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

[fliplyricist1]

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:





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:





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:







bumper after:









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.











fender after:









scrached fender before:









scrafched fender after:









drivers side final:









finished rear quarter:







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:









hood section after:









hood scratches on passenger side:









hood scratches on passenger side gone:









hood final:









passenger rear quarter panel done:







drivers side fender done:









rear lower bumper before:









rear trunklid before:









trunk after:











trunk lid complete:











rear completed:

[fliplyricist1]

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):



























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!

[P1et]

Very tasty motor!

[Eric1285]

Wow, that looks awesome! You did an amazing job with the PC.

[BigAl3]

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

[gtpaul]

Very well done!



Nice looking car aswell.

[socalv-dub]

oh my jeebus. that was a pretty mean turn around. awesome job

[1 high bald guy]

sick acura, diggin the rims too...

[fliplyricist1]

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....

[jimmie jam]

WOW, what a great result. looks outstanding :xyxthumbs

[Garry Dean]

That thing is way low! Looks good! Great work!

[V_Eight]

Looks great! Now get to work on your girl`s red demon! :nervous2:

[Carbon Blue]

veryyy clean CL! How many miles are on it?

[Legacy]

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

[gtpaul]

Low Dusting Polishes that I like:



Optimum Polish

Menzerna PO106FF