Greg Gellas
I'm Greg :)
I was contacted by a great old client, he told me he purchased a NSX from California and it would be here in Jersey soon. Sweet!! A NSX, there are some cars I get excited to detail, this was one of them! On top of that it was Berlina Black with New Pure Red interior, one of only 13 in the color combo. It isn't super powerful, crazy exotic looking, it's the overall balance and design of the car that get's me excited. The fact that Senna was involved in the development of this car was AWESOME!!!!! I decided to contact Chris A, a good friend, one who used to bomb the roads of NJ with me, and then when old enough, we would bomb the tracks of the East Coast. I told him that I had an NSX coming in for correction and coating and would he want to add to the write up? Sure enough he went above and beyond.
"Uncharted territory, in the 80’s Honda decided to not only pursue Ferrari on the Formula One circuit, but to take to them on the street as well.x Having Ayrton Senna pilot their Formula One team to multiple world championships, Honda utilized his skills, and the technology that they had developed through motorsports, along side Italian design company Pininforina, to build their first supercar. Honda wanted a vehicle that was designed to go head to head with the likes of Ferrari, Porsche, and Lotus.x In 1984 the wheels were in motion and by 1989 the NSX made its first appearance.
One may ask, regardless of their racing success, how Honda ever intended to join the supercar ranks. They really pushed the envelope, and the end product was amazing. They had produced a car with soul, heart, and emotion, with racecar like performance, and the reliability of an endurance car. The mystique lent to the car through the involvement of the captivating and dynamic Ayrton Senna is one of the elements that made the project so special. He had moved the people of Brazil and fans of motorsport around the world. The NSX seemed to have captured some of his essence, of who he was both on and off the track. I was only 10 years old when the NSX launched, and unlike most American children at that time, I was much more enthralled by automobiles and racing than I was baseball and basketball. I didn’t fully understand why at the time, but I was drawn to Honda and Senna, the combination was something special, Senna was and is still is one of my heroes.
Another component of the success of the NSX was its price point.x It brought the fright from the little guy. With a base price of almost half that of the Ferrari that it was challenging, Honda had produced a dream, one that seemed attainable for car enthusiast young and old, unlike the thought of a Ferrari in the driveway. The initial investment was still nearly three times that of Honda’s Acura Integra at the time, but in the world of exotics it was a bargain and the cost of ownership was drastically less than the competition. As Honda’s new flagship vehicle, the NSX set the stage for Honda’s identity for years to come, cementing their place as a premier engine builder and leader in automotive technology. It created the outline for the Honda S2000, which I personally couldn’t pass up. Here in the States it also bolstered the Acura nameplate and helped to define Honda’s luxury brand as it’s own entity. This move by Honda was interesting, specifically because the Acura dealership network was still in its infancy and the brand wasn’t global. Those were the reasons that Nissan gave for keeping the GTR under the Nissan nameplate when it launched. Having seen how history has played out, it seems that Honda was wise in it’s thinking.
Although, the NSX has a place in my heart I don’t know if I will save a spot for one in my garage anytime soon.x Much like any of the sports cars of recent years that have been attainable from a monetary standpoint, the Mitsubishi EVO, the Subaru STI, the Honda S2000, it seems that most of them are tainted. To find one that has been left unharmed, one without harmful poorly opted modifications, one that hasn’t been crashed or harshly abused, or just plain neglected seems to be hard to find. I will still keep the NSX on my radar and if the timing is right and the perfect one comes along, I might just have to acquire it."
Now onto the detail. I started with the wheels, using Sonax Full Effect, and some wheel woolies I cleaned the wheels and tires. I moved on to a 2 bucket foam bath. Using Dawn and Iron-X Snow soap I washed the entire NSX.
Once washed, I went around and liberally applied Iron-x to the entire surface. After another rinse, I decided it was time to remove even more contamination using the Autoscrub fine grade wash mitt. Finally, I washed it one more time.
Once dried we were able to check and see how much damage there really was on the paint.
Remember to pull the rear wing to correct underneath it, and the bottom side of it, just tape the connector so it doesn't fall back into the hatch. It's a 2 second procedure to make sure your not spending 5 minutes trying to fish it back out.
Some areas were wet sanded, others were corrected with a Meguiers Microfiber pad and some M100. I decided that damp sanding certain areas was safer than trying to compound them out with lots of heat and pressure. You can see below I blew out half of the MF pad, you can see how yellow and hazy the clear was that I removed.
The day after drop off the client stopped by to bring me new emblems to be installed. Of course most of the car was compounded and had DA haze and was covered in dust throughout the entire surface. The client came in and was a little blown away by how "blue" and hazy the finish looked. I assured him that it was normal with the correction process and it will polish out without a problem.
50/50's Here you can see exactly how much correction I was able to get.
I then moved on to the "smalls", like the tail lights. Don't forget to correct the lenses. It will make a huge impact on the overall appearance of any car.
All of the leather also received a complete Leatherique treatment. While the leather was soft, clean, and supple, there was some missing color throughout the bolsters and in some seams.
After a light sanding, some filler, custom color, and finally a top coat the bolster was repaired to its former glory.
