6mtV6

Who here does not have any scratches, paint chips, etc. on their 04TL? I guess it's inevitable.

04TL247

Yeah I hear ya man...I bought a Automatic 2004 TL Nighthawk Black Pearl with Navi 3 months ago and last week some one backed into my front bumper causing me to get the whole bumper replaced. And yesterday someone opened their door up on my driverside and took two chips of paint off my door.

Needless to say I was very pissed.....But likey you said it's inevitable....

tl_soso

same thing! almost 7 months old now, the driver's side door has a real nasty dingy, paint chipped and all.

thinking about getting dent wizard on it and then using touch up paint. but i might just leave it. throws off the whole car!!!

3 months into having the car, this really angry retired cop decided to bang the roof my car with his hand, denting the right side. got dent wizard to fix that, its a pretty good job they did. but this bastard retired cop got away with it.

STAC

A lady got tired of waiting in drive thru line at Buck's and backed in my 04 ABP TL....
$423.00 worth of damage.
Do you have your windows tinted and if so where did you have them done?
How much?
Moldskin?

caball88

i got a few rock chips on the bumper, and some small ones on the hood and fender(not really chips just surface scratches). you can't avoid it, i could have gotten a clear bra but i can't stand the look of it. i know people have posted pictures of the bra and it looks invisible but i still can't stand it. i know its there and it will bug me all the time. i have seen it in person and all i do is stare at it cause i know its there. plus i don't believe that you can detail over it like others have said. i can live with the couple of chips here and there. if it gets really had i will have the bumper repainted, and if needed the hood as well.

tekageek

I just got ssm/5at/nav about 4 weeks ago. Went to play golf with my girlfriend, her uncle and her cousin. As we got the bags out of the trunk her uncle slips and the bag hit the bumper. Took a little bit of paint off and added an indented line down the bumper. It's not that bad but, just used some touch up paint but just the fact it's there. Couldn't really say anything but it bothered the hell out of me. Is it me or do these bumpers have really thin coats?

J RIDE 81

The fact of the matter is you can't avoid it. That's why im so anal about my car and I park a mile away everywhere I go. Thank god my girlfriend doesn't mind.

chipplaysdrums

Yeah, I just got back from the mountains yesterday, and realized there was a nice 4 inch long scratch on the left side of the trunk where it opens. Man was I pissed off. I had my girlfriend and her two idiot friends with me in the car. I think one of them was getting their suitcase out of the car and drug it across the side of the trunk, letting the wheels and plastic piece on the bottom scrape across. Needless to say I won't let them touch anything near or around my car ever again.

Law21

So far, I've got zero chips/dings on my baby. But then again, I've only had it for 2 weeks. I know it's inevitable and I'm dreading the day when it happens.

neuronbob

I have some rock chips on the leading edge of the hood. Instead of paying lots of money to repaint the hood, I simply had my clear bra placed over it so I wouldn't get any more. I didn't know where to buy a clear bra when I bought my car last year. Now that I know where to get one, I will try never to buy another car without putting a clear bra on as soon as possible after purchase.

glnn01

I was driving on the freeway yesterday and some huge mother effin' cardboard box (about the size of those used for television sets) is tumbling down the exit I have to take. I tried avoiding it but couldn't. I ran right over it, but at the same time, it left a small scratch on the bottom lip of my car. I tried the Meguiar's Scratch-X to try and remove the scratch, but no luck. Although it's a small scratch, I'm still anal about it. Any other suggestions/products to get that scratch removed?

6mtV6

Can you post some pics?

Whiteowl

No Dings / No Scratches - 5 months old

She doesn't go to work, she doesn't do malls, and she doesn't do parking lots.
She goes from garage to garage, with the open road in between!

When She's on the open road, the Mask of "Zorro” protects her from the flying stones and bugs!! I bring new terms to the word "Anal", if the sun isn't shinin, and ran is in the air, she's sitting safe and sound in her home!

This car is one awesome ride!

Ultra Quite, Extremely smooth, and runs like a Rabbit in Heat!!! What a Rush!!!
How Sweet it is!!

Xpditor

What he ^ said.

Mine is 9 months old. No dings, scratches, or rattles. I had a tiny chip from my w/s wiper when I opened the hood with wipers standing off but fixed it with a micro-dab of touch up paint.

I don't take my black TL out of the garage if the weather looks bad. It gets washed once a week -usually Sunday morning early. I Zaino every couple months. I use Zaino Quick Detail (or Meguiars) after each wash.

