Acura EL aka new Beater

[Snidd]

Some of yeah may already know... scored a pretty nice deal on an 2005 Acura EL Premium trim,in Magnesium Metallic, Has the D17a2 engine (127hp) in it, 5sp manual,SOHC, with all the glorious Vtec's. The car is in pretty good shape, almost completely stock, has an old stereo aftermarket deck/amp/maybe speakers. Got it on the road now, the BlackMax (2000 Nissan Maxima) is parked for now, gonna clean it up a bit, switch the car starter and some stereo equipment to the EL, than see what i can sell the Max for. The EL needed Wiper blades(both broken)/ Polish headlights and fog lights/ front brake pads/ drivers seat wobble/SRS light is on/ drivers rear window doesnt open and driver's side rear quarter panel had a rust repair that wasnt finished. I will say even through I havnt worked on may cars... this Acura/Honda is a breath of fresh air for working on, no stupid hidden bolts, simple and easy! Granted...Fun Fact the Acura EL is ONLY made in Canada, find any online information or parts hasnt been too easy. Luckily the 2005 EL shares pretty much everything with the 2005 Honda Civic EX sedan (which there is endless information and parts for) ahaha...

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I did have plans to lightly mod the car with your basic bolt-ons and jazz a few things up to make it my own.... but the more I read, and you Honda guys that would know more than me about it.... The D17a2 engine is pretty shit, hahaha, granted its amazing on gas compared to the Maxima 3L V6. Every where i read states that no matter what mods you do for intake/exhaust youll get zero or negative gains in HP once the ECU corrects (iam guessing?) the A/F ratio, back to improve gas mileage. seems to be lots of posts on ppl getting Exhaust/header/intake and getting nothing outta it, only ppl that get any gains are from turbo, but from my research there isnt anything out there to "tune" the ecu anyways...Leaning towards jazzing things up and just having fun with it.

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You can sort see where the rear rust patch was done. nothing major, just a sore for the eyes.


Seat Pulled out,replaced bushings, seems to be fixed... for now


Before and After Headlights

Found a neat teal color..plainted the front emblem and grill outline, maybe paint the stock "summer" wheels this color too.


De-Badged the "Acura" and the "EL"... now no one will know what it is..Mhahahaha!



The Beaters!!


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So for that rust patch repair....masked/taped everything off... sanded/primer and got AutoHome paints to whip me up a can rattle can of Magnesium Metallic paint with Clear.


Now... question for some of you that know more about paint than i do.... would it be worth it to try and wet sand around that fresh/new paint to try and get rid of the taped lines?... i could live it it... it would be nice to smooth things out a bit too.

[bANONYMOUS]

I love this!

You cleaned it up really good, I'm impressed, as for the paint thing, you can try to wetsand out the tape lines but generally with metallic paint, when you wetsand it, especially if it's single stage with 1k clear in it, the metal flake will discolour from wetsanding and it won't blend nice, it will be less noticable compared to how it is now and if you're fine with it now, it will only get better, but the get rid of it entirely I would actually sand it down, use some filler over the indents from where the rust was grinded off, level it, feather out the paint on the rear quarter and clear most of the rear quarter with 2k clear, let it cure, and then wetsand down the clear coat tape line, because the clear has nothing in it to discolour so it will blebd seamlessly, given it doesn't cost a lot more, looking at around $200ish in supplies but you can make it look like brand new doing it this way.

As long as the previous repair grinded out all of the existing rust too, it will last for years and years that way as well.

What paint did you use for the teal? I love the way that came out, personally I would leave the wheels and so the brake calipers to match, less flashy but still highly noticable

EDIT:
This is the exact type of repair only it was worse and I had to weld in a patch
How To: Backyard Bodywork & Paint