Acura Integra Type S

Apex Blue Pearl might be the best colour Acura makes, and on this Integra Type S it gets the finish it deserves. Icon Rocklear, our permanent paint protection coating, bonds into the clear coat and pulls the metallic out of the blue, so the honeycomb lights land on the hood like ripples on water rather than flat white patches. The rear three quarters show the same depth from behind, with the reflection carrying across the quarter panel and down over the triple centre exit exhaust.

Pearls are the paint family that gains the most here and loses the most without it. A pearl finish works by layering a tinted coat over a base so the colour shifts as you move around the car, and all of that effect lives in the top few microns. That is the part sun exposure attacks first. A coated finish resists the UV fade that turns a vivid pearl into a flat, slightly grey version of itself after enough summers outside.

The Type S body helps too. The fenders are flared wider than the standard Integra, the roofline runs long into a liftback tail, and the front is mostly one broad piece of sheet metal with a single hard crease. Those wide, uninterrupted panels are where you can actually see whether a finish is even, which is why several frames in this set are low angle door and side profile shots rather than the usual walkaround.

Twenty photos in all, shot at our Milpitas shop: front three quarters low, wide and elevated, a straight on front, the full side profile, rear three quarters at two heights, and close work on the headlight and hood, the front wheels and calipers, the mirror, and the door panels. Details on our Icon Rocklear page.