2008 SI sedan

[chriskraft3]

Hey guys,

I think this is my first thread over here. Just a few months before my wife and I were married in 2008 we decided for her to buy what is now our car. The car was bought in March '08 and we were married in October '08. Almost always used a daily driver.

I'm a car guy, obviously-I'm on this website, and have been for a long time. When I bought my first new car I was simply scared to detail it, fearing that I would mar the paint. That was twelve years ago.

I'm not sure if any of you would get this but if you looked at my https://store.48days.com/products/profile-standard?lssrc=popular&orid=37662&opid=4 DISC profile you would learn that I am an information guy.

When all else goes wrong, I lean into getting more information. So when I started doing research, Mike Phillips was the perfect teacher. Exact in his processes and stunningly informational. I decided to buy everything detail wise from AGO.

I "practiced" on, what started out as, a flip car. A car we weren't planning on keeping. A 2001 Beetle that was owned by an enthusiast at one point with a custom pearl laid over the factory white paint. Spent a bit more than fifteen hours on the detail. It came out great.

So now it was time to try on the car we have had since new. Our SI Sedan. Probably what led me to researching heavy on polishing was that we had a paint recall done. Honda put out a bulletin about clear coat failure. Our roof paint and truck paint was cloudy from failure. There was a 7 year from purchase date expiration. We had the bulletin for almost two years before I exercised the option. I figure if we are going to continue to own the car then I would push the partial respray out right up until the expiration. Three weeks before expiration I took it in. Obviously the clear was junk. The hood had what they called "Crows feet." So the Hood, leading edge of the front fenders, roof, roof rails and truck were resprayed. All were showing serious signs of clear coat junking out.

The issue was this. Paint looked good. Body shop buffing did not. Quite a few RIDS (Random) and holograms like crazy on the upper rear quarter. Looks like they considering buffing the doors. Started with the driver side and put a ton of swirls right next to the handle. Then they must have backed off thinking they were screwing it all up. When I picked the car up, it was under an awning so all of the swirls were not easily noticed.

So here we are.
My two biggest fears-
1. Mismatched new paint to original
2. Swirls and other new issues from the body shop.

I don't have a ton of before pictures.

Original Trunk paint.
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t438/chris_kraft3/66872D17-0A37-4068-B0E7-A6752B20A5E7_zpsa1zoqo12.jpg

Leading edges taped off so that I didn't burn through the paint on the edges of each panel.
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t438/chris_kraft3/25025AD3-7526-4F19-9EEE-02704AB5CEF8_zpszdzdvtic.jpg (http://s1059.photobucket.com/user/chris_kraft3/media/25025AD3-7526-4F19-9EEE-02704AB5CEF8_zpszdzdvtic.jpg.html)


Original paint area.
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t438/chris_kraft3/82805CDC-D7E5-4099-B6BB-93858189E24C_zpslj2lukfb.jpg (http://s1059.photobucket.com/user/chris_kraft3/media/82805CDC-D7E5-4099-B6BB-93858189E24C_zpslj2lukfb.jpg.html)

During
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t438/chris_kraft3/7DF46ECA-4DF4-49C4-AD7C-F11EEA0D1541_zpspw5syznp.jpg (http://s1059.photobucket.com/user/chris_kraft3/media/7DF46ECA-4DF4-49C4-AD7C-F11EEA0D1541_zpspw5syznp.jpg.html)

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t438/chris_kraft3/CAAD7475-20D8-4EB1-8993-508FBAF37426_zpsiziucjoe.jpg
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t438/chris_kraft3/71214CC8-5640-498B-AD6E-172AF0574BA4_zpsy3goeuii.jpg (http://s1059.photobucket.com/user/chris_kraft3/media/71214CC8-5640-498B-AD6E-172AF0574BA4_zpsy3goeuii.jpg.html)


Then I washed off all of the polish residue.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t438/chris_kraft3/C188C47D-4C08-4D68-9C07-7168112DACE2_zpsxn26denp.jpg
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t438/chris_kraft3/252DC9B6-627A-4A54-8178-20677F3B6DBF_zpsdwtelbij.jpg
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t438/chris_kraft3/CAF115D5-B5B2-40DC-9A9D-B4F16F12069B_zpsjro45niy.jpg

