I hope it is okay to post here. If not, Genesis, you can remove this thread.

As some of you know, I'm the owner of Meticulous Detail and I do mobile work within the GTA. To start off the 2010 season, I received a call mid last week to schedule a polishing package for this past weekend. The owner had mentioned he obtained my contact from a previous client of mine. I had asked what vehicle I would be working on, and the owner said to me it was his baby, and is garaged year round, barely driven even in the summer months; I was to be in for a surprise detail. I had mentioned this will likely be a 2 day detail as I had some family commitments on Saturday evening and the owner was okay with that.

In most cases, I would prefer to know what vehicle I would be working on in advance so that I can better prepare myself for the task, and perhaps even do some research on that particular vehicle to see what challenges other detailers might have faced in the past (ie. use of different products and how they react to the paint, etc). Nonetheless, we confirmed the appointment for early Saturday morning. The suspense of not knowing what vehicle I would be working on was killing me.

So Friday night comes along and I prepare all my equipment, making sure I have a fully charged camera. Boy, was I glad it was charged!
Here’s what I pulled up to on day 1, Saturday morning…













This 1992 Acura NSX is one of my most favoured cars of all time. 56K on the odometer, and is strictly the owner's summer ride. He recently became a father, so the weekend toy hasn't been touched much. In fact, he only drove it 3 times last summer. The owner definitely babies this car, as the interior is in mint condition. Priorities have since changed with the newborn. He is looking to have it cleaned up before letting it go.

The car was already wet when I arrived as the owner had hosed it down. A quick observation of the water beading on the hood tells me there is some protection on the car already. I was eager to get started right away and proceeded to take a few more pictures before I got into it.



















The NSX was relatively clean to begin with, except for the tar on the underside and behind the rear wheels. The trim on the front bumper was faded. All 4 rims were in similar condition and didn’t have too much brake dust, but a closer look reveals that the inner barrels needed some work. Here is a picture after agitating with wheel cleaner, and an after shot of the clean inner barrel. Found a sticker still on one of the rims.

__________________
Meticulous Detail - mobile detailing service for the Iron Piston community

 

Here are the pictures of the underside after the tar was removed. I could tell the tar was on there for a while, as this process alone took more than an hour, and required tar remover, clay, and lots of elbow grease. I sprayed the tar remover on the soiled areas to sit for 15 minutes while I clayed the vehicle. It was an easy clay as the car was very smooth to begin with, and the bar hardly picked up any contaminants.









As I inspect the paint throughout the rest of the car while clay barring, it was really difficult to see any sort of defects since it was cloudy out. However, I was lucky enough that the sun peeked through the clouds for literally a minute, where I was able to squeeze in only 3 shots to show some paint defects.







The vehicle was then moved inside the garage where I could make use of my halogen lighting to capture any swirls or scratches. I was able to get a helping hand from the owner to hold the lights so I can snap a few pictures for the trunk and spoiler areas. There were very minor defects on the trunk directly under the spoiler, but the owner preferred not to remove it.

__________________
Meticulous Detail - mobile detailing service for the Iron Piston community

 

After taping up all the trim, I decided to start with the drivers side. I performed a test spot near the fender/trunk area which helped me decide which products I will use throughout the rest of the car. A few 50/50 shots to help illustrate before and after polishing.























From the trunk area, I worked my way up to the front fender, taking before/after and 50/50 shots along the way.












After finishing the drivers side, I had to take off due to some family commitments. I setup the halogen lighting on the passenger side to snap a few pictures before leaving so I would know how much work is required for day 2. It appears to be slightly worse, but at least I would have a good nights rest before tackling these guys.

__________________
Meticulous Detail - mobile detailing service for the Iron Piston community

 

Sunday, Day 2

My plan of attack for day 2 is to first cleanup the door/window pillars, followed by the door handles, and then the roof. These pieces were all plastic, so they scratch relatively easily. They were in quite bad shape as you can tell from the pictures.























Following the plastic, I started from the front and worked my way to the back. As Sunday was a lovely sunny day outside, I didn’t take as many pictures of the process as I did on day 1. I wanted to finish up as soon as possible so that I can pull the car outside and take pictures in the sun.











Gigantic ball of tape after all the polishing is complete!



Move the car outside for a quick wash to remove all polishing dust and back into the garage for wax, trim dressing (50/50 to show how faded the front lip was), and tailpipe polishing.

__________________
Meticulous Detail - mobile detailing service for the Iron Piston community

 

Around 5pm, I finish up, and the owner takes the car outside for the after shots. As there is currently no insurance on the NSX, the owner was hesitant to move the car off his driveway and onto the busy side street, and hence there are only sun shots of the drivers side. I’m no photographer, but I did my best with the passenger side.

Enjoy!

























































and of course, the last picture of the day with the NSX back in its garage.



Thanks for looking

__________________
Meticulous Detail - mobile detailing service for the Iron Piston community

 

reserved 6

__________________
Meticulous Detail - mobile detailing service for the Iron Piston community

 

That is some detailed... detailing. 50/50's are amazing, glad you were able to put it under the halogen lights.

Specially like the tar removal because as I was slowly scrolling through, I figured that's gotta be permanent. Looked like chip marks.

Black trims look amazing after the work. Had to look at the full car picture before and after a few times to see the shine you got out of that car.

Two questions. Did you use any power tools or was that all by hand? And how did your fingers work on the camera after all that work?

Overall, I give you double thumbs up for the work you've done there.

__________________

 

thanks genesis. i'm not sure why the forum doesn't show the complete 800x600 pictures and scales it down so that you have to click on the picture to maximize it. it looks so much better when the pictures aren't distorted.

this work was performed with a polisher. it would be impossible to do a detail like that by hand.

__________________
Meticulous Detail - mobile detailing service for the Iron Piston community