EK9 Paint Correction

The first Civic to receive the Type R badge, the EK9, was introduced in August 1997. This first generation of Honda's VTEC powered “Type R” hot hatches gave a blistering rev range and 183bhp, hugging drivers in red alcantara seats and carbon fibre effect dash panels, and was Japan’s answer to the Golf GTI and Saxo VTR's domination of the hot hatch scene in the late 90s.

We were handed the keys to this one with the aim of restoring some shine to the, almost matt, Olympic White paintwork.

First step was to thoroughly clean the car, this revealed a second issue, thousands upon thousands of tiny iron particles in the paintwork. Two rounds of iron removal with VP Dragons Breath iron contamination remover and a thorough clay barring reduced these down to negligible amounts, and gave us a safe surface to begin polishing.

The oxidisation removed from the test panel alone was phenomenal, we were washing pads between each pass to remove the chalky build up of old oxidised paint, but the difference was immediately apparent. Working around the car the bright slick gloss began to show through, and with only a single stage polish using Lime Prime as our cleaner, taking around 6 hours, we were able to restore the paint's shine and reflectivity. 

in this 50/50 down the centre, you can see the line where the light picks back up...

Finished with two coats of diamond bright by Dodo Juice the finish shone through and snow blindness crept in…