Civic clean up thread
Civic clean up thread
This will be a big long post with pictures to follow. Hopefully updated weekly.
Feel free to chime in on anything you see/read.
The Car:
2001 Honda Civic LX 5spd- Color: Nighthawk Black Pearl (Black with a bit of blue fleck/flake)
Around 180k miles on the body, 100k on the trans, 75kish on the motor
The Plan Overview (No particular order):
Paint
Trim
Headlights
Interior
Ride height
Maintenance
Paint Details:
Porter Cable XP
Hex Logic pads (5.5in)
Meguiar's liquids
So far I've had great practice runs on the trunk lid, roof and driver's side of the car. I run a medium cut pad with the Meguiar's scartch remover on speed 4 with moderate pressure. Switch to a light polishing pad for Meguiar's polish and finish it off with a finishing pad and Meguiar's wax. This has worked great on light to light/medium scratches and swirls. Sooner or later I will move to Lake Country, as they are highly recommended from what I've read so far. The liquids will remain Meguiar's for now, them being fairly cheap and readily available.
There are quite a few paint chips and scratches around the body that will be touched up, wet sanded and polished out. I removed the CIVIC and LX badges from the rear of the car. During this process the badges took a small amount of paint with them. Again, touch up, wet sand, and polish should do the trick.
Trim:
Being a 10 year old car the trim is starting to gray.
I'm going to try:
Meguiar's Trim Detailer
Forever Black: If I can find it
Kiwi Black Leather Shoe Dye (Recommended on a few forums I follow)
Headlights:
As of last night - Wet sanded, by hand, with 800, 1500, 2000 grit sand paper. Up, down, up, for sanding order. Followed by a nice wash, dry, and hit it with PlastiX and the Porter Cable. Yellowing is completely gone, major scratches have been filled/removed, and there are some small "buffer trails". At least I think that is what I should call them. Nothing major, they only show when hit by a flash light, or if outside and looking at the right angle.
Interior:
Small stains on the rear carpet need to be shampo'd out. Shouldn't be too much trouble by hand, although I may buy the carpet buffer thingy for the Porter Cable.
Driver's side A Pillar trim is no properly attached along the top. Not sure how to fix this. 3M glue spray? Nailgun? Fire?
Floor mats: Need replacement. Worn through in two spots from shifting. Mats from Honda, front and back, are around 60 bucks. All black with white "Civic" stitched on I believe. Nothing fancy
Ride Height:
Mild drop for looks. Quoted 1,200 - 1,300 for parts and labor.
Tein Basic springs + Tokico blues + alignment + camber kit if needed. Seems reasonable but I will definitely shop around.
Maintenance:
Timing Belt replacement - Around $500 from a few local shops and Honda dealer
Rotors - Will grab these online and install them myself. EBC has OEM style blank rotors for 30 or so a piece. No slots, no drilling, nothing crazy.
Pads: OEM pads will be around $55 after shipping. EBC or Hawk pads are in the 55-65 after shipping range. I'm still on the fence as I've heard great things about the Hawk HPS pads.
Spark Plugs: Haven't changed these since the motor was replaced. That was a while ago.
Tires: I haven't checked in a month or more but I will need tires before end of summer.
Feel free to chime in on anything you see/read.
The Car:
2001 Honda Civic LX 5spd- Color: Nighthawk Black Pearl (Black with a bit of blue fleck/flake)
Around 180k miles on the body, 100k on the trans, 75kish on the motor
The Plan Overview (No particular order):
Paint
Trim
Headlights
Interior
Ride height
Maintenance
Paint Details:
Porter Cable XP
Hex Logic pads (5.5in)
Meguiar's liquids
So far I've had great practice runs on the trunk lid, roof and driver's side of the car. I run a medium cut pad with the Meguiar's scartch remover on speed 4 with moderate pressure. Switch to a light polishing pad for Meguiar's polish and finish it off with a finishing pad and Meguiar's wax. This has worked great on light to light/medium scratches and swirls. Sooner or later I will move to Lake Country, as they are highly recommended from what I've read so far. The liquids will remain Meguiar's for now, them being fairly cheap and readily available.
There are quite a few paint chips and scratches around the body that will be touched up, wet sanded and polished out. I removed the CIVIC and LX badges from the rear of the car. During this process the badges took a small amount of paint with them. Again, touch up, wet sand, and polish should do the trick.
Trim:
Being a 10 year old car the trim is starting to gray.
I'm going to try:
Meguiar's Trim Detailer
Forever Black: If I can find it
Kiwi Black Leather Shoe Dye (Recommended on a few forums I follow)
Headlights:
As of last night - Wet sanded, by hand, with 800, 1500, 2000 grit sand paper. Up, down, up, for sanding order. Followed by a nice wash, dry, and hit it with PlastiX and the Porter Cable. Yellowing is completely gone, major scratches have been filled/removed, and there are some small "buffer trails". At least I think that is what I should call them. Nothing major, they only show when hit by a flash light, or if outside and looking at the right angle.
Interior:
Small stains on the rear carpet need to be shampo'd out. Shouldn't be too much trouble by hand, although I may buy the carpet buffer thingy for the Porter Cable.
Driver's side A Pillar trim is no properly attached along the top. Not sure how to fix this. 3M glue spray? Nailgun? Fire?
Floor mats: Need replacement. Worn through in two spots from shifting. Mats from Honda, front and back, are around 60 bucks. All black with white "Civic" stitched on I believe. Nothing fancy
Ride Height:
Mild drop for looks. Quoted 1,200 - 1,300 for parts and labor.
Tein Basic springs + Tokico blues + alignment + camber kit if needed. Seems reasonable but I will definitely shop around.
Maintenance:
Timing Belt replacement - Around $500 from a few local shops and Honda dealer
Rotors - Will grab these online and install them myself. EBC has OEM style blank rotors for 30 or so a piece. No slots, no drilling, nothing crazy.
Pads: OEM pads will be around $55 after shipping. EBC or Hawk pads are in the 55-65 after shipping range. I'm still on the fence as I've heard great things about the Hawk HPS pads.
Spark Plugs: Haven't changed these since the motor was replaced. That was a while ago.
Tires: I haven't checked in a month or more but I will need tires before end of summer.
Re: Civic clean up thread
Forgot to mention Side View Mirror:
Thinking of sanding, priming and painting matte black.
Current:

Trim:

Not sure what to do about this:

Civic Emblem touched up but not sanded:

Hood: That ain't dirt

Passenger Rear Quarter Panel:
Thinking of sanding, priming and painting matte black.
Current:
Trim:
Not sure what to do about this:
Civic Emblem touched up but not sanded:
Hood: That ain't dirt

Passenger Rear Quarter Panel:
Thread
Thread Starter
Honda Civic Forum
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mattdoc
Mechanical Problems/Vehicle Issues and Fix-it Forum
9
Mar 14, 2017 12:10 PM





