# Honda S2K: helping it out from a nightmare



## Kotsos (May 7, 2011)

Hi all greetings from hot Athens

Few weeks ago my friend Bill called me in order to do help him to organize a surprise for his brother. After a quick brainstorming we decided to give some TLC to his recently second hand bought fun drive . As George the owner of the car would be away for a few days I had the luxury working on the car as many days as needed. 
Few pictures of it as delivered













I started cleaning the wheels using AS Smartwheels and G101 on tires



Arches cleaned with G101 too



Iron X doing its magic



AS G101 used on door shuts and fuel lid





VP citrus pre wash used on a pump sprayer



Foamed with VP neutral snow foam





Whilst foam was dwelling I attacked budges grills with G101



Give a double clean on the roof using G101 with a stiff brush 




Washed with ADS organic shampoo using Carpro wash mitt 


Clayed with ADS clay cloth



Dried using wooly



For 99% of people that would look great





But this is how paint looked under the fluid lights







After a quick look I clearly understood that someone has been here before.











After halides turned on what I saw was shocking. Holograms buffer trails and lot of deeper ones.













Next shock was paint readings













Right door had been repainted


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## Kotsos (May 7, 2011)

According to paint readings it was like walking on thin ice so I had to change pad polish in almost every 20 seconds. Most of the correction done with Scholl and Megs polishes using a variety of pads

Bonnet first











As my friend Bill his brother and myself are crazy about Hondas I decide to do a different

50/50 shot








When I sent the photo to Bill he couldn't resist and forwarder it to his brother who informed him that it looked really cool so I had to remove it ASAP.











Front bumper wasn't in better condition














Right fender 















Unfortunately I couldn't remove the deeper one but looked much better






The amount of swirls on the right door was nothing to the rest of the car as the door had been repainted



But the amount of the orange peel was ridiculous





I could just do a polish and remove the swirls but as I wanted to make George happy I decided to wet sand the door. 
I didn't take any pic during the process but 50/50 speak for themselves









This is how door looked like after












Rear right fender










Boot




















I could move the halide to hide the deeper scratch but that wouldn't be honest






I continue to the rest of the boot



Rear left fender was also vandalized







This is how left door looked like





















Left fender



Before refine the paint with Polish Angel escalate lotion I did a small break to treat the roof.

All time during the polish roof was covered but I gave it a quick dust remove to ensure roof was perfect cleaned prior to renovo application







This is how roof looked after first coat of renovo











Interior was also treated




ADS interior cleaner did amazing work both on fabric and leather













I used escalate lotion for the final jewelling







For protection I decided to use the ArtDeGloss pack which is Artdepoly sealant followed with 2 layers of Artdekotsos Obsidian Wax and final buffing with NGPS


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## Kotsos (May 7, 2011)

Time for final shots enjoy
































































I would like to say a big thank you to Gordon @ Defined Details for his help working on thin pain and also Mike AKA Mr Face for his encouragement 
All comments are welcome

Best regards

Kostas


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## 636 (Oct 23, 2012)

A fantastic job you have done there mate, a great write up too!


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## Sparky160 (Aug 12, 2011)

Brilliant job. Paint was nasty before. Great write up. Thanks for sharing


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## CSMatt (Mar 30, 2013)

One of the best transformations I've seen. Fantastic read


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## AaronGTi (Nov 2, 2010)

Outstanding work as usual mate


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## Ravinder (Jul 24, 2009)

Amazing work.


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## wanner69 (Mar 14, 2010)

Kostas my friend, truly remarkable work buddy. Fantastic results, great pics and write up.:thumb:


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## sprocketser (Aug 4, 2012)

Great job mate ! Seems like it was professionally repainted !


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## Spyco (Mar 24, 2011)

Well done Kosta, lots of work needed to bring this car to a showroom status and you did it just fine.


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## bmerritt87 (Mar 24, 2013)

Wow fantastic turnaround. That orange peel was horrific but looks great now.:thumb:


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## TonyH38 (Apr 7, 2013)

Superb job,you should be proud of a job well done amazing.


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## spiros (Mar 30, 2010)

I am sure that you put this holos to the paint to show us the correction after ahhaahha. . Wonderfull jop kotso .Thats they way the car should look adter a real detailing

Ps( i have a white nissan qashqai that need you treatment)


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## Scrim-1- (Oct 8, 2008)

Very nice work.


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## okcharlie (Jun 29, 2010)

Great work!


