Presidential Detailed: 2003 Spa Yellow Acura NSX

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PresdntialDtail

New member
I always love working on these cars! The body style is just so classic and looks good from any angle, not to mention its a Honda! ;) The owner of this car actually has TWO of them and daily drives an S2000! :2thumbs: The owner picked this car up so he could keep his first one in pristine condition since its 1 out of 3 in the color combination he has for the model year 05. He bought the second one so he can actually have fun with the car he loves so much without ruining a rare masterpiece! When he got the car, it looked good and was super clean, but the swirls were bugging him quite a bit. So he gave me a call and had me come out to Orlando to perform the detail. I spent about 24 hours on this detail over the course of 2 days to get it back into showroom condition again. It actually turned out so good, he has decided to get a FULL hood, fender, bumper, mirror and headlight clear bra installed by Ryan at Auto Paint Guard here in Tampa before it takes on any chips or marring from being driven often. Ill post some pictures of it installed in a couple weeks when we have it done.





Wash and Decontamination Process:

ONR Two-Bucket Wash

Meguiars "Mild" Clay Bar with ONR as clay solution

TWO Cobra Blue Micro-Chenille Wash Mitts

Adams Metal Polish #2 on Exhaust Tips

Blow Dried/Cobra Guzzler WW Drying Towel



Wheels:

ONR wash on wheels(no matter how safe I think P21S is Im not risking it on polished wheels)

One Cobra Blue Micro-Chenille Wash Mitts(dedicated to wheels only)

E-Z Detail Brush

Swissvax Autobahn Wheel Wax



Interior:

1Z Einszett Cockpit Premium

Meguairs APC+

Leather Masters Strong Cleaner

Leather Masters Vital

Vacuum

Invisible Glass Glass Cleaner



Front Compartment/Engine Bay:

Meguiars APC+

Various Brushes

Zaino AIO On All Painted Surfaces

Meguiars HyperDressing On All Hoses and Plastic Surfaces



Paint Correction:

3M Automotive Performance "Green" Tape

M105/PFW via Makita Rotary

M205/Orange via Meguiars G110

Zaino AIO On All Door Shuts

50/50 of 91% IPA/Distilled Water

Meguiars Supreme Shine MF Towels



LSP:

TWO coats of Blackfire Wet Diamond Paint Sealant

ONE coat of P21S 100% Paste Wax(soon to be Midnight Sun! :D)



On to the pictures already! :)



Before the wash, the car was relatively clean minus some road grime from a recent drive in the rain.

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Here, you can see some light hologramming and moderate surface scratches.

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I began by cleaning the engine and front compartments with Meguiars APC+ using a damp MF towel and various brushes. I then applied Meguiars Hyperdressing with a low dilution for a nice matte finish. Any painted surfaces including the bottom of the hood and engine lid were cleaned/protected with Z-AIO.



I also cleaned the exhaust tips with Adams Metal Polish and #0000 Steel Wool.

Exhaust Tip Before, not too bad but can still be a lot better!



Before

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After.

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Engine Before.

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After.

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Front Compartment..After(forgot to take before pics).

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After the engine compartments were cleaned, I performed an ONR wash on the car, then pulled the car into the garage to clay and prepare the car for polishing by masking off any vital areas with 3M Automotive Tape.

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Notice the break in the tape between the doors, you wouldnt believe how long it took me to come up with this idea..:lol: Now I can open the doors all I want without breaking the tape and having it come off from the buffer hitting it. Im sure some of you know what Im talking about..I hope..:D

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After the car was prepped, I worked on the interior for a couple hours. I cleaned everything with Meguiars APC+ and then treated it with 1Z Cockpit Premium. The leather was treated with Leather Masters Products and the carpet was obviously vacuumed. All interior/exterior glass including the engine glass cover was cleaned with Invisible Glass.



This crevice is notorious for holding tons a dirt/dust and is right in direct sight of the driver, I made sure to remove everything from this area specifically.

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After.

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After the interior was completed, I began by testing the product combination I was to use on the car. As usual M105/205 does the trick! Never fails me for a flawless finish!



50/50 on the hood.