Then this is after the wax and then the glaze.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t438/chris_kraft3/B8F81E38-1E4C-4940-B2F5-A8100584C400_zpsihsxkmwr.jpg
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t438/chris_kraft3/25E87E88-A014-431A-944B-BEC182289E0C_zpsiurre7wq.jpg
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t438/chris_kraft3/FBC62A97-714C-4EBE-9546-EFA4990E3191_zpstf0rcjey.jpg

And had some stickers made up. It should surely help, without drawing attention saying "hey, purposely scratch this car because I actually take care of it and you're mad."

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t438/chris_kraft3/0B1C14FD-D14D-41A2-A899-FD8C246E1145_zps4jw8lmdt.jpg

Guess the mileage!

[jamesboyy]

Excellent work on that Honda you sure know how to make a Blue supple with precision

[Stevedotmil]

Wow....great job on bringing back that stunning blue paint. I'm partial to blue. What products did you use?

[chriskraft3]

Excellent work on that Honda you sure know how to make a Blue supple with precision

Thank you!

Good deal I like the process. No way it would have came out this good if I short changed any of the steps.


Wow....great job on bringing back that stunning blue paint. I'm partial to blue. What products did you use?

Thank you!

It's called Fiji Blue on this model of SI.

I used a Porter Cable 7424XP.

Iron X

CCS closed cell pads:
Orange, Black, Blue

Pinnacle XMT:
Speed clay & Lube
Polishing Pad Conditioner
Swirl Remover #4,3,2,1 (12 Orange pads)
360 (4 Black pads)
Carnauba Finishing Glaze (4 Blue pads)

Then clean all the pads with
Pinnacle XMT:
Polishing Pad Cleaner

Beginning Process of polishing I used lower quality microfiber. Beyond Swirl remover #3 I used only microfiber that came from AutoGeek. I used the Blue colored microfiber down to swirl remover #1. Then from there I only used my Green colored microfiber. All to make sure I didn't have contamination as I was getting the finish closer and closer to perfection.


Don't forget the guess the miles on this car

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Very nice work Chris! Thanks for sharing a nice introduction to the beginning of the thread. Enjoyed the read.

No surprise the body shop couldn't finish off the buffing work properly. Beautifully done bring it all back together. Looks great.

Judging by the after pictures it looks there is only a few thousand miles on the odometer... But being a DD from 2008 I'm gonna say there is over 100K on the odometer.

[chriskraft3]

Very nice work Chris! Thanks for sharing a nice introduction to the beginning of the thread. Enjoyed the read.

No surprise the body shop couldn't finish off the buffing work properly. Beautifully done bring it all back together. Looks great.

Judging by the after pictures it looks there is only a few thousand miles on the odometer... But being a DD from 2008 I'm gonna say there is over 100K on the odometer.

Thanks Mike.

I've looked through some threads on work that you've done. Your quality is super high so that leads me to believe that your praise is only given to a few. So thanks for that.


I'll fill everyone in on the mileage after a few more guesses.

On another note,
Looks like one of the photos has a down link but I don't have the option to "EDIT" the post. I also forgot pictures of the roof.

We left the Civic at my parents house, out of state, while we came to our condo in the other car. There was a bicycle that was left outside in the street. Someone ran over it, you could tell was pissed off, ripped their door open leaving a dent and transfer of paint on the driver door. Then threw the bicycle on the roof of our car. Scarred the paint down the metal in plenty of areas. OMG we were mad. I went to the dealer and bought touch up paint. Touched it up and went on. I looked at all those dang scratches for years. Thank you Honda for doing the recall!

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t438/chris_kraft3/3F2020BB-C9B0-4983-A30D-402C4B90EBC6_zpst1gqjsej.jpg
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t438/chris_kraft3/EA1C9540-2BE9-4FAF-B21F-B4912E37116C_zpslb9fenqr.jpg
(All photos on this thread made by iPhone 5)

[chriskraft3]

One bump, then I'll release the mileage on this car.

