2008 Acura TL Type-S
Nighthawk Black Pearl
Full Detail by Andrew

July 3, 2009 – July 10, 2009

This vehicle came to me from a desperate man. He claimed that his girlfriend was so tired of him abusing his TL Type-S that she threatened to leave him if something wasn’t done about the awful condition of his car. “You have to do something,” he pleaded with me over the phone. Always the generous guy, I agreed to help.

For those of you thinking something just isn’t adding up here…you’re right. I’m just yanking your chain. :devilgrin In all seriousness, this 2008 TL Type-S in NBP belongs to fellow AZiner skyfox23 (Nate) who lives in Salem, Oregon about an hour south of me. He wanted a level of detail given to my dad’s ’07 NBP RL and I was happy to help. Nate was even nice enough to bring the car up to me here in Portland so I could get a good look at what I was up against. When he arrived, he was driving what appeared to be a showroom-condition TL-S in NBP.

I went through my usual inspection which quickly proved to be nothing more than a formality. If all my client vehicles looked like this I'd be out of a job.
Engine compartment? Immaculate.
Interior? Still got that new car smell.
Wheels? Flawless.
Paint? Lightly swirled and mostly on the horizontal surfaces…nothing I hadn’t seen before and certainly nowhere near the worst I’ve ever seen. Even the door sills were free of scuffs so I was careful while entering and exiting the vehicle during its stay at my house.

This car was an absolute joy to work with and while I can’t speak for the other detailers on here, I feel that working on a car that has been looked after is so much more enjoyable than one that has been wailed on like the cork-filled bat at the final game of the World Series. I was admittedly a bit nervous about doing a job for somebody even pickier than myself. The mantra of the job quickly became, “If it’s not 110%, it’s not done.”

Process

Wash:
Initial wash Dawn and Griot's Microfiber Wash Pad.
Dry with MF Waffle Weave towel

Wheels & Arches
Clean Wheels off car (per client request) with Griot's wheel cleaner and Microfiber Mitt
Clean wheel arches and suspension components with APC 4:1
Dress with Griot's Undercarriage Spray

Clay
Clay entire car with Griot's clay and Speed Shine as lubricant

Polish:
Flex XC 3401
Menzerna SIP & LC Orange
Menzerna Micro Polish & LC White
Re-wash vehicle with Griot's Car Wash to strip any polishing oils to provide best LSP adhesion

LSP:
One coat of 4-Star UPP hand-applied with microfiber applicator pad
Cured for 90 minutes and removed by hand

Total Time Spent: 18 hours (total killer...it got rained on during the drive home )

On to the photos. The license plates have been distorted at the request of the owner. You may also notice that through these photos I change shirts at least four times. That's because the photos were taken on different days.

Here are the before shots and yes, they are the BEFORE images. Nothing had been done to the car prior to taking these photos (minus moving it from the garage).










Look at this…even the exhaust tips are perfect!!


Very, very, very light swirling.


On the hood…


Paint in general had very good reflection even at the get-go.


Yes…that’s tire dressing. And no I didn’t put it there.


Ah-HA! A dead bug! This is really the only physical proof I have that the car was indeed "dirty".


Moving inside…


No scuffs on the door sills…


Usual dirt on the floor mat.


The engine.


Okay…enough of the before photos. Let’s get down to brass tax. The first full day I had to work on this car was a sweltering 91º and anybody who knows anything about cars knows how quickly black paint heats up in direct sunlight. I wanted to avoid hard water spots at all costs so I put off washing it until Day 2. I waited until about 7:45 (when it had cooled somewhat) to get started on the wheels and wheel arches. Due to the slope of our driveway, the car must be leveled between the down and up slopes which unfortunately leaves you only the end on the up slope to work with. In order to get to the other end, the car must be turned to face the other direction.

Pardon my blathering. Here we go.

This is the driver’s side rear wheel arch. For 4,200 miles this car is pretty clean and nowhere near as dirty as my dad’s 25,000 mile RL.


Anybody who has dealt with this felt-like arch trim knows it is a total mother to clean up.




Yours truly applying liberal amounts of APC to loosen surface dirt and get ready for cleaning. Not the most flattering angle, I know.


