1991 Acura NSX VS 1990 Honda Civic - Tech

To try to save costs, Project NSX was torn down to eliminate all the parts that would not require paint work. The Santini team then took over by blocking down the entire car to remove any aftermarket paint and blemishes in teh fiberglass parts. The original plan was to remove all the aluminum panels on the car and have them hot tanked to remove all the paint. Santini suggested against it since bare aluminum would require an additional coat of etching compound to allow the paint to stick. The bare aluminum would also lack the chromate coating from the factory that prevented galvanic corrosion of the steel components of the car. Bottom line, othing sticks like OEM paint. Having the body panels off would also make precision body work impossible in the softer aluminum. Once the bondo work was done, sandable primer was sprayed over the sections and blocked again. After Santini personally approved of the body work, the team went above and beyond by pulling off every single panel (except the doors) on the NSX so that every nook and cranny of the car had consistent paint coverage.

The Paint
As of July 1st 2008, Calif. has mandated new lower emissions for all automotive paint work. In order to reduce the volatile organic compounds (VOC) used as solvent in paint, which evaporate much like gasoline, most painters have to switch to a water born paint system. Water borne paints are similar to house paints and are essentially water soluble prior to curing. But there are few other similarities since automotive finishes are formulated for higher strength and flexibility as well as, fading and damage resistance from the elements and debris.

Sherwin Williams, one of the largest paint suppliers in the world, stepped in to let the Santini team try out their top of the line AWX water borne system. The AWX system uses a de-ionized water and polymer solution, which accelerates drying and increases paint strength, to dilute the paint for spraying. They even flew in one of their top dog painting instructors, Patrick Burns, to personally demonstrate and apply the entire system of sealer, Championship white basecoat and clearcoat onto Project NSX. He even finished the black fender bolts to match the Championship White of the fenders.

The painting process isn't significantly different from acrylic paints. Once each panel was prepped, cleaned and finally wiped off with a tack cloth, Burns applied a low VOC solvent based sealer to every part to be painted. The sealer is basically a thin on-sanding primer that provides a uniformed color base and bonding surface for the base coat. While the sealer is still partially wet, the first AWX basecoat is applied wet on wet to ensure the most bonding strength between the new paint and the OEM paint. The AWX water born system also acts as a barrier between solvent paints to prevent bleed-through and other interactions. It's basically the Switzerland of paints.

Because water evaporates slower than volatile solvents, there is typically far less solvent used in water borne systems. This means more pigment for each pass and ultimately fewer coats. The AWX basecoat also lays down a far smoother satin like finish compared to other paints, which reduces the amount of work between coats and orange peel that shows through the clear coat. The drawback of water based paints is the longer time it takes for the paint to set up before another coat can be applied.

After three coats of the base color, a solvent based clear is applied. High debris impact areas like the front bumper and hood get three coats while the rest of the car gets two coats to reduce weight and the possibility of paint sag, and save work on the color sander.