Project: Restore 1997 Acura Flamenco Black Pearl *56k wait a leap year

fliplyricist1

New member
My first time with a pc (or any machine for that matter) so I thought I'd share.



A little background on the car. Was ordered and purchased new in 97 by my parents and had a 'triple clear coat' dealer option sprayed on the car before delivery. Car was basically neglected and washed once a month via automatic brush carwashes and home washes with wash mits and regular towels. Needless to say, when I took over ownership of the car a little over a year ago I had my work cut out for me. I would always maintain the car regularly which 'temporarily masked' some of the damage with waxes and glazes, but even in direct sunlight the car looked horrific. So I FINALLY decided it was time to break out the porter cable and get to some serious paint correction to permanently restore the paint to better than brand new condition. Should be much easier to maintain now that the paint is 98 percent perfect and I have all the tools to keep the scratches/swirls away.





All inspection was done with a dual 500 watt halogen work light.



Process:



SFX1 w/ orange pad speed 6 2 passes on entire car, some areas 3 passes



SFX2 w/ white pad speed 6 2 passes on each panel to remove hazing/marring from sfx1



SFX3 w/ gray pad speed 5 on entire car



4 coats of danase wet glaze on gray pad speed 4



1 layer NXT 1.0 via blue pad speed 3



all trim treated with 4 passes of Forever Black



wheel faces and lips were hit with sfx2 with white pad followed by sfx3 on gray pad





sfx2 white pad:

fnxx05.jpg




Unfortunately I soon learned my car had such deep swirling and scratches that the sfx2 with a white pad wasn't really doing much at all. So I had to step my game up and go to sfx1, which is pretty much one of the most aggressive polishes you can get and is meant to remove 1200 or finer grit sctratches :eek3: . I wasn't too worried about it though since the car came with 3 additional coats of clear so I know I have some to work with. So I went over the entire car with sfx1 on an orange 5.5 inch pad to get out all the imperfections. I then had to follow up with sfx2 on a white pad to get rid of the hazing/micromarring/fishhook scratches the sfx1 was causing.



sfx1:

2zqeb07.jpg




I worked a small panel at a time from beginning to end (sfx1 then sfx2) to make sure each section was defect-free before starting the next. Then topped off the entire car with the sfx3 polish to fully lock in the gloss/depth. I love the sonus line with the exception that sfx1 dusts LIKE HELL. In all of the pics you can see how much dusting it caused, and even after wiping it down you can still see a lot of the dust that remained before I quick detailed the entire car. Anywho, onto the before/afters: (just polish here, no glaze or wax yet...all results are permanent):



bumper before:



vrrcrr.jpg




bumper after:

66gjtz.jpg








fender with HUGE/SEVERE scratches caused by my dad trying to take out scratches with scratchx by hand WITH A FREAKIN PAPER TOWEL without even cleaning the paint. lols.





2q88t9z.jpg






fender after:

2rcbgwj.jpg








scrached fender before:

e7bioz.jpg








scrafched fender after:

2yuzko7.jpg








drivers side final:

j0i5ac.jpg








finished rear quarter:

330hhyg.jpg






The hood and trunklid on this car were absoultely HORRIFIC. Months and months of cats with long fingernails scratching the **** out of the clearcoat. Honestly I thought I had no chance in hell of correcting it since they were so severe/deep. But I was pleasantly surprised.



hood section before:

2r7ym46.jpg








hood section after:

10z2zyw.jpg








hood scratches on passenger side:

35mek5e.jpg








hood scratches on passenger side gone:

2m768zm.jpg








hood final:

mb70vc.jpg








passenger rear quarter panel done:

1z3whnp.jpg






drivers side fender done:

v8fs41.jpg








rear lower bumper before:

2lo5ie8.jpg








rear trunklid before:

24mc4k4.jpg








trunk after:



1zvalgx.jpg








trunk lid complete:



20psp5i.jpg








rear completed:

faa9v4.jpg
 
And the completed product (sorry no sunshots, its been overcast for the entire past month here, so I tried to use flash in some shots to show the metallic):



34y5zsg.jpg


2u97olk.jpg


vpi97k.jpg


drfkec.jpg


d5jtk.jpg


2z4hirb.jpg


fnbc45.jpg


jabb7a.jpg


xqb6tk.jpg


9sxqit.jpg


6jj2v7.jpg




You can vaguely spot my girlfriend's trashed red Sentra in the background. She specifically told me not to photograph my car next to hers, so I'm trying to convince her to let me take the pc to her paint as well lol : o





Thanks for looking!
 
just goes to show you with the proper tools, products, and good technique, you can achieve some excellent results... great job!! those Acuras hold their looks very well... :up
 
thanks much for the feedback guys@ much appreciated!





just curious, what would you guys recommend for a great all-around polish with the least amount of dusting for regular light swirl/small scratch maintenance? Strong emphasis on least amount of dusting...as SFX1 was beyond nightmarish....
 
fliplyricist1 said:
thanks much for the feedback guys@ much appreciated!





just curious, what would you guys recommend for a great all-around polish with the least amount of dusting for regular light swirl/small scratch maintenance? Strong emphasis on least amount of dusting...as SFX1 was beyond nightmarish....



:goodjob Optimum
 
thanks a lot guys! Looks like I'll pick up some optimum then. Does anyone happen to know what optimum's grit cutting power is when combined with orange lcc pad?

I'm also pretty tempted by optimum poly-seal...as AIO products seem like the best to me at this point. Can anyone attest to poly-seal?



carbon: thanks man, approximately 115k miles are on it as she sits right now. Still have a few exterior mods to complete before she's done (+25mm rear spacers, painted and installed lip kit, smoked tails) but she's getting there
 
This is indeed spectacular work. The fact that you used a PC gives a clue as to the MANY hours dedicated to this job. Great looking car, the drop & wheels really set it off.
 
Thanks much guys, really appreciated!!



The wheels are staggered 3-piece 18 inch Taneisya Wiser forged mesh wheels from Japan...circa the early 90's. Taneisya is a luxury wheel manufacturer in japan. My friend originally had them on his accord, and when he sold the accord, I had to pay out my a** to afford them but I was determined, since I believe they're the only 18" full polished step lipped set in the United States. I just ordered a gold plating kit so hopefully soon I can re-dip each rivet and bring them back to full luster, as the years have took a beating on the plating.



I'm thinking of picking up some UPP as an LSP in combination with Optimum polish....can I expect some good results on the black paint?



Thanks guys :)
 
Back
Top