Detailed: 2009 Honda Civic Si - Rallye Red

Marc08EX

New member
Wash:
UWW+
600GSM Ultra Plush Microfiber Towels

Paint Correction:
Rupes Bigfoot LHR 21ES
Meguiar's W8207 Softbuff 2.0 Polishing Pad
Meguiar's W8006 Softbuff Polishing Pad
Rupes white/yellow pads
Meguiar's M205
Meguiar's M81
Craftsman 500W Halogen Lights
Brinkmann Dual Xenon Lights

LSP:
Menzerna Powerlock

Interior:
Meguiar's Quik Interior Detailer
Vacuum

Wheels:
Carpro Eraser
Optimum Opti-Coat 2.0

Tires:
Meguiar's Hyper Dressing

Finally I had some time to detail my own ride. I've had this vehicle since last August. It's swirled to hell and being a detailer, it's very painful to see. There were a lot of reasons why I couldn't detail my car for quite some time but I'm ecstatic that I was able to free up one weekend to tackle this car. It may not be as impressive because I don't have any before pictures showing that the car's dirty. I never let the car get dirty. I always quick detail it after every drive. Instead, I'll just show you a picture of when I first obtained it. I hope it's OK with you guys..

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The first thing I did was to perform a waterless wash on the vehicle. There was no point in pulling out the hose and spraying down the car because there's very minimal dirt. Even though it's so cool to attach a foam gun and take pictures, I chose this route instead. Here I used Ultima Waterless Wash dispensed with a hand pump sprayer. IMO, this is the way to do waterless washing because it provides an even coat of product to your paint. Here are some pics:

Waterless Wash Being Sprayed:
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Product Coverage:
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Wiping Down and Cleaning The Paint:
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All Taped Up and Ready To Go:
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Here are the products that I planned to use for this detailing session. Rupes Bigfoot in the house!!!

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My wheels were also swirled to hell. The first owner of this car probably took it to the car wash all the time. I decided to also correct the wheels.

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You guys want to know how great Meguiar's products work?!?! I kept on rubbing my Ultimate Compound on my wheels and it turned it to gold!!!

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Since the wheels are new, I decided to apply opti-coat to them to make cleaning easier.

Eraser wipedown prior to opti-coat application:
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Opti-Coat on wheels:
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I've already clayed this car a couple of months ago so the paint is still smooth.

Now onto the paint correction phase. I knew that my paint was on the softer side because it scratches very easily. I would just rub my finger against the paint and I will see scratches on it. I didn't really know if I was putting a lot of swirls during my ownership because it already had a lot to begin with. Anyway, knowing that I have soft paint, I decided to use M205 with a polishing pad and see where it takes me. Thankfully, it worked quite well!! I wasn't able to remove some deep RIDS but that was completely fine with me. Achieving what I have with a finer polish made me really happy. I wasn't removing a lot of paint and this product had a lot of polishing oils making it LSP ready. The following are pictures showing this process:

Passenger Side Rear Quarter Before:
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Passenger Side Rear Quarter 50/50:
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Passenger Side Rear Quarter After:
10%2520-%2520Pass%2520Rear%2520Quarter%2520After.jpg


Passenger Side Door Before:
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Passenger Side Door 50/50:
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Passenger Side Door After:
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Passenger Side Fender Before:
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Passenger Side Fender 50/50:
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Passenger Side Fender After:
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The pictures aren't capturing all the swirls in the paint. It looks much worse than that in person. The entire car is in that condition so there's really no point in showing you correction of each panel (although I have the pics).

The paint already finished LSP ready because of the polishing oils M205 had. However, this is my personal vehicle so I wanted to take it a step further. I was talking to MOL admin, Michael Stoops and he suggested doing a 50/50 M205/M81 mix. I decided to use this concoction as my 2nd step polish and paired it up with a finishing pad. Boy oh boy did the paint look wet!!! I was seeing a difference but it could also be just my head hahaha! The camera wasn't capturing this so I didn't really take pics after this step.

After, I used Menzerna Powerlock as my LSP. Here's a picture of the LSP curing:

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The following shots are the fruits of my labor:

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Sun Shots:

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Photoshoot:

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What do you guys think? Comments and criticisms are welcome!!!

Time: 10 Hours

Location: Phoenix, AZ
 
Very nice. Are you planning on getting the rest of the lip kit? What kind of wheels are those?

Nevermind I just realized they are Volks. :D I miss my CE28's. :(
 
Love the new rims.

Thanks steeda! It's my childhood dream wheel brand.

Very nice. Are you planning on getting the rest of the lip kit? What kind of wheels are those?

Nevermind I just realized they are Volks. :D I miss my CE28's. :(

I'm planning to get the HFP sides. My wallet has a burning hole in it ATM so I need to give it time to recover LOL! I don't care so much for the rear.

RE30s baby!!!!

Great job!

Thanks a lot Michael! Means a lot coming from you!
 
That's one Clean Honda. Love the rims on that ride.

Thank you, TacoHerder!!! I love my car.

very nice work. love the finish.

Thanks a lot, tropicsteve!!!

nice work

Thanks, Ronkh!

Wow that looks amazing! Great job. The red on the Civic looks super wet:bigups

WOW!! That certainly carries a lot of weight coming from you Todd! Really glad to hear your compliments - means I'm doing something right hahaha! THANK YOU Todd!

ya that looks really great. Also i like the rims. suits perfectly

Thanks a lot, polisher! I really like my rims. At first I didn't like them when I was test fitting them.
 
Marc,

A seriously outstanding thread in every respect! :yourrock

Buddy, you got all the toys out and had one great day! What a beautiful restoration throughout but where does that silver wheel fit in?

Awesome Marc!! :bigups
 
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