The Emperor has been surviving on sponge baths, AKA Meguiars Quik Detailer, for a while now, but today after work I gave him a proper washing. Then I decided to lay a coat of wax on there too. I used some Meguiars paste cleaning wax I had under the cabinet. Looks a whole lot better now, but the finish doesn’t feel baby butt smooth. Maybe tomorrow when I get home from work I’ll put another layer of wax on. I have a bottle of something else under there, I think it is called Black Magic and maybe that is what I used last time. If one layer is good, two have got to be better. Right?
While I was taking off the wax, getting it off around the edges of the chrome Mazda logo on the back end, it came loose and one side fell down. The badge is held on by 2 pins and one was broke, so I pulled the badge off the car. There are usually these fancy one way push washers on the pins, but there wasn’t one on the non broken pin and there was some adhesive behind the lettering holding the badge on. What the heck, I might as well take off the MX-5 Miata badge on the other side too. On my ’95 the Mazda was held on by two pins, like this one, and the Miata was just held on by double stick tape. I went in the house and got a piece of dental floss to “saw” through the adhesive. The floss broke three times in about the same spot. That is when I realized on the ’03 the MX-5 Miata badge was held on by two pins as well. I wrapped a screwdriver in a rag and pried off the badge. Turns out it was held on by no adhesive and only one push on washer.
I now have 2 small holes on both sides of the license plate. With the dark color car they are hardly noticeable, but I think I may fill them in with something and then use touch up paint to hide them better. When I debadged the rear on the ’95 I replaced both badges with hand cut replicas made of blue reflective vinyl. The blue on blue was very subtle in the day but really stood out at night when headlights hit them.
Now, as I write this, I know why the badges were held on so haphazardly. The body shop weasels did it when they repaired my little trunk bender from last year. The adjuster put in the cost of new badges when he did the estimate. Satcher Ford’s Body Shop reused the old badges and charged the insurance company for new ones.
Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 135
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 135
Here in PA, the license plate is reflective. I have learned that keeping the plate waxed helps keep the reflection brighter.
If you want it “baby-butt” smooth, you need to clay it before you wax. That second coat of wax will still feel rough in the same spots as the first if you don’t get all of the contaminants off of the car first.
Michael — Scary. I never wax my plate, but for some reason last night I did. I don’t remember wiping it off though…
Mike — I meant pimply baby butt smooth., there were a couple spots that I ran my hand over that felt like they didn’t get waxed at all. I have always wanted to clay bar the car, but felt that crossed the line to obsessive and I already have enough of that in other ways.
Claying isn’t really obsessive. I do my cars once a year. It really does make a difference in smoothness. It will only add a half hour to your wash/wax routine on a Miata.
I’m sure it is not really obsessive, but the only place I have read about the procedure is on the Miata Forum in the Car Care Products section. Some of those guys got it real bad.