Abracadabra

My 2004 titanium 8 was built in 06/04 and shipped to port of Jacksonville FL. Transported by car carrier to West Palm Beach, FL one month later. The car looks terrific...drives great...couldn't be happier. One question I have is regarding the discussions of paint finish protection. I've read the threads about claying re: removal of tiny polutants in the finsih etc. and I do plan to do that, although I've done the plastic bagie test, and there doesn't seem to be any zits. etc. to the touch. I've washed the car three times since delivery August 8th and applied 2 coats of Meguiar's nxt tech wax. It shines great, but...I do notice when looking at the finish from an angle it is not 100 percent mirror like...there is a subte ripple or orange peel effect in the reflection. I did happen to check out the finish of a new Jauguar at a recent car show and noticed that the finish was near perfect in reflection. Is this ripple or orange peel effect masked or somehow smoothed out by Zaino? Is this what everbody is talking about? Again I do plan to clay the car.is it the claying process that does the smootheing? Thanks, Craig

Nemesis8

iTrader: (3)

Looks like you have joined the orange peal owners. Mazda went cheap on the finish, both in paint depth and in clearcoat application. You can however get rid of the clearcoat orange peal, but it is not for the unexperienced person to attempt. Search this forum for orange peal, there is a post by someone with a black 8 that cleaned his orange peal up. I too have a Titanium 8, and mine has the peal also. I have just lived with it now for 11K miles. I also have three rock chips that I will be fixing this weekend with a new kit.

Congrats on the color choice!

mysql101

all the rx-8's have it.

the clearcoat is like 4mm thin, and an rx-8 owner sanded off 1-2 mm of the clearcoat off, which appears to have removed the orange peal.

I was interested until I found out how much work it involved, how careful you have to be, and what equipment was needed.

Abracadabra

Somehow that is what I suspected re: the orange peel finish. I used to own a prototype shop and we spray finished our products. It looked like there was not enough wet sanding going on between coats if any. It's not bad, but of course the finsh on the Jag was pretty terrific...albeit different price range and nevermind that the Jag has it's own set of mechanical issues! I can easily live with the 8's finish, I was more curious if all the talk about Crystal Guard and Zaino etc. was a (cure) for the 8's orange peel. Thanks again...BTW..I used Mother's paste wax on the wheels immediately upon delivery and the dust comes off very easily with a wash. Thanks again

mysql101

zaino isn't going to do anything for the peal... but zaino does appear to keep dust off the rims.

poolsidenaz

Agreed on the orange peel - Zaino etc won't remove it. I can certainly live with it as well. However, I didn't realize putting some Zaino on the wheels would help with brake dust. Thanks for that tip!

mysql101

zaino everything but the plastic/leather in your car!

It works great on the windows. Sheets the water right off.

newtlicious

It was me that sanded out the peel on my black 8. Look in the DIY section for details.

Nemesis8

iTrader: (3)

newtlicious, do you think a body shop with a good reputation could attempt what you did on your own?

By the way, is your member name the name of your cat?

Tamas

iTrader: (1)

4 mm??? That's about 3/16 of an inch... that surely is not possible.

newtlicious

I used to have 2 cats, Sifl and Ollie. Ollie commited suicide (long story) and Sifl is the one in the picture. Newtlicious is derived from my last name.

Yes, a body shop could attempt this but they most likely won't. Not because they don't have the skill but because of the possible repercussions down the road. For example, your clearcoat peels later due to neglect and you blame it on them or they burn it and have to repaint a panel etc, etc.

kuciaman

Your cat commited suicide??? I just got to ask you to elaborate on that one.... that is if it's not too painful for you.

newtlicious

Difficult to set this one up. Ollie had a habit of disappearing in the house for hours on end. I'd eventually find him sleeping soundly behind the fridge, in a cabinet, basket or behind the TV. After a few years, I learned not to panic if I hadn't seen him in the better part of a day.