I have a clear bra which I had installed when the car was new and before any stone chips.
Like Robert, I am sold on clear bras.

1hottl

Ok you live in Rochester so I take it that the TL will be parked until next May when the sun comes out again!

Road Rage

These are road cars, not garaged trailer queens. As a Corvette restorer, i have had my share of both, although many shows will give points for cars driven. The Q-tip and Zymol crowd gets old - when i saw a guy WINCH his Porsche out of an air-conditioned trailer, and proceed to use Zymol Vinyl on the tire TREADS, that was the last straw for me. I took the 1961 Corvette Fuelie (1 of 815 ever made) I had just finished for a long drive.

I remember something I read in the "Judges Guidelines" about the Australian Terrier my wife used to show:
"As a working breed, a scar, honorably incurred, will not be held against the animal".

Now aside from the sabre pits of Prussia, what the heck is a honorably incurred scar, anyway? But I hope you get the point - these are cars, not the Pieta.

Whiteowl

1hottl
You hit the nail on the head, long nap is coming real soon. It's going to be a long winter. I'm used to it thought, I have to do the same thing with the boat! Just have to wait for some snow, to get the snowmobile out!!


Road Rage,
You must be in the 100k plus income! If I was making the big bucks I'd drive the car all winter, and take it every where I go and buy a new one every year or two!
It would be nice just not to give a darn.
But reality has it - limited income makes me take special care of my expensive toys!!

Prolanman

We should all take care of our TL's and other cars, but we should also drive them. The main function of our vehicles is to get us from point A to Point B and back again. We just chose to do it in a little more style. Locking this car up in a garage during bad weather does it a disservice. It was meant to be driven all year long.

Road Rage

What is your point and where are you going with it? Making this a class-envy issue? I give a darn about my car, but how is Joe 6-pack not going to drive his TL in Winter? - by having another car, right, which makes him more of a fat cat.

My point is if you drive your car, you will get some road hash on the front - how do you avoid that by "taking special care"? Only drive late at night? Pull off the road if you see a dump truck? Stay home all winter? I am at a loss buddy. Please share your techniques.

(P.S I have done well, but I earned every dime - paid for grad school (twice) myself, driving a 1965 Dodge Dart - very exotic ride, snagged many hotties let me tell ya. )

geminis2

Well dont feel bad I had $22,580 dollars worth of damages to my car not even 1 year old!!!!!!!!

Whiteowl

RoadRage,
Well if I lived in the South or farther south than I do, I could see where your coming from. Here in upstate NY, the winters are real cold and real snowy. The big killer is they Salt the road to remove ice. So the life of a car is decrease by alot. Take that new car and drive it "one" winter and all the bolts, suspension, brakes parts all have rust on them. Also the chance of car damage from another vehicle increases alot by having a foot of snow on the ground.

I have a 86 Nissan Maxima, going on 20yr old, never seen a winter and it look and runs like brand new. I'm liking it!! Now I have a 2000 Chevy Truck, after the first winter and I look underside and it makes me ill. After two winter the brake rotors are shot due to rust form the heat and salt.

So if I can spend X amount of dollars and make it last over a 20+ yr period, the cost per year of owner ship is considerabily less than have to spend the same X dollars every 5 or 6 yrs, plus the increase in yearly maintains. Not saying working on rusty cars is a royal pain in the back side. So I drive one beater that cost a fraction of the cost of the TL, and keep the great car, great for the life of my ownership. The Nice Old car you have would have been buried long ago, if it live in Upstate NY and drive in the winter. It one of those things for living in the niortheast!
It's just one man opinion.

Attorney

I do the same -- only, my entire family thinks I'm nuts for it.

Road Rage

Whiteowl - all well and good, but you have not indicated one thing you do differently than I to preserve your vehicle. I have driven "beaters" for years. I had a 1971 Impala with a flawking vinyl roof, and a hopped up 350, while I had a 1971 LS6 Corvette I restored, and a super low-mielage Cadillac Eldorado convertible in the garage - used to drive my girlfriends crazy, as they never knew whether they would ride in style or a clunker - but you can learn a lot about a GF that way.

I doubt much of the TL rusts - there may be corrosion, but that is quite a bit different - surface corrosion on the aluminum parts is unsightly, but not a material risk to the integrity of the part, as is rust in iron or steel. Modern cars are highly resistant to rust in the parts that can rust - the body panels.

