go over all the ends of it. Labor intensive! Fortunately, it sits in the garage mostly, have under 1k in 3 months. Have a porter cable and use 3M chemicals for maintenance. Will look at the repair paint kit but hopefully won't ever need it. I restore old guitars and amps, some have had candy apple and yes, it's pita to match... but it looks so good, lol. Anyway, thanks again and have a great day. Regards, Leon.
The Avalon she traded in had the protective film on it, you can't get it anywhere close to looking like wet paint, when it chips ya can't fix it and after you wax ya hafta take a detailing tool and go over all the ends of it. Labor intensive! Fortunately, it sits in the garage mostly, have under 1k in 3 months. Have a porter cable and use 3M chemicals for maintenance. Will look at the repair paint kit but hopefully won't ever need it. I restore old guitars and amps, some have had candy apple and yes, it's pita to match... but it looks so good, lol. Anyway, thanks again and have a great day. Regards, Leon.
