Hi everyone - so my sister is selling her car a 2000 Civic Si, 161,000km (Before the Americans in the joint flip, in Canada your Si is our SiR, and this is our Si). It's the 160hp 2.0l Vtec engine from the SiR. I swear the altezzas were on it when she bought it; the sticker...well I have no ecuse for that!
Anyway, since she is selling it I figured it was time for a little cleaning and paint repair. Someone hit her in a parking lot and chipped some of the paint of her rear bumper. The bumper/trunk lid/spoiler had previously been re-painted (poorly), and it was flaking off something feirce. The major issue was that the paint on it was *thick*, so it was really though to level out. I was happy with the results though. Did some chips too, no biggy on those. Other trouble spots were pretty reasonable swirling, a couple big chips on the left rear fender, a good scratch on the right front fender, spoiler and rear deck lid were in bad shape, and the top of the rear bumper was miserable from dragging things out of the trunk over it (why do people abuse this area so badly?). Wheels were a littrle rough (lots of rash), but cleaning them wasn't too bad. I didn't fix the rash.
Oh, one more thing worth mentioning was that I last cleaned this car (just a wash and wax) in December, and OCW was still beading (not very tight, but it was still there).
Process was:
Wash, clean wheels, etc...
Clay
Clean chips/scratches with alcohol
sand a lot (rear bumper flake, top of rear bumper, scratch on fender, spoiler)
take off and spray rear bumper (I just made a template so I only had to spray the giant chip)
fill in a bunch of chips, most with toothpick, the two on the rear fender with a brush.
Sand, sand, sand.
Polish trouble spots (the sanded areas) with Sonus SFX-1 and a yellow pad.
Entire car with SFX-2 and an orange pad.
RMG via black pad, dress all the goodies (the trim was a little worn)
OCW
Beers.
I tried to get a lot of good before/afters in the same spot. The whole thing took 4-5 hours (lots of paint drying) so the sun moved (I had to move the car into the shade to polish) and I only had a 50mm prime lens (which is why in some pics neighbors are watching me take pictures from the middle of the road
), but I think I did ok. I got a few really good full on sun shots afterwards. Here we go!
Not too bad, right?
Er, maybe not...
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