Here’s my experience and I’m by no means an expert, but have done multiple repaints / color changes over the years. If there aren't any corrosion problems, poor previous repairs, or adhesion problems currently, it doesn’t make sense to strip an NSX to bare metal color change or no color change. From what I’ve seen most cars taken to bare metal are done so to discover prior damage and because the cars require a fair amount of metal work anyway. The factory did a superb job of preparing the aluminum for adhesion. I’m not an expert and this could be untrue, but I believe that this process is more difficult than getting paint to adhere to a quality previous paint job.
A few things that come to mind in answering your question are:
1. Mr. Pbjasso? is an incredibly nice guy and will give you guidance.
I’m sure you know, as he’s been the resident expert here forever.
2. If you are told by a shop that stripping it is required for a quality paint job, get another opinion and stop by and have a look at my car.
3. I’m not sure how you would go about taking an NSX to metal without full disassembly, but I suppose it’s possible.
Now you can skip this part if you like because I’m going to blabber a bunch of useless advice to you from things I’ve learned over the years. I’m gonna be all over the place because I generally am. Growing up every car my father and I “restored” we color changed without even giving it a second thought. That’s how I was raised because the old man never gave a ratz azz about originality; which I find to be admirable on a higher level the older I get. This thread brought back a lot of great memories of all of those cars we color changed. Let me tell you, we were damn proud of every one we did, people always complimented them, and every one has been sold over the years without losing money...with the possible exception of my 91 NSX, but that one was probably a break even.
I’m guessing you don’t like red? I say this only because I hate red, but I like good deals more than color and damn near every car I’ve purchased over the years has been red. Seriously, I’ve had 4 red NSXs and my father’s is red, ridiculous!
Anyhow, I’ve done the color change and 02 conversion thing and was incredibly happy with it. It took a ton of time and a lot of money, but my old red to silver NSX is still the best looking NSX there is to me. I’ve really got no regrets about doing it. With that said, I don’t think I’d be willing to do a color change on an NSX other than a black one or consider doing an 02 conversion if it wasn’t going to be a high quality NA2 NSX-R tribute, because of the heaps of TIME, MONEY, and EFFORT required for a high quality end result. Well, unless someone else was paying me to do it and I could be a grumpy old garage troll for the rest of my life.
These are three options I’ve made up for you, even though I don’t know you, nor did you ask. I’m in no way trying to sway you one way or the other, but the tone of your post makes me think you’ve no yet really decided what you want to do.
1. If you’re going to throw money at it, do exactly what you want to do, with absolutely no compromises. This is the most expensive option, but this is really what you want and anything less you’ll never be satisfied with.
2. Do the 02 conversion and do the wrap. You can’t see the door jambs and engine bay while your driving it or even looking at it. I mean I guess if you run over a squirrel they’ll see the red bottom if they haven’t been decapitated by the front lip. Do you take it to shows? If you do don’t open the engine compartment or embrace the red. Carbon6 guy has his red wrapped white (I believe) and it looks insanely awesome. If you aren’t taking it to judged corn cobb up the arse concours events, who cares? Plus, if you want you can de-02 it, return it to stock, and sell the 02 parts; should you ever want to sell the car. Easy peasy, very little money lost with the only difference being you have a red engine bay and front compartment. Heck the door jambs probably can be wrapped.
3. Leave it alone and figure out how to be satisfied with it or cut the cord and sell it because no matter what you do, you won’t be satisfied with it. If you’ve been sitting on the 02 conversion parts for 8 years I can’t imagine they really excite you. Sell them for more than you paid for them 8 years ago and go make it rain at the bare body club… :smile: See what I did there?
If you made it through this hot mess of a post……sorry or you’re welcome. If I were you I’d go with number 2, then roll with it for a few years and if you fall in love with it make arrangements for number 1, sometime in the future. I’d also be willing to bet you never feel it’s worth it for number 1. I’d also bet repainting red is not ever going to be what you want, 02 or no 02 conversion. BTW these are all beer bet to be paid out in my garage.
