Brother married into ownership of this civic. Typical DD abused civic. He asked me to do a light polish and get some protection on it, as well as fix the headlamps. The interior will be done another day. tires and arches weren't bad: Front end: Car has had some absolutely terrible body and paint work done, horribly mismatched and peeling in many places. I double checked the calibration after taking these readings, either the highline or the paint is bad, highline is cheap but I've gotten consistent readings on a few other cars. Top of passenger rear door: Hood, roof, trunk and fenders were the only panels that had consistent readings...the doors were all over the place. Passenger rear door guard...if I were to tape off this piece during polishing it would have taken paint right off. Foaming in the dark after cleaning up the wheels and arches. Followed by a two bucket wash. edit: Forgot to add that I also used Wolf's decon gel and autoscrubbed after washing. Car is soaking wet in this photo, no beading at all Dewaxing showed more oxidation around the car, especially on the hood. light scuffage on passenger front door, came right out This car was my first try at wet sanding. 1500, 2000, 3000 Then polished and 4 coats of Wolf's body wrap. They turned out pretty decent, looked like some oxidation was starting to form on the inside...couldn't fix that. I was asked to just do a light polish but my perfectionist came out and I decided to try and do more correction on the hood/trunk. Tried to sand out these heavy scratches, I was 90% successful. Maybe If I had a rougher grit, but I was nervous as this was my first time wetsanding. FG400'd the whole trunk, middle strip is uncompounded where the blue tape was. I was upset that I wasn't able to remove more swirls...either I need tougher compound or my technique is still not up to par. You can't see what I couldn't remove here, couldn't get a good photo of it. Polished the taillights up a lil bit. These were powerlocked with the rest of the car. I also tried compounding the hood, left side FG400'd, right side Same results as the trunk, wasn't able to get it 100%. Upset at myself. Lil bit of clarity restored to the driver's quarter panel Powerlockers in the house tonight: Gas door after: Once again I failed at door jambs, then again as soon as I tried to lightly scrub with APC, paint started coming off..so I stopped there. Powerlock letting water bead and roll right off: Took it outside to get some shots before the rain came. Afterwards I applied a coat of 1Z Glanz on top of powerlock, and rain-x'd the windows. I was disappointed that the portions I actually compounded I wasn't able to get perfect, but then again the terrible body work didn't help. It was just upsetting that I spent the time and barely made it look better. My brother was more than pleased though.
Thanks! All the crappy body work was done before my sister in law bought the car, before she and my brother started dating...If it happened now I know my brother would have taken it to a better shop.
Very nice work! That truly is a daily driver that is no where near perfect. Its good to see a vehicle older than a couple of years made to look great again.
I think you've done a great job! With those readings, I can't see you doing any better. You're truly a perfectionist! But then again, that's why you detail.....
haha yes i am, that's why I'm always wondering if I'm doing the technique right. My day job doing delivery prep at the lexus store is irritating sometimes because we don't have enough time or good enough supplies to do it right...do the best I can though. I tell salespeople the car is done when I say it's done, don't rush me! They hate that.
Looks great! My best friend has one of these that's an absolute disaster that I've gotta work on at some point. Don't get down on yourself if it doesn't come out as good as you would want...remember, it's had 10 years of neglect...that can cause permanent damage that can't be undone.
