Subject: 2000 Honda Civic
Requirements - Remove heavy swirls and scratches, and protect with Opti Coat

Exterior

- Wheels were prepped with Sonax Wheel Cleaner and cleaned up with various brushes
- Tires were spritzed down with Adam’s All Purpose Cleaner and washed down
- Wheel wells were cleaned up
- Washed with 1Z einszett W99
- Aquartz Iron Cut
- Wash down and rinsed
- Door jambs were cleaned up
- Nano Scrub AutoScrub
- Dried
- Tires dressed
- Masking
- Paint Measurement
- Wetsanding
- Meg's M105 with Surbuf Pad - Griots Orbital
- Meg's D300 with Microfiber DA Cut Pad - Griots Orbital
- Menzerna SF4000 with Uber Green Pad - Griots Orbital
- Opti Coat
- Inspection with Fenix, 3m Sun Gun, Infratech, and natural sunlight
- Wheel wells were cleaned and dressed
- Rubber and Plastics Treated
- Exterior windows and mirrors cleaned and sealed
- Exhaust tips cleaned
- Windows were autoscrubed, cleaned, and sealed

Products used

Links to products used -

1Z einszett W99
Aquartz Iron Cut
Sonax Full Effect Wheel Cleaner
NanoSkin AutoScrub System
Meg's M105
Meg's D300 Microfiber Correction System
Menzerna SF4000
Opti Coat
Adam's Super VRT
Optimum Metal Polish

Tools used
Uber Wool Wash Mitt
Uber No Name MF Towels
Griot's 6 inch Random Orbital Polisher
Uber Buffing Pads
Defelsko Paint Meter
Fenix TK35
Brinkmann
Kranzle Pressure Washer
Cam Spray Foam Canon
2 Grit Guard Buckets with Caddies
Uber Firehose Nozzle
Metro Air Force Blaster

Before














Prep - Wash, Wheels, Tires, NanoSkin



Headlight restoration

Before shots of the lights.




Various stages of wet sanding required to clean up the headlights



Compound and Polish



After shots of the headlights - Opti Coat installed





D300 with Griots


50/50 shots of correction




Before trim


After


After shots

 

You must love a challenge. I'm still amazed at what you can do. This customer probably just added a thousand or so to his asking price. I assume he is selling the car, why else treat a beater to such a luxury spa day?

How much paint was left after that? Seems like you would practically have to go down to primer to get those swirls out.

I remember you saying once that the paint can only take 1 heavy polish like this in it's life.

 

I purchased the Griot's and the Prima products and tried them out just recently with decent results. Being new to this process I am not sure of the proper procedure for best results. Do you know if any particular write-up here on NAM or another source that talks about the Prima products in particular and gives a "How to"? I have read the instructions on the products and am confident I am using everything correctly, but I am not sure of how long I should be going over each 2 square foot area. I used the Swirl and while it took most of the damage out of the paint it did not seem to get everything. I wondered if at that point I should be using Cut first or just using Swirl but using it longer or applying everything more than once. And I also realize that my questions may be hard to answer as seeing the paint in person makes it easier to determine the best course of action.

 

Amazing!

 

thanks guys.

the customer wanted to just treat his car to a spa day as he will not be able to buy another car for another 2-3 years and this one has served him well 160k and still going.

as for the prima do a search tons of prima info here.

if the swirl isn't cutting it I would say yellow pad and cut then swirls then finish.

Phil

 

Thanks Phil.

I appreciate the info.

Aaron

 

anytime.