After another wash, I went around and used CarPro Eraser over the entire surface. This was then followed up with two coats of Cquartz Finest. While there where a few deep scratches that wouldn't be removed overall the improvement was very good. At some point the entire front end will need to be re-sprayed due to the rock chips. The client was very happy to see the car with all the DA haze removed and it gleaming again.
As always thanks for reading, Greg G
"Uncharted territory, in the 80’s Honda decided to not only pursue Ferrari on the Formula One circuit, but to take to them on the street as well.x Having Ayrton Senna pilot their Formula One team to multiple world championships, Honda utilized his skills, and the technology that they had developed through motorsports, along side Italian design company Pininforina, to build their first supercar. Honda wanted a vehicle that was designed to go head to head with the likes of Ferrari, Porsche, and Lotus.x In 1984 the wheels were in motion and by 1989 the NSX made its first appearance.
One may ask, regardless of their racing success, how Honda ever intended to join the supercar ranks. They really pushed the envelope, and the end product was amazing. They had produced a car with soul, heart, and emotion, with racecar like performance, and the reliability of an endurance car. The mystique lent to the car through the involvement of the captivating and dynamic Ayrton Senna is one of the elements that made the project so special. He had moved the people of Brazil and fans of motorsport around the world. The NSX seemed to have captured some of his essence, of who he was both on and off the track. I was only 10 years old when the NSX launched, and unlike most American children at that time, I was much more enthralled by automobiles and racing than I was baseball and basketball. I didn’t fully understand why at the time, but I was drawn to Honda and Senna, the combination was something special, Senna was and is still is one of my heroes.
Another component of the success of the NSX was its price point.x It brought the fright from the little guy. With a base price of almost half that of the Ferrari that it was challenging, Honda had produced a dream, one that seemed attainable for car enthusiast young and old, unlike the thought of a Ferrari in the driveway. The initial investment was still nearly three times that of Honda’s Acura Integra at the time, but in the world of exotics it was a bargain and the cost of ownership was drastically less than the competition. As Honda’s new flagship vehicle, the NSX set the stage for Honda’s identity for years to come, cementing their place as a premier engine builder and leader in automotive technology. It created the outline for the Honda S2000, which I personally couldn’t pass up. Here in the States it also bolstered the Acura nameplate and helped to define Honda’s luxury brand as it’s own entity. This move by Honda was interesting, specifically because the Acura dealership network was still in its infancy and the brand wasn’t global. Those were the reasons that Nissan gave for keeping the GTR under the Nissan nameplate when it launched. Having seen how history has played out, it seems that Honda was wise in it’s thinking.
Although, the NSX has a place in my heart I don’t know if I will save a spot for one in my garage anytime soon.x Much like any of the sports cars of recent years that have been attainable from a monetary standpoint, the Mitsubishi EVO, the Subaru STI, the Honda S2000, it seems that most of them are tainted. To find one that has been left unharmed, one without harmful poorly opted modifications, one that hasn’t been crashed or harshly abused, or just plain neglected seems to be hard to find. I will still keep the NSX on my radar and if the timing is right and the perfect one comes along, I might just have to acquire it."
Now onto the detail. I started with the wheels, using Sonax Full Effect, and some wheel woolies I cleaned the wheels and tires. I moved on to a 2 bucket foam bath. Using Dawn and Iron-X Snow soap I washed the entire NSX.
Once washed, I went around and liberally applied Iron-x to the entire surface. After another rinse, I decided it was time to remove even more contamination using the Autoscrub fine grade wash mitt. Finally, I washed it one more time.
Once dried we were able to check and see how much damage there really was on the paint.
Remember to pull the rear wing to correct underneath it, and the bottom side of it, just tape the connector so it doesn't fall back into the hatch. It's a 2 second procedure to make sure your not spending 5 minutes trying to fish it back out.
Some areas were wet sanded, others were corrected with a Meguiers Microfiber pad and some M100. I decided that damp sanding certain areas was safer than trying to compound them out with lots of heat and pressure. You can see below I blew out half of the MF pad, you can see how yellow and hazy the clear was that I removed.
The day after drop off the client stopped by to bring me new emblems to be installed. Of course most of the car was compounded and had DA haze and was covered in dust throughout the entire surface. The client came in and was a little blown away by how "blue" and hazy the finish looked. I assured him that it was normal with the correction process and it will polish out without a problem.
50/50's Here you can see exactly how much correction I was able to get.
I then moved on to the "smalls", like the tail lights. Don't forget to correct the lenses. It will make a huge impact on the overall appearance of any car.
All of the leather also received a complete Leatherique treatment. While the leather was soft, clean, and supple, there was some missing color throughout the bolsters and in some seams.
After a light sanding, some filler, custom color, and finally a top coat the bolster was repaired to its former glory.
After another wash, I went around and used CarPro Eraser over the entire surface. This was then followed up with two coats of Cquartz Finest. While there where a few deep scratches that wouldn't be removed overall the improvement was very good. At some point the entire front end will need to be re-sprayed due to the rock chips. The client was very happy to see the car with all the DA haze removed and it gleaming again.
As always thanks for reading, Greg G
