1991 Acura NSX Complete Vehicle Rejuvenation by DJ Mayo aka Got Leather

[Got_Leather]

The owner of this car contacted me after viewing several of my threads here on Autopia. He came from about 75miles away and left the car with me for a week and allowed me plenty of time to work on it while I had a few smaller jobs throughout the week. The owner and I walked around the car under different lighting and I pointed out the different defects and how they were applied. He handed me the keys and said do your thing, call when it's done. After fully prepping the paint for leveling the car became even worse as usual. There were several holograms, trails, hard water spots, you name it. There were also 2 areas of clear coat failure that were out of my reach and I had to drop the car off at the body shop for 2 days to allow them to respray the pillars. You will see in the picture the panels I am talking about. Thank you to D&V Autobody for taking care of another customer of mine, you guys are great!

This awesome machine only has 31,xxx miles but spent most of it's time with an owner who clearly neglected the car prior to now. You could of told me the car had 130,000 miles and I would of believed it. The owner said mechanically the car was near flawless and he got it for a steal so he didn't mind spending the right money to get it fixed properly. Details like this are extremely long, require plenty of patience, but yet the most rewarding. After 4 full days on the car (2 at the body shop) I spent 28 hours making this car new again. Each step was documented for process, products, and time.

This thread will be 5-6 post to get all the information and pictures in so be patient and I promise, you will like what you see.

Member Cleaning Fool had the pleasure of seeing this car before and after since he's right up the street.

Let's get started with the story...

Owner dropped off on a late Friday night so Saturday morning I started with the usual. The Prep Stage. You can see here in this picture that the wax that the owner applied was still bonding to the paint so that needed to be removed prior to polishing. All day it was raining so I put on my rain suit and got started so I could get the car in the garage.



Check out my sweet rain suit in these next couple of pictures





After pulling the car inside to dry with DI's Waffle Weave Towels, I gave the car two 91% Alcohol wipe downs to further prep the surface before any leveling would occur. Then, the truth of the paint came to life and I now welcome you to Defect City.














A quick 50/50 I wanted to get after just compounding for you guys :bigups

[Got_Leather]

As day 2 started, we got some excellent weather so I took the car outside to do some compounding so I could continually check my work. Here is what the car looks like outside with the light of truth.









I did another 50/50 after compounding the see the difference



After 3 steps of compounding and polishing on this rear quarter panel, we were finally getting somewhere. Check out the water spots which were on EVERY inch of glass, you will hear about that later on.

[Got_Leather]

At the end of day 2, I pulled the car back inside and snapped a picture of the rear panel showing you the improvement.



The rear bumper and a few in actions shots.









Here are a few of the pictures of the clear coat failure that got resprayed.





Of course the trim was completely dry and had no color to it as well. A few applications of Poorboy's Trim Restorer did the trick. Here is what I was working with.

This is just after 1 application, this specific area took 4 applications. 1 a day. The trick is to let the product soak into the plastic and ONLY wipe away after the final application with your favorite UV Protection.



What a difference

[Got_Leather]

After all polishing and compounding was done, I needed to rewash the car to remove all the dust and get the car ready for Menzerna 85rd.







While the car was being foamed I hit the door jambs and the engine bay area.







My friend Dan, paid some attention to the wheels by claying them and further cleaning them before polishing and sealing.





Next, we moved onto the windows which were covered in Acid Rain Spots. These were extremely stubborn and required M105, 4inch orange spot pad and 1800 RPM's to remove. I tried several different approaches, but this worked best. I then did EZ Creme Glaze on the windows the clean before applying Opti-Seal.

[Got_Leather]

Right after polishing, no sealant.





The sealant of choice was Blackfire Wet Diamond

[Got_Leather]

Right before the owner came to pickup, I took the car up the street to a spot that gives me some great photos. These are what I took.





















I took out the owners MF Towels out, eventually folded them back and put them on the passenger seat and replaced them with 2 Plush MF Towels and some business cards.






The final process:

Meguiars #105 via PFW @ 1700RPM's down to 900
Menzerna Power Finish 203s via White Pad @ 1600RPM's down to 900
Menzerna 85rd via Black Pad @ 1000-1500-1000
Chemical Guys EZ Creme Glaze via black pad @ speed 6
Blackfire Wet Diamond via blue pad @ speed 4.5

Meguiars #205 on wheels followed by Opti-Seal
Opti-Seal on all glass
Optimum Protectant Plus on trim and interior
Leatherique on interior seats
All jambs with OCW

Thank you for taking time to view my work, it's always appreciated!!

[robbyboatz]

Awesome turn around! It's always great to put the hard work into such a nice machine and see those type of results. Great job!!!!

Rob

[loudog2]

Nice work!

[ICEMAN]

wow, who would let an NSX get that bad? BAD PEOPLE.... haha

[slammin86]

Amazing transformation. I love those cars.