Alright so earlier this month I traded in my Honda Fit (which was one payment from being owned) for a 2006 TSX (Alabaster Silver). I do miss the Fit, but the TSX is nice. There were outside factors for the trade in as well. Even 2 weeks later I am still getting used to the amenities of a "luxury car."

I don't know that I can really handle driving a stock car like I had for the past 3ish years. Alot of this thread is going to be reconditioning a used car back to that "off the lot" look. But of course I will be getting some aftermarket items here and there, for now my main focus is my DA.

I think this is after driving it for 1 mile.


It had these crappy rubber fender protectors.


It also had tint (dealer removed the front tint). The tint looked kinda blueish purple but you can't tell in the pic. It was even hard to see in some of the daylight.
Insert shitty FB quality pic here


Removed the rubber fender pieces. I would have gone crazy if the tint didn't match perfectly front to back so I had the car fully re-tinted.


Just a quicky of the interior


Did a little interior cleaning. Just gave the mats a quick clean up (might not show up too well in the pics but there was an improvement)


after


Ordered a couple things right off the bat. One of the items pictured below, the other is a brand new set of OEM mats. I learned my lesson with the DA, and the mats no longer being available.


Because I don't want to constantly be cleaning the mats.


Yuck


It gets worse.


Old vs New


OEM goodness


ahh much better


Still have more stuff to show just haven't taken the pics yet. Be back soon, in the meantime

 

nice pick up on a tsx

 

How much you get the car from the dealer for? I'm looking into a 4 door for my next car.

 

The car was 17k from carmax, but my total balance is less because of the trade-in.

 

Nice pick up

 

Made a detailing purchase this past week. Wanted to try out the surbuff pads, needed some 4" small pads as well, and since I've never had leather in any of my cars before, I picked up some leather treatment.


Started working on my car early this morning. Got some weird looks since, for those of you who didn't know, I am white, and this is what was playing in my garage while working on the TSX this morning.




Here is a tip for those of you who like to take care of your car, and I mean in detail car care. Keep all of your microfiber towels separated. Keep them in an enclosed area. Separate your paint towels from your non-paint towels. When you wash your towels, do not wash non-paint towels with paint towels.
Here I have:
Top left: Hidden painted area microfiber towels
Top middle: Older drying towels
Top right: Waxing Applicators
Middle: Engine Bay / Wheel Well / Interior microfiber towels. (I only use the ones on the left side, then wash. I have bad OCD)
Bottom left: Wax removal microfiber towels
Bottom middle: New drying microfiber towels
Bottom right: Quick detailing microfiber towels


Car needed a little wash


Went with rinseless wash. If this car had already been polished, I would have not done this rinseless wash because it was a little too dirty for that. But I have yet to polish the car, so in order to save time this is what was done. Ended up forgetting a full after picture.


Wheels were dirty even from the dealer, well dirty imo.


Wheel wells.


Removed the wheels to give it a full and thorough cleaning.


Wheels


Peak at the DA and these disgusting things.


Pulled off the mud guard to clean behind it.


Cleaned


Mud guards treated


and re-installed


Didn't get all the way finished but it looks alot better


I can't believe I forgot to get a picture of the back of the wheels after, but I still have to pull them off again next week so I can clay and wax the wheels. Here is all of it put back together.


Last week I took the wiper arms off, polished and sealed them. Should have had before pics, but I was annoyed with all of the waterspots on them and was too lazy to get the pics.


I still have alot of stuff to get to. I am sure everything that came off today will be coming off again shortly to get fully cleaned. Like the mud flaps I will have to take off so that I can polish the full fender.

 

Your a clean nut, car looks nice though, gotta love the 4 door Acura's!

 

I can just picture you with a severe twitch in your eye and just about literally explode, if a bird just flew over and just let loose all over the roof of your car, haha!

Looks immensely clean though. Fender wells look show room new!

 

Nice job!

I try hard to keep my car clean and do a full detail a couple times a year. But I get lazy and it gets dirty and scratched lol. oh well.

 

What was used to re-condition your splash guards?

