# Refined Detail - Milano Red Honda Civic Type R with CQUK



## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

:wave:

Hi Everybody,

Seeing as the sleet / snow has hit Sussex again this morning despite it not being forecast for here, I have some free time to sit down and post another write up of a Civic I completed last week!

This is a new car for a good client of mine, I quoted this a little while ago shortly after he purchased it, but have only just been able to fit it in.

Booked for a fully bespoke detail inside & out. To include; engine bay, wheels off to clean inside & out fully, seal wheels, clean arches (quite bad mud traps), paint correction with ceramic coating and interior.

My client likes to keep his cars looking tidy, so had already improved upon the condition of which it was delivered to him by the dealer. Here it is after a couple of weeks grime upon arrival back at the unit after I collected it from his work:


















































































First up, I raised the car ever so slightly a corner at a time to access the arches better - the wheels would be coming off later on, but for now I wanted to blast the worst of the dirt out with the pressure washer:










Arches and tyres with Bilt Hamber Surfex, wheels with Autosmart Smart Wheels:










Engine bay next, Bilt Hamber Surfex and Autosmart G101:










then dressed with Autosmart Finish (excess buffed off later in the detail and painted areas hand polished):










Lower half of car then pre-treated with Auto Finesse Citrus Power and left to dwell for a few minutes to begin breaking down the salt and traffic film present:










and door shuts with Autosmart G101:










All rinsed, then foamed with Bilt Hamber Autofoam, rinsed and finally ready for washing! Washed via 2 bucket method, Autosmart Concentrated Shampoo and Bilt Hamber washmitt:










2 buckets working well yet again - surprising how much dirt is still present on a car even after so much pre cleaning:










Loosely dried and tar spots tackled with Autosmart Tardis:



















Then the wheels and lower half of the car with CarPro Iron X:










Rinsed, then clayed with Bilt Hamber Auto Clay:










This didn't remove a great deal, I was aware of a few areas of lacquer overspray by this point too, I stepped up to a more aggressive clay for these areas but it simply didn't touch it 

With the car now clean & decontaminated, it was rinsed yet again and dried before being bought into the unit to remove the wheels and tackle the arches. Up in the air a side at a time:










The before / afters are from different sides of the car as I forgot to take the pictures on the same side, but it gives you an idea!

Before:










After:



















Before:










After:










Bilt Hamber Surfex, Autosmart Tardis and Autosmart Tango for these, later dressed with Autosmart Rubber & Plastic.

Wheels were given a secondary clean with Meguiars Wheel Brightener and CarPro Iron X, and a splash of Autosmart Tardis:




























Dried, wiped down with IPA and sealed with G-Techniq C5:





































Wheel bolts were looking a little tarnished and dull so were tidied up by hand with Werkstatt Prime Strong:



















The wheels were a PITA to remove from the car as they had become stuck to the hub, so to avoid this happening again I applied some copper grease!










Wheels then refitted and bolts re-torqued to manufacturers spec of 108 N/M.

A few rogue stone chips were also touched in with a touch up pen supplied by the client. By no means perfect, but takes your eye off the unsightly white dots on a red car:





































Time to take some paint readings, most of the car was indicating anything between 90-110 microns (fairly average) whereas the front end (bonnet, wings) was indicating high 200's - 300. This was an area myself and the client were aware of being sprayed so came as no big surprise. This age of Civic is incredibly prone to stonechipping and after just a year or so can look awful!

