2008 Honda CR-V - 65 Pictures

**rwright** · 06-01-2012, 06:28 AM

Greetings all. It's been a while since I've put together a write up so I figured what the heck. The featured vehicle belongs to a co-worker and he is a heck of a guy, one of those that you can tell just has a good heart after just a few minutes of meeting him. After many conversations about detailing and showing him some of my previous work he decided that it was time for his ride to get cleaned up. In all honesty he just asked for an interior clean up, wash and real good wax job because it hasn't been waxed since new. Let the story begin...

Vehicle upon arrival

Notice the rust specs?

After a quick trip to a touchless wash since I was mobile, this is what the paint looked like

*Photo enhanced to better represent condition of paint

As you can see there was still a nice build up of grime that needed to be addressed. From this point I proceeded to clean the wheel wells, tires, and plastic cladding with Optimum Power Clean full strength. The wheels were cleaned with Iron X then washed with Chemical Guys Citrus Wash N' Gloss. I washed the whole vehicle with CG CWG at paint prep ratio. Please note the plastic cladding was washed last.

Look closely and you can see how bad the paint was even after being washed.

Remember the condition of the wheels?

During the Iron X bath

And after the final wash and rinse

To be continued...

**rwright** · 06-01-2012, 06:28 AM

The next day I returned to snap some interior before pics and get started on the paint prep. Before taping up the trim work, the paint was clayed with Riccardo Yellow and ONR as lube.

Interior Before

Pretty nasty driver side door panel

Driver seat

Passenger side front arm rest

and seat

The above stains were identified as blood stains and were a couple years old. Hmm...

The interior was cleaned using 1Z Einszett Plastic Deep Cleaner on all interior panels and Folex on all cloth surfaces. Interior was then bombed with Dakota Odor Bomb Non Smoke and the ventilation system was treated to a full can of 1Z Klima Kleaner.

Now it was time for the paint and I wanted to try Blackfire Total Polish N' Seal as a prep for Blackfire Wet Diamond sealant and to clean up the staining and marring on the paint. Well this didn't go over too well once again. Previously I tried it on a 2011 Subaru Outback in pearl white and it muted the pearl. Not only that but when I got some of it on my hand it stained my skin. After discussing this with Angelo and later on Todd, I received a new bottle to try. This time I had tiger striping with both Lake Country Crimson and Black Finishing pads. At this point I called it quits with this product.

I looked at my Griot's Garage Detail Bag and noticed I brought my Optimum Hyper Spray Polish with me, figured I would give it a shot and couldn't believe the finish! After finally cleaning up the whole top portion of the CR-V, I moved to the side to take a couple 50/50 pictures. Paint was polished on speed 4 on Griot's DA and 5 1/2'' low profile Lake Country tangerine hydro-tech pads.

I ran into an interesting problem but forgot to document it with photos, the paint was soaking up the oils in the polish and the residue was drying before I could safely wipe it away. Thinking back on some of Richy's threads I grabbed my bottle of ONR mix and sprayed the panel, bingo! After I finished polishing a section, I literally had to spray the paint with the ONR solution to wipe away the polish residue. It took me 45 minutes per side to polish this way but it worked just fine.

To be continued...

**rwright** · 06-01-2012, 06:29 AM

After doing a few sections I wanted to pull the car out into the sun to check my work. Keep in mind this wasn't a scheduled correction and no compound was used, so yes some RIDS still remain.

I got a little carried away, sorry. Well I pulled the CR-V back inside to finish up and apply the Blackfire Wet Diamond sealant, allowed to cure over night, and dressed the tires with Blackfire Total Eclipse Tire Gel. But after applying the Blackfire sealant I decided to bomb the interior again. The next day I returned to finish up the exterior and interior details, including one more round of Dakota Non Smoke (yes this makes 3). The wheel wells were dressed with Meguiar's All Season Dressing, all plastic trim including the grille was treated to Chemical Guys New Look Trim Gel, glass cleaned with Adam's Glass Cleaner and Autoality's new white glass towel, exterior glass cleaned and treated with Duragloss Rain Repel. The wheels received a coat of Duragloss #501 Marine/RV Polish. The interior panels were all wiped down with Chemical Guys Inner Clean, then lightly buffed.

And the final parting shots

Congrats if you made it all the way through the entire write up! If not I hope you at least liked the pictures.

Thanks for looking.

Richard

**BobbyG** · 06-01-2012, 06:33 AM

Richard,

That was one well driven daily driver!! This is typical of what comes in and with the right amount of time, personal skill, products, and equipment it's amazing what can be fixed.. Those after shots are simply amazing!!

Things are coming along quite nicely, thanks for the great work and contribution!!

**Buckskincolt** · 06-01-2012, 06:53 AM

Nice Job Richard,
That had to be one very pleased customer.
Thanks for the write up!

**TimmyG** · 06-01-2012, 07:17 AM

Nice save! Love that Ironx photo dwelling on the wheels - they cleaned up better than I thought they would.

**Flannigan** · 06-01-2012, 07:28 AM

Great work Richard! Gotta love working on soft paint that cleans up so easily like that! Car looks brand new!

**LuxuryMobile** · 06-01-2012, 07:48 AM

Great turn around, love the 50/50 shots.

I have been meaning to pick up those Optimum spray products (polish+compound). This post will have me order it today.

Nice work as always.

**Klasse Act** · 06-01-2012, 07:56 AM

Originally Posted by TimmyG

Nice save! Love that Ironx photo dwelling on the wheels - they cleaned up better than I thought they would.

That's exactly what I was thinking too, WOW! That one overall, 50/50 shot from further back is simply amazing, couldn't even photoshop something like that, LOL! Nice to see that the same tool I use (Griot's DA) can produce results like that, thank God for the soft paint used by Honda for sure!

Thanks for the pics and write up

Mike Phillips · 06-01-2012, 07:59 AM

The CR-V looks as good as new! Excellent work, photography and write-up that will help and inspire others into the future.

When I look at the scratches and swirls on the before side of this picture I just have to wonder what did the owner do to the car?

Very nice work Richard.