Slipspeed

I just became the proud owner of a 94 R2 last week. The car is in GREAT shape. The interior is perfect except for a shift **** begging to be replaced by a leather Mazdaspeed version. The the body is virtually dent free and the paint is glossy but a little faded?..err I think. A close inspection of the paint reveals very little in the way of swirls and it's very smooth...but it doesn't seem like the red is as rich as it should be.

Then again I don't have another VR to compare.

All in all the paint is good for a couple years...that is for the annoying fact that the car is cherry except for the damn mirros and wing. They are a little hazy and pink.

Is this because they are made of a different material?

What can I do to bring the color and gloss back in these pieces and revive the paint on my car?

I have searched on Meguires and Mother's sites and I've tried to find info here but no luck.

Any Wash and Wax guru's out there?

I couldn't decide if I should post this in the 3G or exterior forum...sorry. I figured the mirrors and wing might be common so I put the post here.

Thanks in advance..

redr1man

My 93 R1 did the same thing(RED)!I finally got my wing painted.My mirrors still fade.Try the red wax.Its called
dupli-color.I think turtle wax makes it too but it's not as good.

sanfordman

I used the colored wax before on my silver fd and it definatly hid some of the weathering paint, not much but worth the effort -BB

ttb

yea, try a good oxidation remover, polish, wax.

Dr Wankel

I have the same problem, I use a product made by Car Brite that is a silicone based plastic restorer, its called Bumper Kote. Stuff works great. I use it after i wash the car and rub it on the mirror with a soft rag, keep a damp clean rag handy to wipe off any that gets on the paint. After I'm done you can't tell a difference in the shade between the mirror and the rest. The only problem is that it is water based so if you wash the car or it rains hard it will come off, I usually wash my car quite often though so its really not too big of a deal to did it then, only takes a few minutes. As for the paint being a bit faded I would try to use a light hand polish like Mequiers Hand Polish to remove any oxidation that may be dulling your paint and then follow it with a good coat of wax. Thats what I used before this pic was taken and the results speak for themselves.

mightyslash

If they're really bad, you might as well repaint them....I repainted one of my mirrors for $100. Looks brand new right now.

brads

when i bought my car it had a pink look to it. within a couple of hours i finished waxing it with meguires wax. it made it look like new. i do have to wax it every other month to keep it that way.

93redFD

well, if you get them painted then you need to while car painted. My old 93 was the same but without a wing. i had never got close to any other red 7's , so I didnt now what the color was like brand new. My dad bought one with a new paint job. Holy ****, it mad my car look like ***. new VR is very brite and shiny. Save up a couple a thousands and have that baby repainted, go ahead and get it over with

Nathan Kwok

The key to a glossy deep finish isn't waxing, its polishing. If you have the shiny surface over oxidized paint look, you have good wax over bad paint. You need to strip off the wax and polish the paint underneath it. Waxing won't fix your problem, unless its a cleaner wax that also polishes (many do). I still suggest going with straight polish if you have deep oxidation. I've used Mcguire's crystal polish with a lot of success on my mirrors, although just about any polish should work well, its just a matter of rubbing. Here are some pics to show the results, before and after (yeah I know they're different sides but they both looked the same and these were the best pics...).

Nathan Kwok

After

kianzzz

Nice paintjob there Dr Wankel..
Like the bright red..
If i were you, i would respray the whole godamn car black.. i might do that to mine..

ptrhahn

iTrader: (9)

You can keep polishing them often, but the reality is the pain/clearcoat is toast... the plastic parts go first on the VRs. Best is to take them off and have them painted.

FYI, the polishing will lat longer if you cover it meticulously and keep em out of the sun. You could also get those mirror bras.

Import Convert

My VR R-1s paint does the same thing on the spoiler and mirrors. I use Zymol on them. It looks so great afterward you would never be able to tell the paint was fading. Give it a shot, but only use it on the mirrors and spoiler.

Slipspeed

Which Zymol version should I use? ...or is there only one? I was in Walmart yesterday and saw a bottle that was clear w/ a milky bluish liquid/polish. Are there any others?

jdhuegel1

I think that's the only one. Like 12 bucks?

Jim Calandrella

I have the same problem, and the best thint to do is to repaint them. I've been using colored wax, but that has actually accelerated the fading. It just looks more faded after the wax wears off. Time to repaint.

Slipspeed

What about using Mother's clay bar and cleaner wax treatment? Repainting is going to be out as long as I can do it. Buyin a FD is the wrong thing to do when you are tryin to save for a wedding :P

t-rex7

my roommate had a similar problem on his 3000gt. I took some 3m rubbing compound (this is not abbrasive, it works by chemical reaction--this is what i was told by an auto body guy) strip it down using this, then use some carnuba wax and it should look good as new.