2000 Black Civic Si, feat. Sonus polishes & some paint repair (56k = :( )

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imported_Picus

New member
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?

blackcivcarb1.jpg




Er, maybe not...

blackcivrearbumpb5.jpg




blackcivrearbumpb4.jpg




blackcivfendb1.jpg




blackcivfendb2.jpg




blackcivswirlb3.jpg




blackcivswirlb2.jpg




blackcivspoib2.jpg
 
VTEC, yo. I was very happy with the way the rear bumper turned out. The giant chip is 90% gone (still a little uneven in the middle), but the scratches on the top near the trunk are 100% gone, and the spoiler/decklid look way better.



blackcivreara2.jpg




blackcivcara7.jpg




blackcivcara6.jpg




blackcivspoia1.jpg




blackcivhooda3.jpg




Not that anyone wants any more pics, but if you do (freak!), here are some overly dramatic and



relatively pointless montages!



http://gtaindetail.com/fp/blackcivic/montage1.jpg

http://gtaindetail.com/fp/blackcivic/montage2.jpg

http://gtaindetail.com/fp/blackcivic/montage3.jpg

http://gtaindetail.com/fp/blackcivic/montage4.jpg



Cheers.
 
Nice recovery!



That's not a Civic combination that we got here in the states for that body. Our Si was the hatch that didn't sell too well at all.:(
 
SpoiledMan said:
Nice recovery!



That's not a Civic combination that we got here in the states for that body. Our Si was the hatch that didn't sell too well at all.:(
Click to expand...



Ya, that's our "SiR" - you don't see a ton of those here either. I see a lot of the 2-door though (which I think is the "EX" in the States?).
 
Sure. So initially I figured it would just be a chip repair, but bigger. I didn't anticipate that the repaint was so thick (you can see in the before, it's like 2mm thick), so I had to run out and get some automotive putty. (3M super red putty). I sanded the crud out of the area around the chip to kind of flake off everything that wasn't totally sticking to the plastic bumper cover then cleaned it and filled it with putty and leveled that with a plastic trowel deal (for repairing drywall in corners), let that dry (it on;y took like 30 min), then I made a template with a peice of paper and cut that into some tape then taped it off as close as I could, then I used Duplicolor black for bumpers (I guess it has a flex agent in it), and just sprayed 2 coats, then a cc coat, then sanded again, polished and that was it.



It came out ~90% as good as new I'd say, my sis was pretty psyched. I have three minor issues with it personally - first there is a small shallow area in the center where the putty kind of sank down as it dried, second my tape template wasn't perfect so there is about 3-4cm of area in between and around the chip that got paint, so they look good but don't match the rest of the bumper totally. I think over time that will fade though. Last there is more OP in the repair than around it, but that was sort of a given. Anyway, you can't see it from more than a couple feet away, so I'll live with it. :)
 
Well... I think this paint is the same "nighthawk black pearl" that my Civic Sport (similar to TypeR) has...



Veeeery easy to swirl, nope? Great work on it dude!!!



To contribute with the Honda´s Civic culture around the world, here´s mine (sorry, but the photo is before entering the detailing world!)



imagen0480vq.jpg
 
Actually it's not NBP, it's the black Honda used before that (I forget the name, same blue flake but way less). NBP is a much nicer color I think, but yes, it's incredibly soft so it was relatively easy to repair the swirls, but of course it's easy to put them right back in. Luckily it's not my problem anymore! :)



Your car looks great. I wish they sold more of the hatches on this side of the world. I just saw the top gear vid of the new civic hatch and *loved* it.
 
Picus said:
Your car looks great. I wish they sold more of the hatches on this side of the world. I just saw the top gear vid of the new civic hatch and *loved* it.
Click to expand...



Yeah! It´s a coincidence you talk about new civic, today saw it at the dealer and tomorrow I´ll be driving it for first time, if you want I can show you the pics that I´m going to take.
 
NeReTe said:
Yeah! It´s a coincidence you talk about new civic, today saw it at the dealer and tomorrow I´ll be driving it for first time, if you want I can show you the pics that I´m going to take.
Click to expand...



Ya, I'd like that. :)
 
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