Hello there DB, Over the last three days (27 hours total) I have had the opportunity to work on a 91 Acura NSX that has been converted and modified over many years into a Type R replica. The level of detail that went into the conversion is amazing. The car features a larger single turbo (T67) running low boost- 505 horses on the dyno. The owner has been a great client to work with and since last fall him and I have been discussing the process I would take to carry out the detail. The detail took 27 hours to complete over three days and him and I still have plans in the future (SV application) including an extremely thorough and regular maintenance schedule. On with the detail- prepare for major scroll Products/ tools used: Products: CG Maxi Sudz 2 CG Citrus Wash and Clear Dawn Concentrate Sonax FE wheel cleaner Bleche White sidewall cleaner Megs APC Carpro Iron X Uber Fine Clay Leather Masters Suede/ Alcantara foam cleaner DI Aggressive Clay ONR Tarminator P21s Polishing Soap Eagle One Nevr Dull wadding Sonax Glass Cleaner Zaino Z12 Glass polish 303 Aerospace Protectant Adams VRT dressing Folex Spot treatment Megs 105 Menzerna Power Finish Menzerna Super Finish Menzerna 85rd IPA 30% Menzerna Powerlock CG JetSeal 109 Tools: 3 Wool wash mitts SV brushes- wheel, Pneu Uber Spoke wheel brush 0000 steel whool Ridgid shopvac PC air compressor 3000 grit paper Megs sanding block Flex DA PC DA Various backing plates Surbuf R series MF pads Uber Green foam Uber Orange foam Uber yellow foam Lake Country White foam LC 3 in. yellow foam LC 3 in. orange foam Total time- 27 hours over 3 days Wheels before: Headlight defects: Before: Under front hood and bay: The underside of the carbon fiber hood had some nice oxidization and defects...more on that later Visible Paint defects- swirling etc. viewable in sun EXTREMELY soft pillars before: Same soft paint found on roof, and spolier: Motor before: Exhaust system before: More on that later First up- motor cleaning ONR with a designated SV wheel brush used here Blown dry with the leaf blower as well as the air compressor Front end bay washed with ONR and Megs APC Sonax FE on the wheels The body was then pre-rinsed with ONR, left to dwell and then an application of Iron X was sprayed on around the entire exterior LSP still present- owner uses Zaino very often To strip- Dawn and CG Citrus wash and clear Two bucket method then carried out 3 times to clear as much LSP as possible There was considerable overspray on the door jambs that the owner had concerns about- Aggressive clay used here The car was then clayed with Uber fine clay using ONR as a lube and then re washed for the 3rd time- pulled inside to dry First thing to tackle- the water spotted and sad looking exhaust system After an hour and P21s soap: HELLO TURBO! Paint correction time- 1st and 2nd day- 20 hours total ****Spotting paint defects was easy to do by eye however my Nikon SLR had trouble- Apologies for no before and after paint correction pics******* the pearl white paint was tricky! Random sanding marks present The process: - add Surbuff R series pad to 105 as well The finish was compounded with Megs 105 and a yellow cutting pad or a Surbuff Pad via my Porter Cable. Finished down with Menzerna Power finish on an orange pad, finished down even more with Menzerna Super Finish (106fa) on a green pad and finally jeweled out with Menzerna 85rd- IPA wipedowns performed in-between each step of course. Coming along well Surbuff R series pads used on rear decklid as well as areas where sanding marks were present Spolier before: After: Driver side of spoiler: After: Spoiler coming along well: Thought this was a cool shot Tailights before: After: Rear bumper dialed in Correction coming along well The owners personal mechanic stopped by late that night to remove the wheels and put the car up on stands so that I could access the wheels more in depth and the wheel wells and coils too. Iron X doing its thing on the barrels After letting dwell and agitated after 10 minutes, the wheels were rinsed and brought inside Multiple tar spots in barrel The tar spots were heated with a heat gun one at a time and treated with Tarminator- here is a shot of the tar melting Plastic razor blade used to pick and remove tar spots: After the barrels were dried I then clayed the barrels with my designated wheel clay Wheels dried and dialed in Jetseal 109 applied to wheels- barrel and face With the wheels off I could then focus on degreasing the Coils and various pieces in the wells: Before After Pillar Correction Mirror before Mirror after: The CF engine cover was swirled and was pretty dull- there were also too spots where some sort of scuffing/oxidation existed - one pass with Menzerna Power finish on a 3 inch yellow pad made quick work of the defects Before: After: Notice line up by window showing before and after polishing: Near the end of Day two and after 20 hours of paint correction I focused more on getting the door jambs which containted a significiant amount of paint overspray dialed in. Wetsanded with 3000 grit here, followed up by hand polishing and PC polishing with a yellow pad- Megs 105 Paper sitting in bucket full of warm water for 15 min. After: The Recaro buckets had suede inserts- these were removed- blown with compressed air and vacuumed with a brush attachment. Leather Masters suede/alcantara cleaner used here with a damp MF towel- left to dry overnight. Owner had requested the sticker from the window tint to be removed Heated on low heat with heat gun MF towel dampened with 3M adhesive remover left over sticker for 5 minutes removed and plastic razor blade used to tremove sticker Zaino Z12 clear view glass polish applied via Flex DA and a Uber orange foam pad Wheels wiped down after sealant hazed and waiting to be put back on the beast Brand new Black pad to apply sealant used on this one: Mechanic came back over at end of night 2 to put wheels back on In garage at end of night 2 letting Menzerna Powerlock to sit overnight: Day 3- wrapping up last bit of polishing to focus on was under front hood (remember hazed and scuffed CF before pics in beginning?) Before: During Polishing- notice left/ right split Right section after: Top portion after Left and right done 303 protectant applied to all trim/ weatherstripping: before: 50/50 Glass was cleaned inside and out with Sonax Glass cleaner, tires dressed with adams VRT dressing, interior vacuumed, mats shampooed and extracted and a quick Megs APC wipedown in interior. Trunk mat had loose strings around logo- not good. AND NOW THE AFTERS: Thanks for looking! - Dan K - Premier Shine
Nice job, especially like the shots of the carbon fiber polished... By any chance was this owner at one of Phil's open house bbq's? i swear i saw that car there.
Most likely- I had met the owner a little more than a year ago and we had discussed event Phil had hosted- I'm sure he was there
You call that a detail? That's just a regular wash 'n wax in my book. Just joking, just joking: insane attention to detail. Quite impressive.
Damn very impressive Dan. That was an insane ammount of work. You knocked that one out of the park! Great work! Yup I saw that car at Phils BBQ last year as well, I have pics of it somewhere? Darren
Great work! I remember that car from last year, glad to see it went into good hands. Here's a cell phone pic of it from the BBQ:
Ah now that I actually think about it Frank actually contacted me about doing the cars but he is a little further than I typically travel. Glad to see he got someone like you to take care of them. From what I recall you will be busy with a couple other of his BIG vehicles, that hummer peaking in the background of the one picture.
great work and attention to detail. great write-up as well. I love the NSX, and this is no exception.