The car was then given a full IPA wipedown which gave me a bit of a heart attack as it suddenly looked a whole lot worse than I thought it was - turns out there was a fair bit of filler polish masking some nasties when I originally quoted the car :wall:

N.B - Many of the after shots of correction are pre refinement so appear quite hazy and show hologrammes in places. The car simply didn't play ball during the correction stages so photos were somewhat limited - ie. I only took them when I remembered, the rest of the time I was too focused on completing the car I'm afraid!














































Bonnet was corrected with the Rupes Bigfoot, but I just wasn't happy with the results (or indeed mess) it was leaving so I ditched this (may well be selling if I still can't 'bond' with it) and cracked out the rotary and DA. Most of the car ended up being corrected with the G220 and a microfibre system, some areas of the car with the rotary and Scholl S3 Gold / S17+. Entire car was finally refined via the G220 and Meguiars 205 and my usual 'go-to' of the rotary and 3M ultrafina and matching pad just didn't want to play ball on this one.



























































































A pretty horrific patch of overspray from a localised repair below the swage line - I thought I had some after shots of this, but I can't seem to find them. This took several hits with the G220 and microfibre system to improve upon. The rotary and S3 Gold just kept welding itself to the paint here.














































More overspray along the side skirts (which in places were barely red - you could see the black plastic texture beneath) these were tackled with the G220 and Scholl S3 Gold on a spot microfibre pad:





































Not too obvious here, but look at the reflection around the light - marred / corrected:
































































Arch trims were also polished with the same combination as the side skirts:



















Front bumper polished with rotary and S3 Gold on a 3M yellow pad:









































































This particular panel was a nightmare to polish as the rotary made the paint very sticky, and the DA hazed up ridiculously! In the end I went for the DA route and several refining stages to get it looking acceptable (After shots here are pre refinement!):




































































































And a few post refinement and CQUK shots from the end of the detail:





































I'll be the first to admit the car is by no means perfect, but is hugely improved upon. With thin paint and the car being used as a daily driver, you have to strike the balance between perfection and sensible correction. With the work carried out, there is still scope for future correction should it be required. Many of the defects remaining (largely RDS) won't even be visible in most lighting conditions anyway. So with paint correction complete, the car was given a CarPro Eraser wipedown to ensure the surface was oil free, ready for the CarPro C-Quartz UK (CQUK) ceramic coating to be applied. This was applied a panel at a time, buffed off, then left for an hour before being coated with a layer of CarPro Reload and left to cure for 24 hours.










Other finishing touches were applied. Trim wiped down with IPA and dressed with G-Techniq C4:



















Glass treated with G-Techniq G4 & G5:










Polish residue (largely from the dealer that didn't shift during the initial cleaning stages!) removed from panel gaps and crevices:










Tyres dressed with Auto Finesse Satin Tyre Gel, exhausts polished with Autosol, paintwork given another layer of Reload and interior tackled.

Interior wiped down with Meguiars APC and Auto Finesse Spritz. Displays cleaned with Autosmart Glass Clear, seats and carpets thoroughly vacuumed, spot shampooing carried out with Autosmart Brisk Foam. Cloth sections of seats and carpets protected with G-Techniq I1. Interior glass polished with Autosmart Glass Glow.

A final wipe down with Auto Finesse Finale, and the car is complete, after some 40 hours hard graft (with many a long day thrown in!)




























Pistonheads smiley applied as per clients request:













































































































As ever, a big thank you to the guys at Shinearama for supplying me with a large percentage of the products & tools I use when detailing :thumb:

Don't forget you can keep up to date with my day to day movements on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Thanks for looking,

Rich @ Refined Detail


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## StamGreek (Oct 11, 2012)

awesome work Rich.Ofcourse i thought that hondas have a soft paint..but maybe i was wrong and you did really transform it.
Did you notice lots of scratches on the drivers main screen?


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## davec (Mar 5, 2012)

great write up rich, good to see its not just us weekend detailers who struggle sometimes! cracking finish in the end.


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## Black.MB (Aug 22, 2012)

Top job, excellent writeup:thumb:


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## mikeydee (May 4, 2010)

good work matey. honda paint is a nightmare


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## deni2 (May 4, 2011)

Great work on Honda, :thumb:.