Suspension components drying; before dressing is applied.


Carpeted wheel arches looking 100% better if I may say so myself.




While the suspension and arches dried out, I got to work on the wheel while it was off the car. Here it soaks in wheel cleaner to loosen any brake dust (fat chance) or road tar.

The backside of the wheels is about the only place on this car where I found a noticeable amount of dirt. And even then…it wasn’t much.


Wheel backside and barrel after…


And the wheel face after.


Suspension and wheel arch dried out enough for undercarriage dressing to be applied.


Painted calipers were cleaned and hand-polished.


While working on the dirtiest part of the car (arches) I noticed I did not want to be dragging dirt from my derriere onto the nearly-perfect driver seat. So I took five minutes of my time to fashion this makeshift seat cover out of new white trash bags. I wound up leaving it on until delivery.


The next day, I began the paintwork by claying the entire car, top to bottom, front to back. And because I know somebody will say something smart, Phelps is the name of my high school...it is NOT a Michael Phelps T-shirt.


Almost nothing off the clay although it did give me a negligible improvement in smoothness.


Getting hot in the garage.


Being my first run with the Flex, I used the right front fender as my test panel. Here I check for any remaining swirls or holograms under an LED MagLite (in my left hand).


Menz SIP with an LC Orange resulted in some moderate hazing and holograms. These were buffed out with Menz Micro Polish and an LC White (next photo).




Taped off for polishing...


With the buffing complete on this side, here I am removing the painter's tape that was protecting the rubber stripping on the doors.


Polishing the trunk lid lead to this interesting conundrum. Leaving it partway open allowed the buffer to make the lid swing unpredictably so I fashioned this brace out of 2" painter's tape. Not too sexy but it worked.


This was by far the most awkward and least comfortable part of the job...most annoying of all? This plastic combined with the paint is so soft it re-scratched itself AS I tried to remove the polish. By the time I removed all the polish, it looked as if I hadn't done anything. I called to ask Nate about this and he said it was fine to leave it.


Buffed and looking good, the TL comes into the sunlight for a post-polish wash.


The water beading qualities of this particular car astonished me. This was without ANY sort of protection on it at all. And to those of you worrying about the pressure washer, I was standing at a good five feet here, running the pressure at 1/4 throttle on the widest attachement.




The 4-Star was hand-applied and cured on a 90-minute soak.


A few dusk badge shots...





And now, without further adieu, the AFTER photos.













The C-pillar after.


Hood sun shot.


Interior was an easy clean-up.




Engine cleaned up great, too.


And the piece de resistance....clouds reflected in the hood.


Thanks for looking.

 

Nice job as always!

 

Beautiful Detail. That's how NBP is supposed to look!

Great Write-up!

 

Read this on autopia. Excellent work. That's about the condition mine is in. I'll be taking your products in recommendation.

 

Fantastic work, but wow is it ever hard to tell much of a difference in the before and after shots, minus the close ups of the swirls. Great to see an owner who really takes care of his car, yet still looks for perfection.

Bravo

 

Great work Andrew. Your skills have improved significantly, and your write ups are quite good as well. Nice to see you step up to the SIP/106. I too find the lower rockers on the TL to be a real PITA.

Keep up the good work buddy!

 

Fantastic job, thanks for the write up

 

From the NBP master himself, agreed! And SHAME ON YOU for not supporting with jack stands while the wheel is off.............
I know I know, "The hydraulic jack is perfectly safe".......
Error on the side of caution friends!!
There's "Live and Learn" and there's "Live and Burn"......

On a sidenote, beautiful home/neighborhood!

 

Great write up man

 

Real clean! Too bad I didn't get my car from the dealer like that!

 

Thanks!

Thanks, Todd. That means a lot coming from you guys.

Thanks for the compliment on the house. I'll look into jack stands.

Thanks.

 

Buddy, that looks awesome. I love the in-depth overview.

 

very nice!

 

GREAT writeup! Gotta say, the TL was already in good shape, you made it look flawless!

 

yo that car is clean man...nice job...know any spot in ny that do good detail jobs like your...i also have 08 NBP TL-S ....

 

The car looks great I'm sure the owner was very Happy.