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Left portion uncorrected/Right portion Corrected.

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50/50 on trunk panel.

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The passenger door was by far the worst area of the car, who knows why..

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There were some serious RIDS in the top portion of the door, it took 3-4 passes with M105.

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A little closer look..

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After several passes with M105 the scratches were completely removed, even after a few passes M105 stays very refined even on the softest of clears!

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After finishing with M205.

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Once the paintwork was completed, I retaped so that I could correct the paint black.

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I then moved onto the headlights/tail lights. As you can see here, there was quite a difference to be made! Before.

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After.

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My Canon Rebel Xti unfortunately was failing on me and not allowing me to take a picture, so I had to resort to using the owners camera. Because of this you may see some differences in color/imagine quality between the few shots I managed to get and using his camera.



After I finished polishing, I applied a thin layer of Blackfire Wet Diamond Paint Sealant using my G110 on speed 4 with a UK 3M Blue Finishing Pad. I let the sealant cure for about 20 minutes on the entire car before removing the first coat. I let the first coat cure overnight for the best possible adhesion and gloss, then applied a second coat in the morning. I waited about an hour after that before applying a final coat of P21S 100% Paste Wax to top it off.



Here, you can see the thin layer of Blackfire as I let it haze.

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This REALLY amped up the gloss! Neither me or the owner could believe how much depth was brought out of the Spa Yellow NSX!

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I then pulled the car outside to see it in all its glory! SUN SHOTS below! :D

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The sun was going in and out, but mostly out. Weather hasnt been too great here in Central FL lately..but I managed to get a couple!

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This is one my favorite shots, I really like how the yellow on yellow combination looks on this car!

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Heres a teaser of whats to come in the next couple weeks..:D

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u perfected that car it must have been nice to work on that beauty, by the way, seeing that you use m205, can you finish off without any holograms or trails at all, with a rotary? im seriously thinking of trying m105 and 205 to test the different abrasive method that they use.
 
jt07 said:
u perfected that car it must have been nice to work on that beauty, by the way, seeing that you use m205, can you finish off without any holograms or trails at all, with a rotary? im seriously thinking of trying m105 and 205 to test the different abrasive method that they use.
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I finish with a Dual Action Polisher, you can finish with the rotary using M205, but its more consistent using a DA machine.
 
JonFD said:
Was that Acura yellow tough to work with?
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As usual, the clear was very soft just like any other Honda/Acura Ive ever worked on, so to answer your question it was fairly easy. Only thing on this car is taking your time, if you mess it up, it can cost you!
 
unreal!!! what size wheels are those? I love that car!! Also, you use the M205 with a DA, is its breakdown time fast, or does it take forever to flash? I have been using Menzerna P0106f for the longest time as my finishing polish but am curious about the M205..
 
Now THAT is what I call a detail!!!



Amazing work once again, Billy!



The before and after pictures are like night and day...



This was a great write-up. The pictures are phenominal as well!!



Does this model year/color have a tinted clearcoat like the earlier years?
 
AZ Ferrari Man said:
unreal!!! what size wheels are those? I love that car!! Also, you use the M205 with a DA, is its breakdown time fast, or does it take forever to flash? I have been using Menzerna P0106f for the longest time as my finishing polish but am curious about the M205..
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That is one of the things I love most about M205 of products such as Menzerna, actually two thing. It takes litterrally 3-4 passes and your done, unless you want to keep going. Also afetr the 3-4 passes you can EASILY wipe it right off, while Menzerna can be pretty sticky sometimes leaving a lot of trace oils. Menzerna has its place though..
 
RickRack said:
Now THAT is what I call a detail!!!



Amazing work once again, Billy!



The before and after pictures are like night and day...



This was a great write-up. The pictures are phenominal as well!!



Does this model year/color have a tinted clearcoat like the earlier years?
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Thanks Rick! I appreciate the compliments on everything! Actually, now that you mention it, no it wasnt a tinted clear like normal. Not sure if they switched that for the new models of if its just color related. This was SPA yellow, so it has a lot of pearl. If it were the older RIO yellow, I think those may very well be a tinted clear.
 
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