been doing some paint repair and other bits!!!

As you may know, the paint on my NSX has it’s issues, and after being pointed out once too often at the pancake run (not just here, it’s been a thorn in my side for many years) I decided to take some action.


The passenger rear wing/door has had some paint in the past, and the lacquer (suspected to be 1 pack acrylic clear) has lost it’s battle with the elements and given up being shiny…. , here’s what I mean…
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._23_28_Pro.jpg


Nasty scratching in the lacquer under the petrol flap
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._22_50_Pro.jpg


And the lacquer was sufficiently dull/milky to effectively lighten the colour of the panel! See the door seems lighter
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._22_30_Pro.jpg

So I decided to flat it back and relacquer, until i sort a full respray! I tried with the petrol filler cover, that worked, so the rest was flatted back to remove the bad surface finish and prep for the new paint…
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._54_56_Pro.jpg
Masked up….
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._57_42_Pro.jpg


http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._57_49_Pro.jpg
And a quick spray booth made up!
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._43_51_Pro.jpg

Paint applied, allowed to cure, and the next day wet sanded and polished to get a nice smooth finish…
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._14_59_Pro.jpg


Looking better…
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._34_37_Pro.jpg


A lot better!
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._33_47_Pro.jpg

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...4_02_Pro_1.jpg[/URL

The offending scratches virtually gone…
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._34_12_Pro.jpg


And the colour at the door a far better match! So all good!
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._34_29_Pro.jpg


So, the passenger side all lovely, I give the rest of the car a quick preliminary mop over, ready for a proper polish. As it was SOOO hot, I was just finishing off at 9.30pm, once it had cooled down a bit! The 9.30 bit is relevant as when I got to the drivers door, I wanted to move the mirror back, just to get to all the door panel…. Gave it a GENTLE nudge, and promptly broke it off! :(

So now at 9.30 just gone I was stripping the door interior to remove the broken mirror, and having it flapping about whilst I drove to work definitely wouldn’t have been a good thing!


Upon stripping the mirror down to it’s individual components, I eventually got the broken bits separated…..
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._34_24_Pro.jpg
These bits are supposed to be connected, unfortunately aluminium/aluminium can corrode together making an effective strong joint… seizing the pin inside the rotating top section. The pin is usually longer than that above, but about ½ inch was lost drilling it out!
Top plate drilled out…
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._14_54_Pro.jpg


mirror base tapped M12, the hole was drilled out to 10.2mm from the original 10mm! it’s almost like they intended it to be tapped when it broke off!
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._49_42_Pro.jpg


A M12 bolt was drilled 6.5mm (sufficient to get the mirror power wires through and still keep a decent wall thickness) and an aluminium sleeve tapped to fit over it, giving the bolt a positive stop to tighten against.
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._08_28_Pro.jpg

The final ‘assembly’ subject to a bit of fine tuning to match the spring pre-load to that of the other mirror….
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._39_09_Pro.jpg


http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._39_38_Pro.jpg


I’m sure there are other ways to do this, with the same result, obviously Honda feel the need to only make the complete mirror available at about £730!!!!

Anyway, after that quick aside……

The door handle on the passenger side was looking tired… I’d already repainted the drivers side….
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._44_30_Pro.jpg


So this was stripped
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._04_24_Pro.jpg


Painted
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._29_49_Pro.jpg


Flatted/polished and refitted
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._10_57_Pro.jpg


Hurrah, looking better

Problem…… having painted the handle, the window trim now looks tired!
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._14_27_Pro.jpg


Again taking advantage of the hot weather these were painted and baked in the sun!
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._29_14_Pro.jpg


Another job jobbed!
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n..._59_15_Pro.jpg

A quick résumé
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...d183fea099.jpg


http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...5cafafa156.jpg


http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...541cd4f161.jpg


http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...4ec14c23b2.jpg


Once the paint has settled it’ll get another polish, but for now, looking good!

Very impressive - that's added thousands to the value of your car (hypothetically speaking)!