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## Porkypig (Jun 20, 2012)

Great work Kostos, truly stunning reflection pics of the wet sanded door!:doublesho Hope George appreciates how much work went into getting the end result! :thumb:


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## nick_mcuk (Jan 4, 2008)

Nice job looks a million percent better...paint is soft as hell on Honda's which makes them a nightmare to work on.

Only one thing that i have to ask is your PDG one that tells you the thickness of various layers...i.e the thickness of the lacquer then the base coat etc?

If not it always seems a completely pointless task as as you say the car has been repainted fine but you dont know the thickness of the clear coat only the total thickness of all the paint above the bare metal.....pointless really as the only part you should be worried about is the lacquer as that's the upper most coat that you are likely to strike through.


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## AGRE (Sep 25, 2008)

Awesome work  Looks fantastic now :thumb:


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## Chrissyronald (Jan 15, 2012)

Superb turnaround mate


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## typerdan (Apr 11, 2011)

Top job


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## shaunwistow (May 13, 2011)

Excellent work Kostas, great turnaround. The 50/50 on the door is amazing, well done


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## Natalie (Jan 19, 2011)

That looks amazing, what a fantastic transformation.
Great write up.


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## Megs Lad (Nov 27, 2012)

Jaw dropping work


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## RobertUtley (Mar 15, 2012)

Simply insane!


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## Edamski (Jun 19, 2008)

Outstanding!


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## R B Customs (Jul 24, 2009)

nice work mate! great write-up too. you seem to have a great place to work in too.


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## 3dom (Oct 30, 2012)

A tremendous job and write up; great work  How on Earth did you manage to polish the boot without damaging that sticker? 

Probably the best S2000 work I have seen. You're obviously a fan of the ADS stuff?


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## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

A massive turnaround there Kostos! Great to see some ADS products in the limelight too, very very interesting!


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## steve from wath (Dec 12, 2008)

kostas

thats an amazing pice of work

certainly turned it around

how did you find the escalate to finish off with did you ,use the black farecla pad?

the door after wetsanding wow:doublesho 

stunning finish ,looks so much better for all your hard work

i used the wax over at obsidian ,its very oily and speads so well,might invest in some 

i also used the cloth,was strange to work with at first but ,im going to get one and have a play with it

well done


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## tonyy (Jul 26, 2008)

Fantastic work:thumb:


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## -Raven- (Aug 26, 2010)

Amazing work Kostas my friend! The car looks brilliant mate! :argie:

Fantastic restoration on the seats too, those came up like new! :thumb:


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## Demetrios (May 8, 2011)

Soft paint with these low readings, must have been a nightmare to work on and get that lovely finish.

That was a very very hard task. I can easily say that this is probably the hardest task you have completed so far and you did great, honestly.

Keep them coming my friend, we will be here waiting for all these fine transformations :thumb:


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## MattOz (May 15, 2007)

Great work Kostas. Definitely one of the best turnarounds on DW for some time. The results speak for themselves.


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## Mr Gurn (Dec 9, 2009)

Amazing work... :buffer:

Top write up too!!! :thumb:


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## MadOnVaux! (Jun 2, 2008)

Fantastic work and turnaround


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## Minas (Nov 15, 2011)

That's a fantastic work Kostas and a great write-up there!


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## Pedro92 (May 5, 2011)

fantastic job !!!


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## troopa (Mar 4, 2013)

Awesome, im a honda lover myself and you just rescued that s2000. Can i ask what was the paint readings after you finished on some areas?


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## Mr Face (Jan 22, 2009)

*Fantastic Job Kotsos*

Just had to say you have worked miracles given the paintwork you were presented with, I can only hope Bill is a very happy man, after working on a similar S2000 you have my huge congratulations :thumb:


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## stangalang (Nov 27, 2009)

WHAT A THREAD!!!

Dude that was incredible work, I know how hard you worked on it, and I know how hard it fought you, you did amazingly. I have incredible respect for your workmanship, and it's an honour to have our products on there also mate, truly


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## DOBE (May 4, 2012)

Great job once again Kostos.:thumb:

Must be the time of year for the S2K, that's the third one I've seen posted on here this week. 

Great looking cars though.


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## than00liz. (Sep 20, 2012)

My friend Kotsos,great write up and job man. As always unbelievable result!!!


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## TheFrankenberry (Mar 31, 2013)

Just. Jaw. Dropping. Especially that wet-sanded door! You make it look easy.

