As some of you know I purchased Allroad's (Jeremy) Miata. The COVID-19 thing put the kibosh on me flying out last month to drive the car home. Thankfully one of his friends was able to deliver the car, doing us a both a HUGE favor, over the weekend so now it resides safely in the garage.
However, it does need a good deep cleaning, and with my girlfriend's auto immune disease, I'm avoiding going into any store I don't have to, so I just want to have some products shipped.
I do have a low pressure foam sprayer and car wash already, but need some good microfiber cloths and some good interior stuff to get after the inside. Also any suggestions on something to put on the soft top to help condition it? Not sure how long it's been down, underneath the hardtop, so I'm going to wait until it warms up thoroughly before I put it up the first time.
Just a quick photo from his friend Brady delivering it on Sunday...........wind chill was down near freezing. 
I've had pretty good luck with most of the Chemical Guys products, towels and detailing/cleaning chemicals. They are available on the amazon, and usually have discounts or coupons available.
z31maniac said:
Also any suggestions on something to put on the soft top to help condition it? Not sure how long it's been down, underneath the hardtop, so I'm going to wait until it warms up thoroughly before I put it up the first time.
9 Miatas owned. All generations. Only one thing for my soft top - 303. Tried many things over the last 20 years, thats the one that works the best. My miatas have HT on 100% of the time. I take the HT off twice a year, condition the ST, and put the HT back one.
303 or nothing.
In reply to mr2s2000elise :
I would second that one, forgot all about it. It works awesome of all the rubber bits and doesn't leave that greasy film behind.
Another aerospace 303 vote. Been using it since the 90s when I'd have to go into a West Marine to find it.
I generally try to get decent quality supplies from Autogeek rather than the Bezosverse, or from Griot's Garage. Chemical Guys works well for me, Griots (obviously) and 303 convertible top cleaner and sealer is great.
I used to be a big fan of Autoglym but it looks like the US formulations are different than the European ones and I'm not that big a fan.
Does 303 condition, or is it just a protectant?
I'd used 303 a couple times, and then started putting Meguiars 40 vinyl & rubber conditioner on it.
Seems to like it, and with the Meguiars car wash soap it seems to stay nice.
Arizona sun is a little rough, though, and I need to do a little more frequently no matter what I use.
Thanks for the suggestions on the Aerospace 303. I'll check out the difference places mentioned and see what looks good.
Of course from being in the E30 world for a number of years and owning 3 different ones I know about Griot's, but IIRC, they are VERY proud of their products.
In reply to OldGray320i (Forum Supporter) :
In for the same answer. My soft top has a hole and needs replaced, but until I can find the money, time, motivation to do it, if like to keep the factory one alright.
In reply to z31maniac :
They are. And congrats on the "immaculate reception"! I clay'd and waxed my NC day one. And then de-fogged the head lights and tails.
Edit: hey are you on miata.nitwit?
_ said:
In reply to z31maniac :
They are. And congrats on the "immaculate reception"! I clay'd and waxed my NC day one. And then de-fogged the head lights and tails.
Edit: hey are you on miata.nitwit?
I don't mess with Miata.net anymore, too many old guys concerned with a '94 special edition and blah blah.
I am on MT.net with the same username.
This is going to be an AutoX and DD until I get some other stuff handled, then I'm going off the deep end with flares, massive wheels/tires and a cammed 2.5 swap in a year or two.
z31maniac said:
I don't mess with Miata.net anymore, too many old guys concerned with a '94 special edition and blah blah.
I am on MT.net with the same username.
LOL been that way since 1999-2000 as much as I can remember.
Chemical guys is a marketing machine at this point. Blah products with fancy labels that get remade every two weeks as a limited release (not even joking) they won't get my dime. Adams is headed this path as well.
For readily available products that are proven you will not best Meguiars hands down
Meguiars is my go-to, but it's a bit old-school. Does a wonderful job, though.
For paint correction, you're going to use elbow grease. There is no magic spray that removes hairline scratches or oxidation.
I have a rotary buffer (which I'm still getting the hang of without burning through things) and a random orbit polisher (which is milquetoast) but I usually end up just doing it by hand. I have some serious paint correction to do on the Fordzda Branger, and I'm going to try the rotary on the roof where it's easy to paint in case I shred it. It's bad enough that it's fuzzy so I'm going to start with soft scrub and water on a sponge, then rubbing compound, then polishing compound, then glaze, then carnuba (unless I find something better than carnuba... like a quartz product that doesn't cost insane-latest-trend-snake-oil prices)
It's bad enough that if I burn through it, it was damaged too deeply anyway.
