By this time, everything was settled in and good to go. So I decided to spend some “quality” time with the car and give it a thorough detail. Overall the car was in really good shape, but it was pretty clear that all the dirt and dust during transportation hadn’t been taken care of yet.

For the engine bay, I used degreaser for a couple spots and wiped everything down as best I could.

For the interior, I vaccuumed everything, wiped down everything, used q-tips for the smaller spots, and so on. I’m not afraid to say I’m a bit paranoid when it comes to keeping things clean. For the general cleaning solution, I used a 1:6 part woolite and water mixture. For the dash and plastic peices, I used 303 Aerospace Protectant. Great product, not too glossy and has high UV protection.

As for the exterior, I did the usual wash and followed it with a claybar. I applied some rubbing compound and polish by hand, and topped it off with some wax. Without a doubt nothing close to a professional level. The car had some light swirl marks and paint chips, but overall the paint still had a very nice shine to it. The Montego Blue color is pretty weird, it looks blue under the shade, but under light it turns green. Also, Mazda apparently used a soft clear coat on it, which is probably a reason why it chips so easily.

Probably should have masked the moldings, but luckily most of their exteriors are not made out rubber.

Later, after coming back from some general car meet, I snapped a few night time pics in my neighborhood. They didn’t come out that well and I had to use the concrete as a tripod…