2006 Accord Ex - work in progress

I am fairly new to this forum, having become an Accord owner since last Friday. Today I made a start on beginning to tidy up some of the cars imperfections. I will keep updating the thread as I go. I have no plans to modify this car at all, I have some other projects which keep me busy, this car is to be my reliable daily workhorse, although having said that, I look after all my cars to the same standard both mechanically and appearance wise.

Anyway, lets get started. I didn't get any "before" pictures today, I had already started work before I thought about it.

One of the things which bugged me about this car was the plastics in the centre console, in my car they are a blue marble effect, these were dull and quite heavily scuffed and scratched, I decided the way forward was to remove these and tackle them with the DA and see what sort of finish could be achieved. If this proved unsuccessful, the plan was to prime and paint them. I dont particluarly like these veneers in a car, its like walnut trim, totally out of place in any car, in my opinion.

Started with meguairs yellow polishing pad, and meguairs ultimate compound, after several passes of the polisher, it became evident that this was having no real impact. I changed to microfibre pads, and again used ultimate compound. The finish was further refined using the yellow polishing pad and with ultimate compound, then several passes using meguairs ultimate polish, with a final coat of simoniz original wax. The finish is not perfect, there are some deep scrathes remaining, these have been flattend down a bit, and I am happier with it now.



While the console was stripped down, I noticed the silver paint on the gear knob had worn a little, I dont know what inlay colour for the numbers and shift pattern was, or if these too were silver - anyhow, I decided a little change was in order. I lightly sanded the silver finish to provide a good key for the plastic primer. Masked things up and applied three light coats of grey primer, three light coats of matt black paint, then used gold leaf (nicked from my wife's card making supplies!!!) to inlay the numbers and shift pattern on the knob. A couple of coats of clear lacquer were applied just to make sure things were durable enough, as I have a habit of scuffing gear knobs with my wedding ring.

May not be to everyone or even anyone's liking, but its done now!!!



Next onto the leather - overall it is in good condition, after passing the vacuum across it, it got treated with meguairs leather cleaner and conditioner.

Drivers seat


Rear seats




By this point it had at last stopped raining. So thought I would tackle the engine bay. Apologies, there are no 'before' pics. With the engine warmed, I lightly misted the entire engine bay with water, then used AutoSmart G101 diluted at 1:20. A few of the more stubborn areas were tackled with the same product at a strength of 1:5 as a spot cleaner. The grime was aggitated with a stiff brush, then hosed off with a high volume low pressure hose. An air line was used to clear residue from corners and crevices, before a light application of CD2 Engine detailer was applied.





Hopefully before or at the weekend I will get an opportunity to start work on the wheels and carpets / mats. So until then, these are the before shots.

The mats are a bit grubby just from day to day use, the second shot closeup gives a better indication of this.





The wheels are in good condition in terms of their finish, but there is always room for improvement.

I didn't get as much time today as I had hoped - I did however get started on the wheels.

To check their overall condition, and to give them a real good clean and seal I decided to get them off the motor and get to work.

They were not in bad condition, however on inspection it was evident there was quite a lot of bonded contaminants and brake dust on both sides of the wheels.

This is the "before" shot of the first wheel.







Each wheel was misted with water before spraying with Iron Cleanse, a product supplied by a local company called Orchard Auto Care. This product goes on clear, but on disolving iron particles, it begins to turn a redish purple colour. It also turns to a gel like consistency, so the product doesn't run off verticl surfaces. This was allowed to dwell for around 10 minutes then was aggitated with a stiff brush.





Once the fallout and bonded contaminants were removed, it was time to get the gloves and goggles on and break out the G101. Both sides of the wheel were soaked with Auto Smart G101 diluted in a 1:5 ratio. This was used to remove any polymers perviously applied and generally clean and ensure the wheels were thoroughly degreased. Again this was aggitated with a soft brush before being rinsed off with a low pressure hose. At this point the wheels were dried off and ready for de-tarring.





In my opinion the two best tar removal products on the market at present are Auto Smart's Tardis and AutoGlym's Intensive Tar Remover. Today I only had AutoGlym's product on the shelf, so I set to work with that. I find it works best, by applying liberally with a pad or sponge, allowing it to dwell for a short time, then reapply wiping off the dissolved tar in the process.

To ensure all traces of tar remover were removed, the wheels were soaked again with G101 at 1:5, before being hosed off.

