Tweet
Received this 2002 Honda Acura RSX-S as a referral. The owner indicated she previously lived in Texas. That alone struck fear of inadequacy in my heart knowing the high quality work that can come from possible MOL members in Texas. However, she indicated after returning to Iowa she put the car in the hands of a body shop to take out some defects. So whatever good the Texas folks had done was wiped out here in Iowa. She indicated the body shop had created some additional swirls and hoped I could help out. An inspection revealed swirls, random deep scratches, a medium sized scuff and an all over haze. I had expected extensive buffer trails, but they were minor compared to the overall haze. She had said the car was black, an inspection with a Brinkmann indicated a blue metallic metal flake buried under the haze.
The headlights were nearly opaque. I said for a bit more time, I would try to improve the headlights. She said it had been tried before and they returned to this opaque state after time. I needed the experience, so decided to take them on.
Due to a sudden commitment, my time on project was cut short or I would have had a flat tire repaired and dressed the tires. I didn't want to dress the tires then have a mechanic work on a freshly dressed tire repairing a flat. So I just aired up the tire and cleaned the wheels without dressing the tires.
Products used:
Meguiar's Deep Crystal Soap - tires
Meg APC+ - tires and rims
Sonax Full Effect - rims
Generic Degreaser - inner rims
Meg Super Soap - Gilmour Foam Gun - body
Meg Professional Mild Blue Clay - body and glass
Meg Last Touch - clay lube
Meg MFDA Correction Pad
Meg #300 Correction Liquid
Meg Yellow Pad
Meg M205
Meg Black Pad
Meg Ultimate Polish
Meg Ultimate Wax - 2 coats machine applied, 4" Black Lake Country pad
Meg Ultimate Quik Detailer - wipe down prior to owner pickup
Meg Ultimate Quik Wax - front bumper wipe down prior to owner pickup
Meg Glass Concentrate - glass
Meg Ultimate Interior Detailer - door interiors
Meg APC+ - door jambs
Meg Ultimate Quik Wax - door jambs
Meg Ultimate Protectant - textured plastic
Meg M40 - wiper cowl and window gaskets
Meg Heavy-duty Headlight Restoration Kit(s)
Meg Metal Polish - exhaust tip
Process:
Sprayed the rims with Sonax and brushed inner rim with toilet brush. Followed with APC+ soak of tires, the scrubbed wheels with Deep Crystal soap. High pressure rinsed and scrubbed inner rims with degreaser and followed with another wash with Deep Crystal and another high pressure rinse.
Car body high pressure rinsed, then hand washed with Super Soap. High pressure rinsed again and hand washed again with Super Soap, then final rinse and leaf blower dried and hand wiped with Meg Water Magnet.
Clay-barred car body and all window glass. Minimal bonded contaminates removed. Considerable pitting on front bumper, hood and rocker panels.
Body edges and some crevasses taped over. Minor defects marked out for additional correction as needed.
Headlights taped off in preparation for restoration. This was my first headlight restoration, so I purchased one Heavy-duty Headlight Restoration Kit. Everything seemed to proceed as anticipated following the instructions on the box and a brief examination of some MOL discussions. However, when complete the passenger's side headlight was a different "color" than the driver's side headlight. So I purchased a second HD headlight kit and tried using a Porter-Cable and the sanding discs giving a little more time to the passenger's side headlight. Even using the slowest speed of the PC, the 1000 grit disc did suffer some damage as the center of the disc started to disintegrate. Completing a second process on the passenger side headlight did not make that headlight match the clarity of the driver's side headlight.
I was set to use the MFDA correction system and started by using the correction pad and the #300 correction liquid on the top portion of the rear hatch, using speed 5, heavy pressure and slow arm speed. The process removed the haze, swirls and random scratches. As expected, the first step left some hazing of it's own. As a matter of interest to me, I chose not to use the MF finish pad and #301 liquid. Instead I used a yellow Meg pad and worked pretty aggressively with M205. I followed up the aggressively applied M205 with a IPA wipedown and then a mildly applied Ultimate Polish using a slow speed, light pressure and slow speed. I was disappointed by the number of rock chips and dead bug tombstones all over the hood and front bumper. Thinking I still had product in them, I took a Q-tip to the larger ones, but they didn't change color, so in many cases the primer was exposed.
