More progress! This might be the only project in recent history to be completed on HCF!

Old and busted meets old and boring. Together they became quite acceptable. (Kept the working speedometer to keep the mileage correct.) Side question: Why is the gas gauge on the right one still showing half a tank when its not hooked up? Bad gauge?


Car wash time! I spent from about noon to 4:30 on just the exterior. My apartment doesn't allow car washing on the premises, so I drove to my parents house to borrow the driveway.

Before:











Nasty car. Not a trace of wax on it. There was a lot of road tar on the lower parts of the car, many bugs on the front, mold/mildew on the roof, and tons of scratches, scuffs, gouges, etc. I hosed the car off just to get the loose stuff off then scrubbed the car down with a towel and a mixture of water and Armor-all car wash stuff. I took the time to get the door jambs, panel seams, gas tank lid, etc. (and I even washed the hub caps out of pure sympathy). This was the most horribly time consuming portion of the process.

After that, I was left with a very clean surface to work from. But every single clear coat scuff, scratch, etc. was now clearly visible, including the very nasty scar that runs down both passenger doors.









From here, the fun began. I started using Turtle Wax polishing compound to remove as many of the lighter (repairable) clear coat scratches and scuffs. This is the step that wore my arms out. (Maybe someday I'll invest in a buffer.) I worked the hood over pretty hardcore but couldn't get all the damage off. The trunk lid took forever, but most of them went away. (The Civic logo fell off in the process... gotta glue it back on.) Both quarter panels got serious attention, and the passenger fender got smoothed out. (It looked like someone took 1000-1500 grit sand paper to the front of it, wtf? Shiny now.) Then, of course, I had to wax the whole thing to make all the effort worth it. I brought the old school paste wax with me, but my arms were so tired that I drove home and just used the Turtle Wax Ice synthetic stuff. I love that stuff because you can use it on the glass and everything. It still took awhile to apply and then polish with a microfiber cloth, but I was pleased with the end result.











Which beats the hell out of what it was before:


The photos are very kind to it. There are still many scratches that are down to the primer but overall it's much improved.

The only downside? I checked the weather and it's supposed to rain tomorrow.

>.< !!!!!!!