 

VRP dressing (chemical guys product). I have been trying a few different things for trim type areas. I still have a few more to try and I will figure out which one works best.

 

The car came with 2 keys and one alarm fob. After having my fit, which uses the combined remote/key, I couldn't understand why the TSX would use a separate remote and key. I found the switchblade key, purchased that, and now much happier. I am sure you all understand my OCD by now, so you could also understand I try to keep clutter to a minimum.


So I previously clayed and polished the hood. And to make it so I don't get burned out, I plan to clay and polish 1-2 panels every couple of days. Clay after the fender.


the clay removed all of the residue that was left from those fender protectors.


side not done


side done


Then on to polishing. Here is the clarity before polish


After polish (It is hard to see defects, or much improvement in gray/silver colored cars)


I noticed the hood didn't quite match up to the fender, so I just adjusted the hood bump stop.


and presto, fixo!


Took the Klima Cleaner, and cleaned out the vent system.


Still had a little time left, and I really got tired of seeing a bunch of nicks int he paint, and thinking it was dirt. I might have gone a little overboard






Still not done with the touch up. For the larger nicks I will put a second coat. Then sand the hood, check to make sure I got most of what I wanted. Re-touch anything that still needs to be filled again. Sand one last time, and then polish.

 

Wow very nice I am a clean freak to.

kris

 

Nice work, keep it up!

 

subscribed! just got an 04 tsx myself. car looks nice! whens the lip kit coming in?

 

Lip is on my "to get" list. I want to see how much work it will take to go from an 06 bumper to an 05 bumper

 

Nothing too big.

Got a box from the dealer. (actually a second box inside this one.)


Before.


After. Really want to be able to just throw things in the back of the car like I used to with my fit.


Pictures of the other box to come soon.

 

subscribed!

 

damn nice clean up bro

 

Alright so on with more updates. You can expect more updates to come during the weekdays rather than weekends, since the weekends are the heart of my work week. I apologize in advanced for the white balance mis-match. The camera was having a real hard time with the white balance, and I am too lazy to adjust all the images.

Here is the "other box" which I am sure most of you know what is inside.


Decided to tackle the roof area today. Let me tell you, I love cleaning the car, but too much in one sitting can be way overwhelming. To any of you that feel that same way, I suggest planing to take care of 1-2 panels every couple days.

Here is the before reflection of



I cleaned the roof off, then started claying. Clay will remove these large (an small) stubborn items.


Harder to see but there are a few specs there. Take your time in this part of the detail. You don't want to go through a full detail just to realize you missed some things when claying the car.


Claying will remove embedded dirt within the cars paint. Sadly enough this is only 1/4 of the roof.


After polish (before wax)


I noticed the under portion of the sunroof was a bit dirty.


The rubber seals on the sunroof needed some love as well.




Before, you notice some build-up on the rubber seal


Removed


Heres where that gunk went.


Treated the rubber seals.


After all of that was treated, I saw there were a few hard water spots on the moonroof, which is weird since the rest of the glass is spotless.


Cleaned the glass up top


Then sealed.


this picture is just before I started working on the hard waterspots.

 

Just did a little cleaning, knocked out the passenger fender and passenger front door. Pictures are going to look pretty much the same as the other side I did.

Most of the bad scratches are under the door handles which is a pretty common thing. Maybe I should make microfiber mitts for people so they don't scratch that area.


Those scratches are easily taken care of.


Noticed the underside of the skirts were a little bit dirty for my taste. Sorry for the poor pictures here.




Embarrassed to say, but after a little wash, clay, wax action.


Here are the comparison pictures from yesterday since I didn't get a good shot after I took care of the hard water. It's not 100% gone, but it is greatly improved.

before


I missed this spot, but still the rest are pretty hard to see




I cleaned the passenger front mud flap. Used the same products as before. Didn't get a chance to clean the wheel well area so it might look kind of funny, clean mud flap, dirty everything else.


Everyone have a safe extended weekend
But for me it's the start of my work week

 

good stuff.

 

did the same thing to my wagon last weekend, love it

 

wow after looking at this thread I realized how much I don't take car of my car! GJ with it though.

 

I'm still in shock...soooo clean!