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My little EK Civic

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 10:28 am
by Shiny
I bought a little 1997 Civic 1.5 Vtec (EK3) last week to use as a run around and try and keep some miles off the Accord. I have in mind to teach my kids simple things like oil changes and so on, ready for when the reach 17 (only just over a year for the eldest now!) and I will have a car that they can drive as I’d need a lottery win to cover them on the Accord!

Anyway, been looking for a couple of months and nothing has appeared locally, then, when browsing Ebay, one appeared then disappeared in two minutes. I emailed the chap and he has put it on his wrong account (his missus sells baby clothes and he put on there by mistake), so was going to relist it on his personal account in the morning.

I saw the car the following day and went back the day after and bought it. It has war wounds, but the inside is almost like new and the chap had polished it and put on tyre shine which is a good sign. Also 4 new Goodyear tyres and a recent cambelt change, so all was good. Turns out we have a mutual friend and my friend actually went with him when he bought the car 6 years ago. He was genuinely sad to see it go.

Any way, lots of little marks like this over it:

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A bit of rust on the door. May takle this properly another day, or might even just buy one of those door strip protector things from Halfords if they still sell them.

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Bit of rust on the rear arch, typical of any Honda of this age, again I will probably tidy this up at a later date.

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Quite a few marks and scratches on the roof

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First job was off with the sills to see how bad the rust is. They are normally really bad under here, and being an older model I was expecting a fair bit of rust.

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Driver’s side was rust free, which was a result

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Nearside had been previously welded and there was a bit of surface rust on the weld, which I covered in Jenolite later before putting it back together. I also removed the arch lip liner to clean out and Jenolite the inside of the arch.

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Some paint blistering in the nearside door. Might had a go and see if I can wetsand this at some point in the future, might not…. I have to remind myself this is just a little run around to use and abuse.

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Broken aerial, but the radio is the work of the Devil playing annoying crap all day, so I have removed this and will listen to MP3s in the car.

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One man’s clean is another man’s filthy!

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So, out with the snowfoam…

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APC on the door shuts, around the boot etc…

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Rinsed

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Then clayed

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That was it for Saturday, so inside to make a curry, consume lots of cider, my mate and his missus popped round so it was long night with plenty of Bushmills!

But before I did, I had to put the dials back to standard!

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Sunday morning passed, then got the dials back in, speedo recalibrated, filled up with petrol so I could set the petrol gauge and then back into the garage to start polishing.

Similar story to this, some places much worse. Lots of deep scratches as well as swirl marks.

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So out with the P1 and started polishing. A little test patch –

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Far from perfect, but a great improvement, which is what I wanted –

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After many pints of blackcurrant squash, lots of sweating, I had polished the car. I have some Car-Skin to try so went over the car with Deep Clean, followed by CS12 and a coat of CS Pro. Cleaned the windows, bit of bumper gel and looks much better than it did! Also debadged the rear.

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The scratched roof is looking much better –

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The paint isn’t perfect, but managed a bit of flake pop

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A few little bit to do, new reg plates, get rid of the awful no. plate holder on the front, clean the engine bay, tidy up the rust spots and some stone chips, but all in all it is a great little car.

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 10:34 am
by Merlin
It looks a nice little car. Even more so now you have cleaned it up :D

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 10:35 am
by bb1boy
Good work there mate!! Looks loads better. Did you do it all by hand or with a DA?

Re: My little EK Civic

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 10:36 am
by Shiny
By DA, was bad enough waxing by hand, too bloody hot, i should have been sat in paddling pool drinking cider!

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 10:39 am
by rob quilter
Good work mate, I miss my little civic I had.

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 10:41 am
by bb1boy
Cool. I wanted a DA ..but I bought a welder instead.

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 6:34 pm
by wurlycorner
Great polishing work, as always.

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 6:43 pm
by nitin_s1
Nice detail.. :twisted:

Re: My little EK Civic

Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 10:01 am
by Shiny
Got a little chavvy exhaust trim :)

Also put a square plate on -

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And removed the front number plate surround and fitted a 100mm plate

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Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 10:30 am
by Edd
That's some amazing results you have got there, makes me kind of ashamed :oops: