Horrendous Civic for Starving College Student (56K WILL DIE)

OCKlasse · 10-20-08, 11:55

Here is one of the worst exterior jobs I have ever been handed...ever. The owner was looking to sell the car and wanted it looking "respectable." This car would require me using some heavy compounding, which is exactly what I did. Here is a list off all products used:

Wash/Etc.:

- Karcher pressure washer
- Meguiar's NXT wash
- Lowe's grout sponge
- Target/Costco microfibers
- Mother's tire dressing
- Finish Kare #108

Buffing/Sealing:

- Flex 3401
- Purple foamed wool pads
- LC orange pads
- Meguiar's M105 compound
- Menzerna PO106ff finishing polish
- Finish Kare 1000P
- Meguiar's foam applicators
- Finish Kare #425

Here is how the car looked as it pulled up to receive its makeover:

Here are some intermediate shots showing what difference a little buffing can make:

(I'm sure you can figure out which window was clean and which was not)

Headlights before:

Headlights after:

Here's a before and after of the trunk. After three passes with M105 and purple foamed wool, I gave in to some of the very deep rids at the expense of maintaining the clear coat. Pictures do not do justice to how bad of a condition the paint really was in.

Here are the obligatory afters:

Thanks for looking! I was proud of this one

accordmaniac · 10-21-08, 12:10

Good job!

I know you put a 56k warning in the title, but the poster sized pictures were kind of annoying to scroll left and right to look at.

OCKlasse · 10-21-08, 12:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by accordmaniac

Good job!

I know you put a 56k warning in the title, but the poster sized pictures were kind of annoying to scroll left and right to look at.

Sorry! The other board I posted them on automatically resizes them...perhaps I will do the same.

edit: Resized for everyone's viewing pleasure!

backwoods_lex · 10-21-08, 12:40

Very nice job on the civic. Looks great, especially the headlights. The owner should name their first born after you (and stop washing cars with rocks

).

OCKlasse · 10-21-08, 12:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by backwoods_lex

Very nice job on the civic. Looks great, especially the headlights. The owner should name their first born after you (and stop washing cars with rocks

).

Rocks? I was thinking something more along the lines of washing with knives. You know..."scraping" the dirt off.

bigfoot · 10-21-08, 01:20

Wow! that paint could not have any more swirls since there was no space for any more! Beautiful revival on that one! Great job!

rwisejr · 10-21-08, 04:43

Man great save !!! You really saved that one .

TH0001 · 10-21-08, 05:07

Nice honest correction. The paint looks a million times better (or more) and I bet he can see at night. You probably added several g's to the value of the car as well. Nice work!