'03 Honda S2000 detail

1 Clean WS6

Detailing Rottweiler
Hey all!!



In all years of my business this was the first S2000 I have had the pleasure of detailing. These cars are a lot smaller than I had imagined. Even with my vertically challenged 5'8" frame I felt claustrophobic in this car!! When you get behind the wheel one really feels like you are "strapping" the car on. With a few mods I bet these car would make killer SCCA rides.



This particular S2000 was purchased used by its current owner. It has about 23K on the odo and definitely led a non-Autopian life. The paint was simply trashed (at least by my standards). For one it had buffer burn covering at least 90% of the vehicle. It looked like a dealer rotary jockey had attacked the paint with a wool pad or aggressive polish (or both) and not followed up with anything else. The owner had told me over the phone that he thought the paint was oxidized it was so bad!! Aside from that it had numerous random isolated scratches that appeared to me to be from one of those coin operated wash brushes with vertical marks on the horizontal surfaces and horizontal marks on the vertical surfaces. One weird thing that stuck me about this car was that both mirror housings were single stage while the rest of the paint seemed to be a basecoat/clearcoat!! Below are pics and my description of the detail.



Enjoy,

Mike :cool:



The detail:



Wash with Meg's Gold Class shampoo



Clay with Clay Magic's clay bar using Meg's #34 as a lube.



Polish with Poorboy's SSR 2.5 using a Meg's 8006 pad with my PC set at 6 (x2 on the entire car).



Polish with Poorboy's SSR 1 using a Meg's 8006 pad and my PC set at 6. I know that a lot of talented guys on this site can go straight from 2.5 to an LSP but I am not one of them!! I always get some degree of hazing when using 2.5. I also noticed that SSR 1 finished down much different than 2.5 on this paint. It produced a much brighter and much glossier look than the 2.5 by itself.



Seal with Poorboy's EX (old formula) using a Meg's 9006 pad and my PC set at 5. I let the EX set on the paint for approximately 30 minutes before removal.



03HondaS20001a.jpg




03HondaS20002a.jpg




03HondaS20003a.jpg




03HondaS20004a.jpg
 
Terrific job, Mike! :)



The paint looks really rich and deep. Just FYI, to my eye, the new version of EX looks even better!
 
THANK YOU all for the kind words!! :xyxthumbs



ncwlau...no I did not. It was a partly cloudy day and I had my 10'x10' pop tent up for the entire detail.



hadboosttroy it struck me as very odd indeed. Why would the whole car be bc/cc (it was as I did not have any paint transfer) and just the mirror housings be single stage (they definitely were as I got paint transfer on my pads for each step of the detail)?? My assumption was the same as your's that the housing were repainted at some point.



Scott I'm desperately trying to use up my stock of EX and EX-P before I purchase the new versions!! I know if I don't they'll just sit on the shelf.



Paul everything I've read about these cars says that they are the closest thing to a sport bike on four wheels. I would love to be in one (with the top down of course) for a couple back to back 9K rpm shifts.
 
very nice work, indeed! we just had a local area s2000 wash & wax meet at a local dealer, complete with Meguiar's rep. You wanna see trashed S2000 paint? Click here... (more from that meet)



I love red as a detail, but wouldn't want one myself.



Did you notice any OP on the car? I've found S2000 paint to be glass smooth, for the most part.



As to the paint transfer, some owners get transfer (usually minimal) with their NFRs, but some (most) don't. Luck of the draw? :)



Again, nice job!
 
Back
Top