Using a both a foam applicator and a black 4" Lake Country pad, Ultimate Liquid Wax was applied and removed with a Supreme Shine MF.
To finish out the day, the door jambs were cleaned and waxed and to kill some more time I gave the vinyl door sills a rub down with Ultimate Protectant. I also foam brushed the wiper cowl with M40 Rubber Protectant.
I skipped out a day, so the first coat of of Ultimate Wax got a sufficiently long cure time. I started the next day cleaning the glass and treating any miscellaneous rubber glass trim. I put on the second coat of Ultimate Liquid Wax and removed it with Meg Ultimate Wipe. To kill a little time, I wiped down the door interiors with Ultimate Interior Detailer and popped the hood and wiped off an evidence I had been there.
There were four days the car sat in the shop so just before the owner came to pick up the car, I wiped down the car with Ultimate Quik Detailer and gave the front bumper and hood a wipe down with Ultimate Quik Wax. We're still waiting for the first frost to kill off the bugs. A quickie of Ultimate Quik Wax helps remove the bugs.
I had discovered some spider webbing on the front bumper near the "discolored" headlight and also some modified headlight brackets under the hood so I asked the owner if that headlight had been replaced. She indicated no. I was hoping the difference of the headlights was due to the manufacture rather than something I had done. If you notice the before photographs they do look different before I even start work on them.
Thanks for stopping by.
Notice how, even before I begin, the headlights are different clarity. I hadn't noticed that before I began
work on the headlights. This difference persisted throughout the restoration process.
After the second sanding and before buffing.
Completed headlight. Sunshine makes the look fairly clear.
Scratches, buffer trail and hazing.
Swirls and hazing.
Deep scratch on rear hatch. Scratch is the length of tape and pointed at by green arrow. Was able to
remove this with a concentrated effort and #300 and MFDA correction pad.
Scratches on rear bumper. Minimized not completely removed. Plastic bumpers scare me.
Scuff before. Notice the horizontal scratch that travels from the side of the car to the back.
Photo of the scratch on the rear bumper and below the scuff mark
After of the scuff. Scratch below scuff is barely visible.
Turning on the flash on the camera makes the scratch more visible.
This is the only photo of any sort considered 50/50. Upper left is only one quick run of a correction MF pad
and #300 correction liquid. Lower right has been washed and clay-barred. All areas had multiple passes
of #300, followed by M205 and then Ultimate Polish. The first pass of #300 dried rather quickly, second
pass and application of #300 worked much longer.
The owner was pleased. She walked around the car and then gave me a high five. Positive feedback I
can live with!!!
The headlights were nearly opaque. I said for a bit more time, I would try to improve the headlights. She said it had been tried before and they returned to this opaque state after time. I needed the experience, so decided to take them on.
Due to a sudden commitment, my time on project was cut short or I would have had a flat tire repaired and dressed the tires. I didn't want to dress the tires then have a mechanic work on a freshly dressed tire repairing a flat. So I just aired up the tire and cleaned the wheels without dressing the tires.
Products used:
Meguiar's Deep Crystal Soap - tires
Meg APC+ - tires and rims
Sonax Full Effect - rims
Generic Degreaser - inner rims
Meg Super Soap - Gilmour Foam Gun - body
Meg Professional Mild Blue Clay - body and glass
Meg Last Touch - clay lube
Meg MFDA Correction Pad
Meg #300 Correction Liquid
Meg Yellow Pad
Meg M205
Meg Black Pad
Meg Ultimate Polish
Meg Ultimate Wax - 2 coats machine applied, 4" Black Lake Country pad
Meg Ultimate Quik Detailer - wipe down prior to owner pickup
Meg Ultimate Quik Wax - front bumper wipe down prior to owner pickup
Meg Glass Concentrate - glass
Meg Ultimate Interior Detailer - door interiors
Meg APC+ - door jambs
Meg Ultimate Quik Wax - door jambs
Meg Ultimate Protectant - textured plastic
Meg M40 - wiper cowl and window gaskets
Meg Heavy-duty Headlight Restoration Kit(s)
Meg Metal Polish - exhaust tip
Process:
Sprayed the rims with Sonax and brushed inner rim with toilet brush. Followed with APC+ soak of tires, the scrubbed wheels with Deep Crystal soap. High pressure rinsed and scrubbed inner rims with degreaser and followed with another wash with Deep Crystal and another high pressure rinse.
