2008 Honda CR-V - Rather Lengthy

[rwright]

Greetings all. It's been a while since I've put together a write up so I figured what the heck. The featured vehicle belongs to a co-worker and he is a heck of a guy, one of those that you can tell just has a good heart after just a few minutes of meeting him. After many conversations about detailing and showing him some of my previous work he decided that it was time for his ride to get cleaned up. In all honesty he just asked for an interior clean up, wash and real good wax job because it hasn't been waxed since new. Let the story begin...

Vehicle upon arrival

Notice the rust specs?

After a quick trip to a touchless wash since I was mobile, this is what the paint looked like

*Photo enhanced to better represent condition of paint

As you can see there was still a nice build up of grime that needed to be addressed. From this point I proceeded to clean the wheel wells, tires, and plastic cladding with Optimum Power Clean full strength. The wheels were cleaned with Iron X then washed with Chemical Guys Citrus Wash N' Gloss. I washed the whole vehicle with CG CWG at paint prep ratio. Please note the plastic cladding was washed last.

Look closely and you can see how bad the paint was stained even after being washed.

Remember the condition of the wheels?

During the Iron X bath

And after the final wash and rinse

To be continued...

 

[rwright]

The next day I returned to snap some interior before pics and get started on the paint prep. Before taping up the trim work, the paint was clayed with Riccardo Yellow and ONR as lube.

Interior Before

Pretty nasty driver side door panel

Driver seat

Passenger side front arm rest

and seat

The above stains were identified as blood stains and were a couple years old. Hmm...

The interior was cleaned using 1Z Einszett Plastic Deep Cleaner on all interior panels and Folex on all cloth surfaces. Interior was then bombed with Dakota Odor Bomb Non Smoke and the ventilation system was treated to a full can of 1Z Klima Kleaner.

Now it was time for the paint and I wanted to try Blackfire Total Polish N' Seal as a prep for Blackfire Wet Diamond sealant and to clean up the staining and marring on the paint. Well this didn't go over too well once again. Previously I tried it on a 2011 Subaru Outback in pearl white and it muted the pearl. Not only that but when I got some of it on my hand it stained my skin. After discussing this with Angelo and later on Todd, I received a new bottle to try. This time I had tiger striping with both Lake Country Crimson and Black Finishing pads. At this point I called it quits with this product. Sorry Todd

I looked at my Griot's Garage Detail Bag and noticed I brought my Optimum Hyper Spray Polish with me, figured I would give it a shot and couldn't believe the finish! After finally cleaning up the whole top portion of the CR-V, I moved to the side to take a couple 50/50 pictures. Paint was polished on speed 4 on Griot's DA and 5 1/2'' low profile Lake Country tangerine hydro-tech pads.

I ran into an interesting problem but forgot to document it with photos, the paint was soaking up the oils in the polish and the residue was drying before I could safely wipe it away. Thinking back on some of Richy's threads I grabbed my bottle of ONR mix and sprayed the panel, bingo! After I finished polishing a section, I literally had to spray the paint with the ONR solution to wipe away the polish residue. It took me 45 minutes per side to polish this way but it worked just fine.

To be continued...

 

[rwright]

After doing a few sections I wanted to pull the car out into the sun to check my work. Keep in mind this wasn't a scheduled correction and no compound was used, so yes some RIDS still remain.

I got a little carried away, sorry. Well I pulled the CR-V back inside to finish up and apply the Blackfire Wet Diamond sealant, allowed to cure over night, and dressed the tires with Blackfire Total Eclipse Tire Gel. But after applying the Blackfire sealant I decided to bomb the interior again. The next day I returned to finish up the exterior and interior details, including one more round of Dakota Non Smoke (yes this makes 3). The wheel wells were dressed with Meguiar's All Season Dressing, all plastic trim including the grille was treated to Chemical Guys New Look Trim Gel, glass cleaned with Adam's Glass Cleaner and Autoality's new white glass towel, exterior glass cleaned and treated with Duragloss Rain Repel. The wheels received a coat of Duragloss #501 Marine/RV Polish. The interior panels were all wiped down with Chemical Guys Inner Clean, then lightly buffed.