The secret is to know how aggressive to start with.
Interior products I usually go with whatever is on sale. Meguiars does some nice stuff. I switched to them after years of putting up with Armor-all's smell and either high gloss bling or low gloss nothing. For a while I did Finish2000's low-gloss protectant - not because I think it was wonderful, but because it worked well enough and it smelled like brand new leather instead of petroleum like Armor All. I don't even know if Finish2000 stuff is still around.
For rubber and vinyl trim as well as wheels, I swear by a product called Reliable. It's made by a small mom n pop in upstate NY. Spray it on tires and it instantly dissolves the oxidized rubber and turns brown. Scrub it a little and rubber and trim looks new. It was designed for RVers to get what we call black streaks off. Rubber roofing on RVs oxidizes and drips grey stains down the side and this stuff eats it. Reliable on a tan or blue scotch-brite kitchen sponge does wonders for rubber trim like weatherstripping, window belts, and door seals.
And you probably already know this, but you'd be amazed at how steel wool makes your glass look like new. Anything finer than #00 won't scratch. Spray down the glass with windex and scrub all you want. It's kind of like a clay bar for windows.
If I have just washed a car and got most of the dirt off the glass, I'll soak a piece of steel wool in rain-x and polish using that. Double duty. It gets the rest of the stuck-on things off and treats at the same time.
In reply to OldGray320i (Forum Supporter) :
The 303 convertible top kit I have is both a cleaner and a protectant (in my case for fabric tops, but they make a similar kit for vinyl as well).
In reply to z31maniac :
Installing GWR anti roll kit tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.
ChrisLS8 said:
Chemical guys is a marketing machine at this point. Blah products with fancy labels that get remade every two weeks as a limited release (not even joking) they won't get my dime. Adams is headed this path as well.
For readily available products that are proven you will not best Meguiars hands down
Quoted for truth. I've always used me guises and never had a bad experience. The chemical guys products are directly marketed toward the guy with the gold chain and diamond rings driving a car he can't pronounce and a girlfriend that's looking to trade up.
Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:
Meguiars is my go-to, but it's a bit old-school. Does a wonderful job, though.
For paint correction, you're going to use elbow grease. There is no magic spray that removes hairline scratches or oxidation.
I have a rotary buffer (which I'm still getting the hang of without burning through things) and a random orbit polisher (which is milquetoast) but I usually end up just doing it by hand. I have some serious paint correction to do on the Fordzda Branger, and I'm going to try the rotary on the roof where it's easy to paint in case I shred it. It's bad enough that it's fuzzy so I'm going to start with soft scrub and water on a sponge, then rubbing compound, then polishing compound, then glaze, then carnuba (unless I find something better than carnuba... like a quartz product that doesn't cost insane-latest-trend-snake-oil prices)
It's bad enough that if I burn through it, it was damaged too deeply anyway.
The secret is to know how aggressive to start with.
Interior products I usually go with whatever is on sale. Meguiars does some nice stuff. I switched to them after years of putting up with Armor-all's smell and either high gloss bling or low gloss nothing. For a while I did Finish2000's low-gloss protectant - not because I think it was wonderful, but because it worked well enough and it smelled like brand new leather instead of petroleum like Armor All. I don't even know if Finish2000 stuff is still around.
For rubber and vinyl trim as well as wheels, I swear by a product called Reliable. It's made by a small mom n pop in upstate NY. Spray it on tires and it instantly dissolves the oxidized rubber and turns brown. Scrub it a little and rubber and trim looks new. It was designed for RVers to get what we call black streaks off. Rubber roofing on RVs oxidizes and drips grey stains down the side and this stuff eats it. Reliable on a tan or blue scotch-brite kitchen sponge does wonders for rubber trim like weatherstripping, window belts, and door seals.
The car could definitely use some paint correction and needs a few stickers removed, but I've got a few buddies that own a detail shop and know what they are doing in that regard, so I'm going to let them handle the paint correction.
If you don't know what you're doing, it's very easy to end up with something worse than what you started with.
Also invest in a good DA and pads.
Harbor freight Bauer long throw and put new grease in the gearbox
