The salvaged Acura NSX that sat in a river for over a decade is now in the hands of the team that’ll restore it. We talked to one of them about the challenges that lie ahead and they revealed how it’s going and what they expect next. The hardest part might be out of the way sooner rather than later.
In case you were living under a rock, or under the water’s surface, like this NSX, it went viral last week after selling at auction for $8,500. The team at Helix Auto Works has since been working almost around the clock to sort out how it’ll return this beast to the road. Carscoops talked with Ramzi Vincent, Director of Product Development, and he gave us the low down on this down and dirty NSX.
He says that right now, the team is facing a number of new challenges surrounding the classic sports car. First, it’s dealing with all of the new media attention surounding the car. “We just wanted a cheap chassis to go build a car and it just kind of ballooned up into this thing… so now we’re learning as we go… the whole Instagram and YouTube stuff,” he says.
Read: What Would You Do With The Acura NSX That Was Submerged Under Water For Two Decades?
On top of that, the team is working to finish the garage where this NSX is housed. Moreover, they have to continue to work on other customer cars and projects. How are they approaching the NSX Boat though? Well the first part and what might prove to be the hardest part, is cleaning.
The team is creating content on its social media channels to ensure that we can all follow along as the build progresses. According to Vincent, the cleaning process might be the biggest challenge. He says they’ve already found bugs and even barnacles as they’ve cleaned the car.
Once that part of the job is done, he expects things to get a little bit easier as the team is skilled and experienced when it comes to NSX restoration. A number of posts on its Instagram page show work it’s done in the past including full teardowns and rebuilds. Once the cleaning is done, Helix might settle into a comfortable groove as it works to bring the car back to street-legal status.
Whether or not it ends up as a VIN-faithful restoration or something different is still up in the air, he says. Admirably, the team isn’t simply aiming to check off a box that says “Street Legal” though. No, Vincent says that they’re going to be meticulous when it comes to safety regarding the NSX.
“If we have to cut a chunk of metal out of the car like the A-pillar… I want to put that thing under a microscope and look at the grain structure of the aluminum and see how different it is from the OEM brand new from-Honda piece… It’s not just… Oh, it looks good. I think it’ll be fine,” he says.
We’ll keep you updated with the latest as we hear it from Helix Auto Works but be sure to keep track of them on their channels as well. We can’t wait to see what comes out of this wild NSX project.
Image Credit: Tyler Hughes / Becca Nicole Johnson @Facebook