I too would've liked to see what the "after" paint-readings were.


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## Kotsos (May 7, 2011)

Thanks a lot all of you for the possitive commets, I feel really flattered.



sprocketser said:


> Great job mate ! Seems like it was professionally repainted !


True that .... NOT



bmerritt87 said:


> Wow fantastic turnaround. That orange peel was horrific but looks great now.:thumb:


Actually is not 100% perfect but I wanted to give it as much as I could.



spiros said:


> I am sure that you put this holos to the paint to show us the correction after ahhaahha. . Wonderfull jop kotso .Thats they way the car should look adter a real detailing
> 
> Ps( i have a white nissan qashqai that need you treatment)


Lol Spiros. I think you are more than capable to do that white Quasqai yourself. I don't believe when I come to Cyprus for your wedding your future wife will be excited when she hears that will spend days for polishing your car instead of making preperations for the wedding.



nick_mcuk said:


> Nice job looks a million percent better...paint is soft as hell on Honda's which makes them a nightmare to work on.
> 
> Only one thing that i have to ask is your PDG one that tells you the thickness of various layers...i.e the thickness of the lacquer then the base coat etc?
> 
> If not it always seems a completely pointless task as as you say the car has been repainted fine but you dont know the thickness of the clear coat only the total thickness of all the paint above the bare metal.....pointless really as the only part you should be worried about is the lacquer as that's the upper most coat that you are likely to strike through.


Unfortunately this PTG doesnt take readings of multiple stages. Actually only the right door was repainted as you can see. Even you can't see the multiple stages thickness is always great to see how much laquer , paint etc removed in order to stay in the safest side as possible.



R B Customs said:


> nice work mate! great write-up too. you seem to have a great place to work in too.


Thanks a lot. It just an indoor parking space but i reckon its comfortable



3dom said:


> A tremendous job and write up; great work  How on Earth did you manage to polish the boot without damaging that sticker?
> 
> Probably the best S2000 work I have seen. You're obviously a fan of the ADS stuff?


Honda paint is very soft ( more than it should ) so I used zero pressure when I was doing the sticker and it worked. I love ADS products but I m fun of every product works.



steve from wath said:


> kostas
> 
> thats an amazing pice of work
> 
> ...


Thanks a lot Steve.

I used the escalate with a blue Hex jewelling pad with rotex and worked fine.

Black Farecla pads mostly used for the correction with rotary as I took advantage their bigger size so the cutting abbility was imporoved but still wasn't as harsh as a polishing pad.

Glad you like the wax, spreads amazingly and most important on that kind of paints it removes even easier so no risk marrying the paint.



-Raven- said:


> Amazing work Kostas my friend! The car looks brilliant mate! :argie:
> 
> Fantastic restoration on the seats too, those came up like new! :thumb:


Thanks bro. ADS interior and white sponge worked fine just like worked on the Lambos in Singapore.



Demetrios said:


> Soft paint with these low readings, must have been a nightmare to work on and get that lovely finish.
> 
> That was a very very hard task. I can easily say that this is probably the hardest task you have completed so far and you did great, honestly.
> 
> Keep them coming my friend, we will be here waiting for all these fine transformations :thumb:


Thank you Dimitro. As long as bodys(c)hops here offer polish I will have similar cars in the future lol



troopa said:


> Awesome, im a honda lover myself and you just rescued that s2000. Can i ask what was the paint readings after you finished on some areas?


Using softer pads and polishes I removed average 2mic. Wetsanding in total must removed about 12 to 14 mic



Mr Face said:


> Just had to say you have worked miracles given the paintwork you were presented with, I can only hope Bill is a very happy man, after working on a similar S2000 you have my huge congratulations :thumb:


Thanks Mike I really appreciate your interest all these days I was working it. Both Bill and George the owner bought decent equipment in order to keep the results as much as they can.



stangalang said:


> WHAT A THREAD!!!
> 
> Dude that was incredible work, I know how hard you worked on it, and I know how hard it fought you, you did amazingly. I have incredible respect for your workmanship, and it's an honour to have our products on there also mate, truly


Thanks Bro. 
Hondas are reall pain and it was the worst of all Hondas I ve worked untill now.



DOBE said:


> Great job once again Kostos.:thumb:
> 
> Must be the time of year for the S2K, that's the third one I've seen posted on here this week.
> 
> Great looking cars though.