And the final parting shots

Congrats if you made it all the way through the entire write up! If not I hope you at least liked the pictures. Some stains did remain in the seats after several attempts with different chemicals. After discussing a few options, I will get the car back later in the summer for a full correction and Opti-Guard. Thanks for looking.

Richard

 

[rwright]

I want to note that this vehicle currently has about mid 40,000 miles on it.

 

[Old Pirate]

Awesome turnaround there Richard, you friend has to freaking happy as heck! Another great save by a Autopiaforum Member!:yourrock

 

[tropicsteve]

yep, definitely 100% better. i think that car's finish was pretty hammered for an aio only. good move going with the separate polish step followed by bfwd.

 

[Time 2 shine]

Nice job that CRV looks much better. As for the problem with the paint sucking up the oils I have had this issue before with M105 and it's not a fun way to spend the day.

 

[rwright]

Awesome turnaround there Richard, you friend has to freaking happy as heck! Another great save by a Autopiaforum Member!:yourrock

Thanks Angelo! I can't believe I forgot to post this over here.

yep, definitely 100% better. i think that car's finish was pretty hammered for an aio only. good move going with the separate polish step followed by bfwd.

Thanks. An aio wasn't going to happen with this one. I tested DG 501 on a spot by hand and it wouldn't finish down either, so I knew by machine was out of the question.

Nice job that CRV looks much better. As for the problem with the paint sucking up the oils I have had this issue before with M105 and it's not a fun way to spend the day.

Thanks. M105 isn't too bad usually but I agree with you on paints like this, that would make for a long day.

 

[dd1101]

Great job richard !!! :bigups Now you can pick up my wifes CRV from Charleston and give it the same treatment:yay :yay

 

[RTexasF]

This really impressed me as to the power that the Optimum spray polish has.....that surface was just awful. A fine thing you did going above and beyond the call on this job. I can only imagine the jaw drop when he saw the car.

 

[BobbyG]

Richard now that's what I call having your work cut out for you!!

The before and after photos really tell the story and it looks like you pulled out all the big guns for this detail. The final product has the Hinda looking like new and I can only imagine the owners face!! :bow

A lot of hard work but the end product is gorgeous!! :yourrock

 

[mjlinane]

Great write-up, Richard!! I've done 3 CR-Vs and they all come in that way. Makes you wonder....

 

[rwright]

Great job richard !!! :bigups Now you can pick up my wifes CRV from Charleston and give it the same treatment:yay :yay

Thanks! I'm booked up for the next 3 weeks but I'm open the week of July 16th. You are more than welcome to bring it over if you want to tackle it together, or I can pick it up and do the work. Drop me a pm anytime.

This really impressed me as to the power that the Optimum spray polish has.....that surface was just awful. A fine thing you did going above and beyond the call on this job. I can only imagine the jaw drop when he saw the car.

Thanks! Sometimes I go a little overboard for people but I don't mind. Thankfully the paint was soft enough to allow such a great turnaround. The owner was pretty excited for a few days and made it all worthwhile.

Richard now that's what I call having your work cut out for you!!

The before and after photos really tell the story and it looks like you pulled out all the big guns for this detail. The final product has the Hinda looking like new and I can only imagine the owners face!! :bow

A lot of hard work but the end product is gorgeous!! :yourrock

Thanks Bobby! I got a little carried away with this write up. I tried to shorten it but it didn't feel right, so I just went with it. When I get this thing back later in the summer it shouldn't take to long for an actual correction and prep for Opti-Guard.

Great write-up, Richard!! I've done 3 CR-Vs and they all come in that way. Makes you wonder....

Thanks! It would be nice if Honda would spray these things with harder paint and spray it thicker. I guess on the flip side they are somewhat easy to fix!