[cameronthmpsn]

I have an 09 Civic Si that's the exact same color as yours, relatively rare as I've only seen 3 or 4 since I bought the car. I took advantage of the recall but at the time only the roof was seeing the clear failure. Sadly now, every panel other than the roof is going through the same thing. I wish mine looked half as nice as yours. I'm quite jealous.

[SwiftTone]

With a sticker like that, I feel like it would attract people to touch it l, or worse

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk

[builthatch]

my wife had a '07 FBP Si sedan from new. by the time she sold it in the late spring of '14, it had like 160k and had pretty much every panel repainted by Honda.

as a paint nerd, it was hard going through that, but it was her car, not mine, she drove the wheels off and honestly "decent" repaint looks better than failing clear or worse - exposed primer (which is what can end up happening if you leave the clear failure long enough lol. the car was more than anything just a fun little reliable tool to get around.

i had to fight tooth and nail for two things with that car. the first was the infamous third gear issue, which eventually Honda admitted to across the board and fixed everyone's cars. that was way early on. then the pan issues started to happen. first on the roof, then the roof rails, then the front fenders, then the trunk. and because of all the blending and stuff, they ended up painting like i said almost every panel when it was all said and done. and all of this was done over five years haha. in fact, when she sold it, it had JUST gotten more paint work from Honda under warranty. at ~160k!!!!

interestingly enough, a few months later, i saw the car ended up in Greg Gellas's shop Signature Detailing in NJ! small world.

and the wild thing is that car wasn't even the first one for us to have issues - prior to that, she bought a silver Si sedan. it had literal moveable bubbles in the paint. so when Honda dug into it, they found it had been repaired prior to new sale and the whole side of the car was body filler! so they bought it back and since she needed a car and wanted an Si sedan, she got the blue one.

[chriskraft3]

I have an 09 Civic Si that's the exact same color as yours, relatively rare as I've only seen 3 or 4 since I bought the car. I took advantage of the recall but at the time only the roof was seeing the clear failure. Sadly now, every panel other than the roof is going through the same thing. I wish mine looked half as nice as yours. I'm quite jealous.

The blue painted Si's are more rare, I think your right. 07 and 08 had this color blue called Fiji Blue Pearl. 09 up was Dyno blue pearl. Very close just a little lighter. Did you ever get a recall on your paint? Ours was listed as 7 years from original sale.


With a sticker like that, I feel like it would attract people to touch it l, or worse


Mixed message, I'm sure. I mainly use it to educate the children, like nieces and nephews, that we do not lean on peoples cars or write on them when they are dirty. The writing is so difficult to see if you are not looking for it.



my wife had a '07 FBP Si sedan from new. by the time she sold it in the late spring of '14, it had like 160k and had pretty much every panel repainted by Honda.

as a paint nerd, it was hard going through that, but it was her car, not mine, she drove the wheels off and honestly "decent" repaint looks better than failing clear or worse - exposed primer (which is what can end up happening if you leave the clear failure long enough lol. the car was more than anything just a fun little reliable tool to get around.

i had to fight tooth and nail for two things with that car. the first was the infamous third gear issue, which eventually Honda admitted to across the board and fixed everyone's cars. that was way early on. then the pan issues started to happen. first on the roof, then the roof rails, then the front fenders, then the trunk. and because of all the blending and stuff, they ended up painting like i said almost every panel when it was all said and done. and all of this was done over five years haha. in fact, when she sold it, it had JUST gotten more paint work from Honda under warranty. at ~160k!!!!

interestingly enough, a few months later, i saw the car ended up in Greg Gellas's shop Signature Detailing in NJ! small world.

and the wild thing is that car wasn't even the first one for us to have issues - prior to that, she bought a silver Si sedan. it had literal moveable bubbles in the paint. so when Honda dug into it, they found it had been repaired prior to new sale and the whole side of the car was body filler! so they bought it back and since she needed a car and wanted an Si sedan, she got the blue one.

Very cool story. How wild on the silver SI, right?
It is cool watching my wife bang gears, screaming it in the high RPM's.