So what are your maintenance secrets? I have 4000 miles on my car, and have changed the ATF twice, the power steering fluid once, removed and treated the wheel/hubs with anti-seize, and cleaned and treated the rubber boots on the steering rack and suspension. I have re-torqued all the wheel nuts to spec, and done one oil change, with new filter and an additive similar to the factory oill fill, so i can complete my break-in per Honda's spec.
I clayed the exterior to remove some rail dust, polished it with a Porter Cable buffer using 3M Imperial machine Glaze, and sealed the whole deal with 3M Perfect it Show Car Paste. The seats have been cleaned with soapy water suds, dried, and conditioned with Townsend Leather's kit. I can easily afford to have someone else do it, but happen to be a certified mechanic from my youth, when i worked on a pit crew for a race team at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut (I once delivered a new Ferrari GTB-4 to a movie star off the Taconic parkway in New York State, one of the coolest roads in the USA.

How am i doing?

Whiteowl

Road Rage,
You'd be the Man!!! I wish I had the time you have to put into your car. You must be single and with out kids. Without doubt you go over and beyond which most consider humanly possible! Two thumbs up!!!

I have found with my Maxima, I change the oil every two thousand miles, the brake/clutch and cooling system fluids every two seasons. I keep the inside clean all the time. As for the outside, she normally gets washed once a week or maybe every two weeks seeing it only comes out when in nice out, for the most part. Wax three or four times a summer, less now than when she was new. Too much to do!!!

As for the rust and corrosion, brakes system takes the most beating, heat from the rotors in combination with the salt gives your 2 yrs at best. I have 150K on her ands I still on the first set of rotor's and the second set of pads. The worst of if is the salt, it gets places that you can't clean very well, top and along the seam of your gas tank, in the frame and so on. So after twenty years bad stuff is happening in places the only God knows about until you have big problems.

When I get underneath her to change her oil, I like seeing new!! New and Clean is "Good". Like I said one winter and she no longer clean and that's bad!! And it won't come clean like new ever again either. It's a state of mind.!!! Plus when I work on my work/winter car and your underneath her and the surface rust is flaking in your eyes, and bolts have to be heated to removed, it's not any fun any more, it's work. I do that all day long, but not on cars.

Maybe someday I can move south and cut back on the number of cars, but I still wouldn't take them to work or the mall. To many people don't have any respect for other people's property and dinging doors, bumper crunching just ready makes me ill!! There's nothing like getting in your best car and looking at that ding in the drivers door every time you drive her!!! I realize it's only a car, but again I like New and I can't affort it every couple years like others can. So I do what I can!!!

Xpditor

White Owl:

I spent the first part of my life in Niagara Falls so I hear what you are saying about the winters and the salt. It was almost required to have a beater. Even people who could afford new cars didn't know if they would last as long as the 36 mo. payments. Some didn't. I had some famous beaters that wouldn't die like a 1957 Chevy and a 1960 Pontiac. They were old but good in the snow.

My first new car after moving to Florida was an RX-7 turbo. The second, a 1990 Maxima. The Maxima was garage kept and babied. I used it every day but maintained it well. I just sold it a year ago -14 years old- for $4,000. The finish was still showroom quality. Not even a door ding anywhere (I had about 4-5 removed by the dent guy). Regular 5,000 mile oil changes with Mobil 1. The only thing I had to buy for it was wiper blades, tires, and batteries.

But, all the time, I had a second car to drive or a motorcycle. Right now, it's my Jeep Wrangler for everyday and rainy (hurricane) weather. The TL comes out on nice days or when I am going for a little trip other than commute.

The TL is the biggest purchase I ever made. It even cost more than my house did 25 years ago. (I got a good deal) I will care for it like I did the Maxima and I expect it to last at least as long. Like you, I am not in a position to spend 35 large on a car every couple of years.

BTW, I had a used 1986 Maxima in between the RX-7 and the 1990 Max. I reluctantly took it in trade for the RX-7. I intended to drive it immediately to the auction and cash it in. But, between West Palm Beach and Ft. Lauderdale, I fell in love with it. I kept it for three years. That was what sold me on Japanese cars in general and Maximas in particular.

I have a good friend and colleague who drives a 1986 M-B. He won't get a new car because a) they cost too much, and b) the '86 won't die.

Page 2: the rest of the story. I sold the pristine 1990 Maxima to the 17 year old daughter of a good friend. She totalled the car in six weeks.