Car body high pressure rinsed, then hand washed with Super Soap. High pressure rinsed again and hand washed again with Super Soap, then final rinse and leaf blower dried and hand wiped with Meg Water Magnet.
Clay-barred car body and all window glass. Minimal bonded contaminates removed. Considerable pitting on front bumper, hood and rocker panels.
Body edges and some crevasses taped over. Minor defects marked out for additional correction as needed.
Headlights taped off in preparation for restoration. This was my first headlight restoration, so I purchased one Heavy-duty Headlight Restoration Kit. Everything seemed to proceed as anticipated following the instructions on the box and a brief examination of some MOL discussions. However, when complete the passenger's side headlight was a different "color" than the driver's side headlight. So I purchased a second HD headlight kit and tried using a Porter-Cable and the sanding discs giving a little more time to the passenger's side headlight. Even using the slowest speed of the PC, the 1000 grit disc did suffer some damage as the center of the disc started to disintegrate. Completing a second process on the passenger side headlight did not make that headlight match the clarity of the driver's side headlight.
I was set to use the MFDA correction system and started by using the correction pad and the #300 correction liquid on the top portion of the rear hatch, using speed 5, heavy pressure and slow arm speed. The process removed the haze, swirls and random scratches. As expected, the first step left some hazing of it's own. As a matter of interest to me, I chose not to use the MF finish pad and #301 liquid. Instead I used a yellow Meg pad and worked pretty aggressively with M205. I followed up the aggressively applied M205 with a IPA wipedown and then a mildly applied Ultimate Polish using a slow speed, light pressure and slow speed. I was disappointed by the number of rock chips and dead bug tombstones all over the hood and front bumper. Thinking I still had product in them, I took a Q-tip to the larger ones, but they didn't change color, so in many cases the primer was exposed.
Using a both a foam applicator and a black 4" Lake Country pad, Ultimate Liquid Wax was applied and removed with a Supreme Shine MF.
To finish out the day, the door jambs were cleaned and waxed and to kill some more time I gave the vinyl door sills a rub down with Ultimate Protectant. I also foam brushed the wiper cowl with M40 Rubber Protectant.
I skipped out a day, so the first coat of of Ultimate Wax got a sufficiently long cure time. I started the next day cleaning the glass and treating any miscellaneous rubber glass trim. I put on the second coat of Ultimate Liquid Wax and removed it with Meg Ultimate Wipe. To kill a little time, I wiped down the door interiors with Ultimate Interior Detailer and popped the hood and wiped off an evidence I had been there.
There were four days the car sat in the shop so just before the owner came to pick up the car, I wiped down the car with Ultimate Quik Detailer and gave the front bumper and hood a wipe down with Ultimate Quik Wax. We're still waiting for the first frost to kill off the bugs. A quickie of Ultimate Quik Wax helps remove the bugs.
I had discovered some spider webbing on the front bumper near the "discolored" headlight and also some modified headlight brackets under the hood so I asked the owner if that headlight had been replaced. She indicated no. I was hoping the difference of the headlights was due to the manufacture rather than something I had done. If you notice the before photographs they do look different before I even start work on them.
Thanks for stopping by.
Notice how, even before I begin, the headlights are different clarity. I hadn't noticed that before I began
work on the headlights. This difference persisted throughout the restoration process.
After the second sanding and before buffing.
Completed headlight. Sunshine makes the look fairly clear.
Scratches, buffer trail and hazing.
Swirls and hazing.
Deep scratch on rear hatch. Scratch is the length of tape and pointed at by green arrow. Was able to
remove this with a concentrated effort and #300 and MFDA correction pad.
Scratches on rear bumper. Minimized not completely removed. Plastic bumpers scare me.
Scuff before. Notice the horizontal scratch that travels from the side of the car to the back.
Photo of the scratch on the rear bumper and below the scuff mark
After of the scuff. Scratch below scuff is barely visible.
Turning on the flash on the camera makes the scratch more visible.
This is the only photo of any sort considered 50/50. Upper left is only one quick run of a correction MF pad
and #300 correction liquid. Lower right has been washed and clay-barred. All areas had multiple passes
of #300, followed by M205 and then Ultimate Polish. The first pass of #300 dried rather quickly, second
pass and application of #300 worked much longer.
The owner was pleased. She walked around the car and then gave me a high five. Positive feedback I
can live with!!!
Comment