There are many wheel sealant products out there; in my opinion, nothing can match hard wax for protection and longevity, The best value hard wax has got to be simoinz original wax - it is less than a tenner for a tin that will last for years. A liberal coating of this was applied to the back of he wheel before bringing them into the garage for a couple of passes of the DA polisher.



There was only a few minor imperfections on the clear coat of the wheels, Meguairs ultimate compound was used on a foam polishing pad to perfect the surface, before glazing the painted side with Meguairs ultimate polish on a polishing pad, then sealing them with Simoniz Original Hard Wax. The only thing remaining was to apply some copper grease to the mating surface of wheel and give the nuts a quick clean and coat of wax.



The sidewalls will be dressed as one of the final stages of prepping the car.

Very nice, I'm loving the work on those wheels!

Any full pics of those rims on your 7th gen?

Looking nice.

could do with you in Ballymena to clean up the Mrs's Accord

Sorry fellas - been a bit distracted from detailing the car, found a few things I wasn't happy with and have been back and forth with the dealership to get them sorted out. Basically one of the alloys is very badly pitted and corroded on the rear, I have asked the dealership to replace it, then discovered a little bit of accident damage, Anyway we are all sorted now so hopefully I will get round to a wee bit of polishing at the weekend. Progress is a bit slow as I have a few motors to keep on top of. Had this one in tonight to get diesel, under the forecourt lights I could see the extent of the swirl marks on every panel - should make for a noticeable correction.

@Mr Honda, I don't think I have taken any full shots of the car yet, will get some sorted out and posted if you are interested.

@MMCK, I am a bit OCD around my own cars - like to keep them in good shape.

Tarmac Terror said:

Sorry fellas - been a bit distracted from detailing the car, found a few things I wasn't happy with and have been back and forth with the dealership to get them sorted out. Basically one of the alloys is very badly pitted and corroded on the rear, I have asked the dealership to replace it, then discovered a little bit of accident damage, Anyway we are all sorted now so hopefully I will get round to a wee bit of polishing at the weekend. Progress is a bit slow as I have a few motors to keep on top of. Had this one in tonight to get diesel, under the forecourt lights I could see the extent of the swirl marks on every panel - should make for a noticeable correction.

@Mr Honda, I don't think I have taken any full shots of the car yet, will get some sorted out and posted if you are interested.

Click to expand...

In your own time man, just haven't many 7th gens with the 8th gen rims

Mr Honda said:

In your own time man, just haven't many 7th gens with the 8th gen rims

Click to expand...

I have posted the pic in the gallery in case anyone else wants to reference how they look on an older car.

Link to the thread here : http://typeaccord.co.uk/forum/topic/11584-7th-gen-with-8th-gen-alloys/

This is going to turn into the longest running detailling thread ever I think - I didn't get back on this at the weekend because Mrs T had other plans for me. But, I did wash the car on Saturday, and noticed the front fog lamp surrounds had become very discoloured. I tried a few products on these, but they looked like a dark grey colour rather than black. So time for some extreme measures. Two rusty screws were all that needed to be undone to remove the surrounds.

They were taken into the garage and lightly sanded with 800 grit paper, then washed down with G101 diluted at 1:5 to remove any silicone, wax or polymer - basically anything that may prevent the primer adhering to the keyed surface. These were then rinsed thoroughly and dried.



They were then given 2 coats of plastic primer - yep I did prime and paint the back of them!!!



Before being given three coats of satin silver - I did deliberate over painting these with a chrome finish or graphite colour, but opted for the same colour as the rest of the car.



This will be allowed to cure overnight - and at some point tomorrow evening, two coats of clearcoat will be applied.

My challenge for tomorrow is to find two replacement screw type things to refit these, I think a self tapper would look a bit ugly, so it may be a call to the local honda dealer's parts department.

Finally got round to finishing the fog lamp surrounds, and after the effort and looking at them back on the car I am not sure they look right for a couple of reasons. The colour match is a bit out although this may become less noticeable over time. I think they need to be a dark colour to look right, just to break up the bumper a bit. The fit around the fog lamps are not great, so there is a dark area around the fog lamp unit itself.

We'll see if I can live with it, of not, they'll be off and either painted chrome or matt black.

Feel free to comment;

Gets some pics up pal and I'll judge for you.

Thought I'd bump this for posterity!