Matt S.
01-13-2009, 08:47 PM
As some of you may have known, I had a little black '97 Civic DX hatchback beater to drive to work, etc. Driving the Vette all the time, I didn't realize how noisy and annoying the Civic was until I drove my dad's 2000 Camry, which I hadn't driven in about a year. That's when I realized I wanted something a little nicer to drive everyday.
Well, the car needed tons of body work/paint to say the least, but was solid mechanically. My friend wanted to buy it, so I sold it to him 2 days ago. After selling it, I found a nice white '97 Camry, 1 owner with 78k miles on it....picked it up for $3400, and the Civic was sold for $2500 so I made out pretty good. Timing belt, water pump, battery and tires are all fairly new and the car is pretty solid. The only thing wrong with the exterior aside from the normal rock chips and whatnot, is the driver's side mirror is pretty chewed up from a combination of oxidation and rock chips (my assumption). Gotta re-spray that one of these days. I also have to get the rear window re-tinted since it's bubbling up and kinda hard to see out of. Other than that and a few minor stains (I just vacuumed it today, gotta get my hands on our extractor to get some spots out), the interior is like new
Anyways, I picked the car up last night. The paint is surprisingly nice, I'm assuming it was kept in a garage most of its life. Most of the car had some light oxidation but no clearcoat failure or anything too serious.
My approach was as follows:
-Wash with DG 901
-Clay with Wolfgang Elastic Poly Clay
-Meguiar's #105 via Flex XC3401 + many orange LC pads
-Meguiar's #205 via Flex XC3401 + green LC polishing/finishing pads
-Collinite 476S by hand
-M105 on headlights via PC7424 + 4" LC yellow pad
Overall, I'm very happy with how the car turned out and my purchase overall. UNFORTUNATELY, I got an overcast day which SUCKS for taking pics of a white car.
Pics:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_5988.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_5990.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_5991.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_5992.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_5993.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_5994.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_5998.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6000.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6001.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6003.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6004.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6005.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6006.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6007.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6009.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6010.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6011.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6012.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6013.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6014.jpg
Well, the car needed tons of body work/paint to say the least, but was solid mechanically. My friend wanted to buy it, so I sold it to him 2 days ago. After selling it, I found a nice white '97 Camry, 1 owner with 78k miles on it....picked it up for $3400, and the Civic was sold for $2500 so I made out pretty good. Timing belt, water pump, battery and tires are all fairly new and the car is pretty solid. The only thing wrong with the exterior aside from the normal rock chips and whatnot, is the driver's side mirror is pretty chewed up from a combination of oxidation and rock chips (my assumption). Gotta re-spray that one of these days. I also have to get the rear window re-tinted since it's bubbling up and kinda hard to see out of. Other than that and a few minor stains (I just vacuumed it today, gotta get my hands on our extractor to get some spots out), the interior is like new
Anyways, I picked the car up last night. The paint is surprisingly nice, I'm assuming it was kept in a garage most of its life. Most of the car had some light oxidation but no clearcoat failure or anything too serious.
My approach was as follows:
-Wash with DG 901
-Clay with Wolfgang Elastic Poly Clay
-Meguiar's #105 via Flex XC3401 + many orange LC pads
-Meguiar's #205 via Flex XC3401 + green LC polishing/finishing pads
-Collinite 476S by hand
-M105 on headlights via PC7424 + 4" LC yellow pad
Overall, I'm very happy with how the car turned out and my purchase overall. UNFORTUNATELY, I got an overcast day which SUCKS for taking pics of a white car.
Pics:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_5988.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_5990.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_5991.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_5992.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_5993.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_5994.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_5998.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6000.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6001.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6003.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6004.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6005.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6006.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6007.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6009.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6010.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6011.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6012.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6013.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v455/MattZ28/IMG_6014.jpg