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## kk1966 (Aug 8, 2007)

Good honest write up and nice turnaround :thumb:


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## AaronGTi (Nov 2, 2010)

Excellent write up Rich I had been looking forward to this one after seeing it on Facebook.
Stunning turn around with what seems like a nightmare of a correction.

It's funny I know of a couple of these cars that have been a sticky mess and a nightmare to correct but others have been absolutely fine, all being standard clear too.

:thumb:


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## 888-Dave (Jul 30, 2010)

Thoroughly well done Rich, unit looks like it's filling up nicely


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## Spotless Detailing (Oct 17, 2011)

look sweet mmmmmm type r

callum


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## 20vKarlos (Aug 8, 2009)

Great Read Rich. I think you've just confirmed that I will be buying a few more AF products. 

Certainly improved mate, those wheels came up very nice. I was expecting them to be scuffed loads!


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## richtea78 (Apr 16, 2011)

20vKarlos said:


> I was expecting them to be scuffed loads!


Ive only had it 6 weeks, give me a chance and I expect I will apply some more. Especially with the car having a turning circle that would make a supertanker blush!

Really pleased with the work that Richard has done. I didnt realise the paint was quite that bad underneath as I do take care of it

I think Ill be taking Richard along when I get my next car and he can pick it. Last 2 cars Ive had have been a bugger for him to sort out but he certainly did sort them out!


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Thanks everybody, much appreciated!



StamGreek said:


> awesome work Rich.Ofcourse i thought that hondas have a soft paint..but maybe i was wrong and you did really transform it.
> Did you notice lots of scratches on the drivers main screen?


Thank you! Oh it has soft paint don't get me wrong, and that part of it I was expecting, but I wasn't expecting it to be quite as sticky as it was! Have to be honest I didn't notice that many scratches on the screen? The car isn't that old though so I assume it's probably something that happens after a few years?



davec said:


> great write up rich, good to see its not just us weekend detailers who struggle sometimes! cracking finish in the end.


Thank you. No sometimes we all come across a car that's a bit of a pain to work on! I guess doing it day in day out does allow you to have the knowledge to work around it though even if it does take considerably longer than originally planned! 



mikeydee said:


> good work matey. honda paint is a nightmare


Certainly can be, although usually more for the fact the paint's so soft it's easy to marr. This was actually the first Civic I've carried out more than correction on. S2000's, Accords etc that I've worked on in the past haven't been too much of an issue though (the ones that haven't seen awful paintwork anyway!)



AaronGTi said:


> Excellent write up Rich I had been looking forward to this one after seeing it on Facebook.
> Stunning turn around with what seems like a nightmare of a correction.
> 
> It's funny I know of a couple of these cars that have been a sticky mess and a nightmare to correct but others have been absolutely fine, all being standard clear too.
> ...


Cheers Aaron :thumb: As above really, this is the first Honda I've encountered quite such sticky paint on, which is always a frustrating experience, but hey ho!



888-Dave said:


> Thoroughly well done Rich, unit looks like it's filling up nicely


Cheers chap  Ha yes it's been pretty full since the beginning of January tbh - is slowly emptying out though (for now!)



20vKarlos said:


> Great Read Rich. I think you've just confirmed that I will be buying a few more AF products.
> 
> Certainly improved mate, those wheels came up very nice. I was expecting them to be scuffed loads!


Cheers Karl - I didn't even use that many AF products on this detail! :lol: Wheels were in great condition tbh - I originally suspected they'd been refurbished, but having had them off I don't think they have been, they'd actually just been well cared for.


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## Soul Hudson (Jul 5, 2011)

That looked and sounded a pain. enjoyed following via instagram as well.

Great work though my man as the paint work really does look spot on, under, as you say, normal lighting.

The wheels look amazing after a good seal. Wonderful stuff that Gtechniq.


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## TopSport+ (Jul 22, 2012)

great work


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## mad3lin (Jan 9, 2012)

great work


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## Luis (Sep 10, 2012)

Good work... Lovely red


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Thanks chaps, much appreciated!


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