Blue vs. Red colour (NA2-facelift models)

[PeterW]

Red car paint has a reputation of being susceptible to fading all the way through. It is said that you can't polish it out and the only solution is a respray. Do NSXs suffer from this or did the clever chaps at Honda avoid this problem? Or is it maybe an urban myth ...?

Peter

[Geraint]

It's no urban myth - Milano Red is commonly referred to as 'Milano Pink' because it's notorious for fading, and it's the colour layer that fades under a layer of clearcoat, so you can't polish it out.

I don't know about the NSX reds, but if they had a solution for the NSX in '91 then it'd seem strange that they didn't apply it to cars made a decade or two later...

[NoelWatson]

Noel,

It depends who you get to do it. I'd say somewhere between 3500-4500 for a really good job. I know the correct paint for LBB is pretty expensive. Just a guide, but when I killed the 02, the paintshop was getting quotes of £1500.00 for the paint alone. In reality, these are just guide prices and each bodyshop has their own philosophy when it comes to paint suitability and labour costs. But I'd be surprised if you came out with any change from £4k for a top job.

Cheers,

James.

Thanks - I don't think 4k is too bad.

[Unregistered]

yep. a decent re-spray is very expensive indeed, and that goes for any car, and I expect someone doing a NSX may charge even more. not sure if there are any special requirements when applying the paint due to the aluminum bodywork (probably not?).

about the red, I totally agree and that's why I was asking, I've still got a old Prelude in San Marino red and they defo fade and I think it was even worse with Milano Red Preludes. Mind you, the base paint may be the same but the application technique may be different on the NSX... some of the earlier red NSXs are defo borderline pink though, especially those that have seen a lot of direct sunlight (some are really awful looking actually - been neglected)

[britlude]

well when the red car and the blue car had a race
all red wants to do is stuff his face
he eats everything he sees
from trucks to prickly trees
but smart old blue he took the milky way

so i'd go with the green!!!!

the colour in the clear coat is most probably from inks added to the colour coat, that bleed into the clearcoat giving it the tint. the tint in a clearcoat is a nightmare to spray (the same as old fashioned candy colours) as multiply layers, such as door shut edges, would give darker bands of colour...

[Ewan]

To add my £0.02...

When I was looking for an NSX about 5 years ago, I really wanted a facelift - just thought they looked more modern and I liked the wheels particularly. And since the press car (and therefore all the pics of the 02+ cars) was LBB, I've always liked that colour and associated it with the facelift car. As howellr says, though, Circuit Blue is a lovely colour too, but was only available right at the end of the pre-facelift run (2000?).

Anyway, I wanted a facelift NA2 manual, and figured I'd rather have a targa so I could take the roof off - so sat waiting for a LBB 02+ targa to become available. After 18 months of looking, I bought the very first facelift targa I saw, which was a red one. I've only laid eyes on one other (Boomin33's NIOP, which coincidentally has a sequential serial number), heard tell of one LBB one which was for sale but had magically been sold by the time I enquired, and one yellow which has been written off.

So, if you find the car you want in the right condition, don't worry too much about the colour They're all lovely ...

rgds
Ewan

[Marky]

There is no doubt that LBB looks great. I owned one, and my advice is don't do it. After a minor accident in mine, the Honda approved bodyshop could not match up the colour. They had to respray the whole car, despite the fact that the damage was only to the front of the car. Even then, the car came out different shades of blue. In the end they called the paint suppliers to help. The car was out of action for nearly two months whilst this saga continued. One problem is that Honda use different paint on the car in Japan to what is supplied (or available) now in the UK. Another is that it is a three stage pearlescent colour. Red also looks nice on the NA2 cars, and I've never seen any fade. This usually happens on the plastic parts (in the Porsche 944 for example).

[Unregistered]

Very sound advice, cheers.

You're absolutely right in that the right car is much more important than the colour itself. I'm too set on the facelift cars, I like the original obviously but the later ones just look a lot newer, at least to me. I'd pretty much take any factory colour to be honest.

I appreciate the advice on LBB. It is one of the problems with these kind of sophisticated paint finishes, when you have a crash or you want to sort out the stone chips after a few years of use: colour matching is a nightmare. A mate has one of them Focus RS in Ultimate Green and they had to respray the bonnet twice to make it match the rest (fantastic colour in sunlight though!).

I have the added difficulty of locating a LHD (currently 1 in Germany and 1 in Poland, that's it) but the car is not for regular/everyday use so I will monitor PH see if I can catch a nice facelift example in RHD. Not sure how many facelift units were sold in the UK (50-100?) but I'm guessing a few times over what was sold in the rest of Europe together. Looking at it differently though, if you end up with a fine 2002-05 EU-LHD example, you've pretty much got a depreciation-proof car to enjoy, I just need to be veeeeery patient.

[Papalazarou]

From the records, I think there were around 85 facelift cars imported into the UK.
I'd be surprised if there Are many more than fifty left now. So many have been exported or been written off.

Cheers,

James.

[WhyOne?]

I agree with the comments made about not being too fussy about colour - the cars are too rare to do this if you want one before you die!

I do have slight concerns about the red paint used on the facelift cars - this stems from the car Honda UK displayed at the 2005 Goodwood FoS - I could not believe the difference in colour between metal body panels & the bumpres front & rear - I think you can get some idea of what I mean from this photo, though it was far more obvious 'in the flesh':