One simple recommendation on the wheels...when you remove them and wash the inside I like to place a piece of cardboard or something soft down on the ground to I make sure not to scratch up the front face of the wheels at all.

nice write up!

 

Great job on that detail. Being it was your first time using the Flex, what were your thoughts of the unit combined with the Menzerna polishes? What were you using before a PC?

Keep up the great work.

George

 

thanks a lot, another reason for me to hate my Silver TL-S

 

Very good job, and nice write-up too!

 

Thanks, guys.

Yeah it was in damn good shape. Actually has only 4,300 miles on it.

Thanks, man. Post in the regions section and see if anybody in NY knows of a good detail shop.

I checked the profile of the tire versus the wheel and was very careful about setting it down. I'll use cardboard next time.

Thank you, sir. I was using a Griot's random orbital which I've been told is quite similar to the PC. The orange pad I was loaned was getting up there in age so I found the buffer a little difficult to control at times but as I got used to it, it got easier. The Flex combined with the LC Orange pad and the Menz polishes is a powerhouse combination.

Thanks, gents. And don't hate silver...black is a very hard color to live with. It shows EVERYTHING.

 

Looks GREAT.

I see a plane in a cloud in the hood reflection shot...

 

Can I fly you out here to VA? Awesome job dude!

 

Wow!

 

You paying?

Thanks for all the kind words, everybody.

 

18 hours- wow, well done man. I though my 7 hours was alot when i clayed, waxed mine, and you show up with 18!!!! ahah, looks FANTASTIC, very nice work.

 

great results on the car...

quick question though... did you forget to clean the dead pedal?

 

Thanks for all the compliments on my car and Andrews detailing abilities he really made my car look flawless and to those that own NBP you know it's a bitch to take care of to maintain that flawless finish, thanks for looking and thanks for the compliments!!!!

 

Well done! Congrats on the great job. Such a hard color to get right. And believe me I should know!

I think you could really bring my car (which is identical) back to life. A detailer has tried several times and isn't coming anywhere close to what you have done.




I still have many halos/holograms after the last try from the detailer.

Here is the thread if anyone is interested in my hellish nightmare.

https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-2004-2008-93/about-had-acura-734587/

 

Damn, man...sorry to hear of your troubles. I just read that epic story that, if I see correctly, is still on-going, yes?

The reason for those halos and holograms is that they aren't finishing down properly and their rotary pads probably aren't in the best shape. Probably have some high school dropout with a rotary and no proper training back there, too. Instead of polishing the car correctly, they just covered over those halos with an LSP with fillers. Looks great at first but comes off with the first wash revealing the actual damage.

It is correctable but I wouldn't recommend having the dealer go at it again. Good luck with getting things sorted.

 

Research, research, research....look for a quality detailer in your area and like Andrew said that paint is correctable not all is lost!!!!

 

wow. Seriously, you are great man. thanks for sharing.

 

The problem is that we had no choice of detailer. The dealership was responsible and they have a specific company that they use. As you can see they do a quality job!

I have an arbitration hearing this Friday. Should be a slam dunk case. We want the dealer to buy the car back.

 

awesome job, sux it got rained on

 

Good luck on Friday, let us all know the outcome, so if they DO buy it back whats your next move going to be???

 

You're telling me, I was sooooo pissed I just wanted to cry or kill something!!!!

 

Incredible pictures.. the '97 TL is flamenco black pearl and once upon a time looked just as clean. Andrew, you and I need to spend a solid day working on it.. You're a miracle worker

 

Unfortunately I think I'll be moving away from Acura. This experience has left me sour with the brand.

Test drove a new IS350, so I might go for one of those.


Glad you're having good luck with yours!

 

Thanks, Nate.

Thank you, man. I appreciate the kind words.

I'll let you know when the garage is ready. The Aston Martin guy had to reschedule as work is taking him out of town for three weeks so I'll need something to christen the new garage with.

 

that looks awesome!! I really wish there is someone like you in the bay area. I can never get the results I am looking for by myself or from AJs which is thought to be one of the best around here.

 

Search the forums here on AZ, you may just get lucky and find a reputable detail person here on the boards!!!