Whiteowl

Xpditor,
Small world it must be, I have my 86 Maxima with a 150k on it now, I got a 89 RX-7 GSL non-turbo for my wife which only has 38k. Both have never seen a snow flake. Now I have the TL which will only see snow through a magazine.

The original plan was to sell my 90 CRX with 200K+ miles and start driving tht Max in the winter. After 19yrs of care and service I can't bring myself to drive it in the winter weather yet, plus I have snows for CRX and it's a great snow car.

I, like you, can't spend the big bucks, or better yet don't have the Big Bucks to spend on a big dollar auto every few years, so we have to make them last!
I have to admit this TL is the Sweetest Ride I've ever had.

Road Rage

BTW, I have a lovely young wife and a 6 year old daughter, and a staff of 40 at my "real job" - what does that have to do with my wrenching? I just do it until 2 a.m.!!!

Xpditor

Is that "wrenching" or "wenching" ??

You devil, you! Until 2 AM???

Gotta give you credit.

What? Oh! Nevermind.

mikef723

When I bought my TL they offered me something called touch of class which is an outer covering that resists scratching and burn from acid rain. They said if you get any scratches or anything they will fix it or repaint the whole car if neccessary. They also apply a coating to the leather interior and it is also covered. It was only $300 and in the end I got them to throw it in. Sounded really good to me!

Xpditor

Mike:

Don't you think if any such thing existed and it really worked that Acura would put it on at the factory? Wouldn't every car manufacturer?

It is total bullshit. It is a way for the dealer to increase his profit by the better part of $300. There isn't anything they could do that you couldn't do your self for about $5 worth of readily available product: polymer paint sealant (like Zaino or Meguiar's NXT) and Aerospace 303 UV protectant for the leather.

Some dealers market ding and dent "insurance". It's illegal in my state. It amounts to a pre-paid pool of money to fix door dings for those who get them. Or, you could fix them as they happen for about $20 a ding. In fact, on my last car, I had 5 of them fixed. The dealer had to pay for the first one as it was caused while the car was in for service. The dent guy charged me $20 additional to fix all the other old ones.

Call me skeptical, but I don't trust any of the add-ons that dealers try to sell you that the factory doesn't endorse or recommend. And even those are way over-priced.

Just one guy's opinion.

-XP

mikef723

Yeah you've got a point. I probably wouldn't have gone for it if they didn't throw it in. He made it sound like it was a factory offering from Acura.

Road Rage

2 guys opinion, now. I would also recommend that anyone considering those "miracle" paint treatments and such read the contract's fine print - you will find it eye-opening. It requires regular re-applications, and puts limits on the coverage.

The best protection i have found is from products like 3M Show Car Paste wax (whoich uses fluropolymers and silicones), which I covered in the Wash 'n Wax forum, quo vide. But acid rain works on two levels: first, the acid becomes stronger as the water evaporates, and second, those great water beads act as magnifying glasses to mechanical burn the clear coat. Nothing can stop that.

The flourines, similar in concept to the flourine used to harden the enamel on your teeth, are available in several products, the patents and tech descriptions I cite below froma previous thread:

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...ghlight=teflon


And while several major paint suppliers have experimented with new miracle finishes that are practically immunde to all mechanical dangers (acid rain, water spotting, even graffiti), they have not to my knowledge made it to market - perhaps mfrs want cars to look old to help boost sales?

JetJock

Nothing like having a good "beater" for the Northeast winter's. Two years ago, my beater was a rusty old Cavalier, but the engine died and I replaced it with a DelSol. Now I need a beater for my beater!!! Arizona is starting to look real nice.

mikef723

I haven't gone ahead and had them apply their "touch of class" coatings to the exterior and interior. I wonder if I should cancel it? Anyone else have any thoughts?

Xpditor

It couldn't hurt if it's already paid for or included in the deal. I don't think they would harm your car.

Since cost to them is minimal, I don't think you would be successful in renegotiating the price without it.

SilverSleeper

I believe I would've been a little pissed about that. I haven't been to Buck's in ages. He had his windows tinted at Master's Car Stereo in Greenville and I believe it was $170. If you haven't had yours done yet and would like them done there ask for Chuck Gashler or Clifford Huff and tell them Zane Gee sent you. He doesn't have the moleskin installed, but wishes he did. You can see little scratches on the front two windows. Definitely worth the money IMO.