Make It Shine: Trashed SiR brought back to life

kaval · 12-24-08, 01:59

Hi everyone!

This car belongs to my designer, and a very good friend. He's done my logo and business cards, and will be doing some other work for me too in the future. He's put in extra hours on many occasions to make sure everything is done well, so I wanted to return the same regard in this detail by going for as close to 100% paint correction as possible. I detailed his old car back in the summer, which can be found here - LINK

The car was purchased a few months prior to the detail. While the owner was looking at the car, he told me the paint was in dire need of help. Boy was he right!!!!!

Total work time for this car was 17 hours. It was quite cold around this time so I had bought some heaters to bring with me. Unfortunately they kept tripping the circuit breaker in the house, so I went without heat, hoping the polishes and compounds would be okay. Thankfully they were!

Without further adieu, here is the 2002 Honda Civic SiR with 150,000kms.

Upon arrival, it was evident that the car needed a lot of help. It looked very dull, lacking a LOT of gloss. It was just a plain mess!

Wash & Clay
After looking over the car, I prepared my wash:
- CWG via 2BM with sheepskin wool mitts
- Prepared with warm water (was cold outside)

The rims did not receive much attention, as the owner intended to remove the rims and have snow tires mounted. I gave them a quick clean though:
- Kleenol APC @ 4:1 on rims and tires

Following a thorough wash, the paintwork was decontaminated with Riccardo Yellow Clay and ONR Clay Lube.

The claying took a while as I had to heat up the clay before moulding it to reveal a clean surface again since the paint was quite cold. Moderate contamination was present. The most contamination was on the hatch portion of the car, as expected.

After claying the car, I had a quick look at the paint:

Paint Correction
Given the above picture, I knew the paint would require a lot of cutting to remove the defects present. For this, I chose to use M105, for obvious reasons. I was lucky enough to have Picus lend me some PFW pads for this job, and I am thankful he did, because without them I don't think I would have achieved the results I wanted. So, a sincere thanks goes out to Picus! I must have washed the 6 pads I had at my disposal about 5 times.

Hood:

Driver's side fender:

After SIP on white, and 106ff on black:

Driver's side Quarter:

After 106ff

Roof:

kaval · 12-24-08, 02:00

Rear Bumper:

As you can see, the rear bumper was in very rough shape, and required a few stages of wetsanding with 2000 and 3000 grit.
Here I am using a Meguiar's UniGrit 3000 grit sanding block, followed by SIP on a white pad.

Passenger Quarter:
This was probably one of the worst parts of the car. There was no clarity whatsoever! Required 6 steps of M105.

After M105, and SIP:

Passenger's side fender:

After wiping the paintwork with IPA and polishing the paint to a high gloss with 106ff on black at 1400rpm, I washed the car with CWG to remove any polishing oils that would interfere with the LSP. At this point in time, the car was on jack stands as the owner sent out the rims to have snow tires put on, and to raise the coilovers for winter.

It was cold!!!

After carefully drying the car down with WW MFs using the blotting technique, I chose the LSP. The owner wanted a long lasting product. Longevity was first concern, and looks were second. For this, I chose 476S from Collinite.

Afters:
After shots were hard to get since the vehicle itself had no rims. It was extremely cold at this point, so we could not open the garage for pics either. I did the best I could for now in terms of pictures, however there'll be lots more in the Spring when I give it a post-winter detail and the owner adds some visual modifications.

Thanks to Amer of amernabulsi.com for the wonderful documentation and photography during the detail!

Thanks to all for looking!

Kaval

themightytimmah · 12-24-08, 02:11

Beautiful! Great turnaround - that car was *hammered*.

Streetlife · 12-24-08, 02:54

Much props, good job man.

Setec Astronomy · 12-24-08, 03:02

Those are some wicked sideburns, man. Great job on the car.

kaval · 12-24-08, 06:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by themightytimmah

Beautiful! Great turnaround - that car was *hammered*.

Thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Streetlife

Much props, good job man.

Thanks buddy!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Setec Astronomy

Those are some wicked sideburns, man. Great job on the car.

Thanks Setec! My sideburns say thank you, lol.

Tripperfx3 · 12-24-08, 07:54

Looks great mate! You wouldn't happen to know what the difference between the US Civic Si and the SiR you have there would be would you?

kaval · 12-24-08, 10:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tripperfx3

Looks great mate! You wouldn't happen to know what the difference between the US Civic Si and the SiR you have there would be would you?

Thanks!

The difference is really just in the badge.

Here in Canada we have the Civic Si, and the SiR.

For 2002, the Canadian Civic Si came with a D17 SOHC VTEC motor, and the Canadian SiR came with a K20A3 DOHC i-VTEC motor. The Si and SiR are very different cars.

The US Civic Si is equivalent to the Canadian SiR.

nrengle · 12-24-08, 10:45

I have a EP3 Hatch like the SIR (US SI model 02 also). How'd you like working with the nice soft paint on the EP3? I've polished mine twice, and I have still have problems with micromarring cause the paint is so soft. I wipe down with a MF towel (Supreme 530) and it'll mar the paint. UGH. Wish the Milano Red was offered in the US on the SI models.

TSC17 · 12-25-08, 09:00

Nice work, and nice pics as well!

reparebrise · 12-25-08, 10:31

Kaval

Nice to see you using Canada's best rotary value, the Powerfist. We have a little over 40 of these in our shops. They have replaced all the other brands, they have nice ergonimics, and for the pric they can't be beat. For those of you south of the border, an equivilent is available at your local Harbor freight store.

And Keep the side burns, very distinctive, sets you appart from the crowd.

kaval · 12-25-08, 02:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by nrengle

I have a EP3 Hatch like the SIR (US SI model 02 also). How'd you like working with the nice soft paint on the EP3? I've polished mine twice, and I have still have problems with micromarring cause the paint is so soft. I wipe down with a MF towel (Supreme 530) and it'll mar the paint. UGH. Wish the Milano Red was offered in the US on the SI models.

This paint was very easy to work with. I found with this tinted clear that it's a bit harder than the normal Honda paint with the base and clear. However, I may have experienced this due to the low temperatures. I would put it right next to Mazda paint in terms of hardness.

When you polish your paint, are you using a Porter Cable or UDM?

Quote:

Originally Posted by TSC17

Nice work, and nice pics as well!

Thank you!

Quote:

Originally Posted by reparebrise

Kaval

Nice to see you using Canada's best rotary value, the Powerfist. We have a little over 40 of these in our shops. They have replaced all the other brands, they have nice ergonimics, and for the pric they can't be beat. For those of you south of the border, an equivilent is available at your local Harbor freight store.

And Keep the side burns, very distinctive, sets you appart from the crowd.

Thanks! I've been using this rotary since I started and it has never let me down. It has gotten quite hot once or twice to the point where I could not hold it, but other than that it has been solid. I wish the cord was longer, and it's minimum speed was below 1000rpm. However, for a price of 65 dollars, I am more than happy. I've put at least 1200 hours on my machine and it is still going strong. I would however like to upgrade soon to something a bit more refined with a better handle like the Makita.

The sideburns will stay for sure. I've had them for about 8 years. This is the first time someone has mentioned them before, lol.