Fortune smiled on me and I got a promotion. The first thing I did was get one of those trendy warehouse style loft apartments downtown. I would occasionally smoke in the apartment because it had those huge warehouse style swing out windows. About 2 feet below the window there was a ledge (dare I say catwalk?) that stuck out about 10 inches from the wall and ran the length of the building. Sifl and Ollie liked sitting sitting on the window sill but neither made any attempts to go any farther.

My better half was living a few hours away at the time and was coming into town for a visit. She didn't like me smoking so I opened the windows to ventilate the place before her arrival. It was a nice day so they stayed open for several hours. Sifl came in to watch tv with me and it occurred to me that I hadn't seen Ollie for awhile. I took a shower, still no Ollie. Watched the Osbornes, still no Ollie. I looked behind the fridge, in the cabinets, no Ollie. I looked under the bed, no Ollie. Fearing the worst I looked out the window.............no Ollie. I heard a voice below and thought it may be my g/f so I stuck my head all the way out to see past the ledge to the sidewalk below and there he was. He was laying at the end of the building, about 200 ft to my left on the sidewalk.

Ollie had finally got on the ledge under the window and walked all the way to the end of the building. He must have been so proud of himself, who knows how long he sat there enjoying himself. He was very aloof. I'm assuming he decided that it was time to come back so he tried to jump up into the closed window at the end of the building, bounced off and fell to his death. I know he didn't jump because he was laying right next to the building and he would have been farther out if he had jumped. He must have fallen.

Wait, it get's better. I'm generally a very unemotional guy but my cats are my weak spot (no, I don't wear curlers to bed, I just like cats) My brain put together what had happened and I broke down. I called the g/f in tears and she was 5 minutes away. Now remember, I live downtown, I have no shovel, where do you bury a cat?? I went to the closet and got the biggest shoe box I could find, took the elevator down 6 floors and out the front door to the sidewalk. Poor Ollie, Robin was already there, crying. He must have been there for a while because he was stiff. To add insult to injury, I had to snap him to put him in the shoe box. I walked him to the red river and said a few words. I took a firm grip on the box and reared back to give him a good toss into the water. When I let go of the box the lid came open and my last image of Ollie was his dead body doing cartwheels into the water.

I'm over it now but at the time I was distraught. Anyone who's had to bury a pet knows how it is.

Abracadabra

Will Crystal Guard build up a thick enough layer to compensate for and smoothe out the orange peel found on the RX8? If so this may be a partial and less invasive solution. Is the someone from Crystal Guard who monitors this thread who may have an answer? Thanks..

whosyourbaba

i think the only answers is to live with it or try to wet sand it. i'm living with orange peel on black, not that noticeable unless you look close. I had one person comment on it, but it does annoy me when im detailing.

bgreene

I think the guy that started a thread about DIY orange peel removal said it's 4 mil (0.004 in), and that the orange peel is caused by surface irregularities in the range of 0.0005 in.

For those interested, here's the DIY link. It looks pretty tricky for us amatures, though.

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-do-yourself-forum-73/diy-removing-orange-peel-your-factory-clearcoat-29237/


I'd imagine that in certain areas (probably around Detroit and in SoCal) where there's lots of custom car business around, you can find shops that'll do this for you, but you're probably looking as pretty serious $$$.

kuciaman

Newt, that truely is a painful story. Just last year, we had to put down one of my dogs and my cat. My kids were 3 and 7 at the time and I don't know what was worse... putting them down or hearing the kids crying. We have 2 dogs remaining that are both old and getting in bad health. I had a friend of mine that as a kid lived in a manufactered home growing up. They use to keep his dog on a chain next to the home. One day, he came home and the dog had gotten under the trailer and obviously jumped over one of the supports and hung itself. He is 36 years old and still thinks about coming home and finding him hanging there.

Spazm

Jesus christ thats a sad story =(

I have cats as well, and I would be horrified if that happened.