My main goal in getting my son a car was to get something inexpensive enough to avoid the mind-numbing full coverage insurance costs for a 16 year old boy, and just get liability coverage on an old beater. We looked for weeks and finally decided to go with the NM car, even though it was 1000 miles away. The roof, hood, decklid and wing were totally baked by the NM sun, while the front, sides and rear were almost perfect, except for the fact that the owner knew nothing about appearance care. Dent Wizards did a quick job of removing all the door dings, etc with their paintless dent removal system. I started out by getting a quart of Honda Black Pearl laquer put in 7 spray cans, which left about the amount of a spray can still in the quart can. I sanded the roof, etc down to the original primer, then applied 3 coats of paint, followed by 3 coats of clear (wet-sanded between each coat with 1500 grit sandpaper). The sides, front and rear were color-sanded with 2000 grit to get rid of oxidation and orange peel. The whole car was then treated to 3M Perfect-it rubbing compound, then 3M swirl mark remover, all done with my Porter Cable 7424 and by hand. Then came Zaino Z-1, followed up by Z-5. I looking to go with an initial total of about 5 coats of Z-5.
We put on a set of Wet Okole cobalt blue seat covers and covered all the speaker grills with cobalt blue stretch fabric (pre-washed and UV treated). The leather shift boot and steering wheel cover are by Wheelskins (nice products). The stock Alpine CD/radio was replaced by a new Sony unit and all 7 speakers were replaced with new Kenwood units. The wheels are Motegi MR8's with Yokohama Avid H4 215/40R17 tires. Calipers were painted with VHT bright blue high-temp caliper paint. The car has 73.000 miles on it and is mechanically beautiful with the 4 banger VTEC engine pushing out 190HP and the 5 speed manual trans is a hoot to drive. We've also done tons of little repairs, like replacing the power antenna mast, the door beltline moldings, fixing a broken seat tilt mechanism, etc. Altogether, we have right at $7000 in the Prelude.
BTW, I am an amateur, although I did color-sand my entire Jeep Cherokee last summer to get rid of the awful orange peel. After selling my computer retail business of 18 years, I retired at 51 and now pursue the love of my life, detailing cars and going to my 14 year old daughter and 15 year old son's school and sports events, plus I spend a lot of time with my 4 grandkids (the 30 year old daughters).
It doesn't even look like the same car in the before/after shots.