Hi fellow civinfoer. S2000s are amazing fun drives I wish one day I can have one as a weekend toy.



TheFrankenberry said:


> Just. Jaw. Dropping. Especially that wet-sanded door! You make it look easy.
> 
> I too would've liked to see what the "after" paint-readings were.


As above. Polishing removed about 2 mic and wet sanding about 12 - 14 mic in places


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## nick_mcuk (Jan 4, 2008)

Kotsos said:


> Unfortunately this PTG doesnt take readings of multiple stages. Actually only the right door was repainted as you can see. Even you can't see the multiple stages thickness is always great to see how much laquer , paint etc removed in order to stay in the safest side as possible.


This is my point though you know what the total thickness is but are still left guessing what thickness the lacquer is.

Never the less great job.


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## Rowan83 (Aug 21, 2007)

Wow, amazing transformation!! :argie:

The finished results are stunning.


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## james vti-s (Aug 9, 2011)

Inspirational !!


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## Black Magic Detail (Aug 17, 2010)

Very nice work,car looks great now


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## s29nta (Mar 9, 2013)

Vast improvement, well done top job:thumb:


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## Elliot_C (Jun 22, 2012)

Bloody Awesome!


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## Stamatios (Mar 26, 2013)

I wish my sister had the same idea!! 

Great job..!


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## CraigQQ (Jan 20, 2011)

seats came up well honda man


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## ROMEYR32 (Mar 27, 2011)

Fantastic job, great work on that door :thumb:


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## 20vKarlos (Aug 8, 2009)

Great finish!


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## Cthrower (Sep 19, 2011)

Excellent job there! Can't beat a black car when it's all done!
The orange peel on that door was terrible, did they spray it with a hose pipe?


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## ImDesigner (Jan 19, 2012)

Wow! That is some transformation.


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## PaulN (Jan 17, 2008)

Stunning work there, both the inside and out are big jobs on their own.


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## Soul Hudson (Jul 5, 2011)

Epic work. Good job you are not on of the 99. 

Suberb write up as well. Was an interesting read and a joy to see the pics.

The finished article is awesome considering the paint you had to work with. One of the details of the year so far for me.


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## Kotsos (May 7, 2011)

Thanks a lot chaps for your kind comments 



Stamatios said:


> I wish my sister had the same idea!!
> 
> Great job..!


You dont need your sister, don't you? 



CraigQQ said:


> seats came up well honda man


Still miss a tangerine for my Honda collection lol



Cthrower said:


> Excellent job there! Can't beat a black car when it's all done!
> The orange peel on that door was terrible, did they spray it with a hose pipe?


Looks like he did 



Soul Hudson said:


> Epic work. Good job you are not on of the 99.
> 
> Suberb write up as well. Was an interesting read and a joy to see the pics.
> 
> The finished article is awesome considering the paint you had to work with. One of the details of the year so far for me.


Thank you very much for that kind word that really makes me blush


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## Foxhound (May 5, 2011)

Awesome job!!

Nice recuperation!!!


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## fotismt (Nov 13, 2012)

Perfect result, on a beautiful car Kotsos!

Looks extremely glossy and smooth now!


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## mattay (Apr 2, 2012)

WOW Awsome result Kotsos Bet the owner was very pleased. Liking the H on bonnet :buffer:


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## SuperColin (Apr 20, 2013)

You could have done an H on the seat as well 

Awsome job !!!! :thumb:


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## Tom48 (May 21, 2013)

What a great detail and a great read too, well done to you !!!!!


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## C7 JFW (Jul 29, 2007)

That looks very impressive and makes me want to do my own S2000 now.


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## Arkangel (Mar 21, 2012)

wow.....very good job !!! looks great


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## Kotsos (May 7, 2011)

Thanks a lot guys



mattay said:


> WOW Awsome result Kotsos Bet the owner was very pleased. Liking the H on bonnet :buffer:


Cheers Mattay it was a wee inspiration and bonnet lenght helped a lot



SuperColin said:


> You could have done an H on the seat as well
> 
> Awsome job !!!! :thumb:


Looks like we both like difficult Colin 

Nice idea apo H on seats i ll see what i can do next time



C7 JFW said:


> That looks very impressive and makes me want to do my own S2000 now.


Do it and take many pics


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## Natswoo (Sep 1, 2012)

Looks great, wish you could do mine as well!


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## TZT (Apr 16, 2013)

Kostas, fantastic car and fantastic job ... Ellerine sağlık


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