I purchased this car site on seen a few weeks ago. I had to drive 800 miles round trip to pick it up. The previous owner described the body to be a little bit better then it actually was. But on the plus side it runs and drives great. It had a cheap ugly paint job on it. So when I got it home I decided to sand it down and paint it myself in my driveway to see if I could do better. This was my first attempt at painting a car. I'm very happy with results. No it's not a show paint job but I'm it turned out pretty good. The previous owner included two rust free fenders with car so I plan on doing some body work over the winter and install the fenders then respray again.

I need an outside door handle if anyone has any leads that would be awesome.


Picture of my buddy loading it up.


Picture after paint.

 

Not bad. The black wheels would look so much better with chrome beauty rings on it. The black wheel/tire looks terrible (in my opinion). That CIVIC badge looks terrible and out of place as well.

Otherwise, great car. I've had two myself.

 

The car came with bald 12" tires. I had the a set of 13" steelies in the shed with good tires on them from a previous civic I owned. So I put them on. I ordered beauty rings and center caps off ebay last night. The civic emblem is just a decal my nephew made for me so i put them on. I'm not sure if i will put them on the other fenders when i swap them out.

 

Paint looks good! What did you use and how long did it take?

Any interior pics?

 

When I was reading about you painting it yourself, I was like ohh man....then i scrolled down and was actually pretty impressed! Looks good for your first time do-it-in-your-driveway kinda job! Have fun with it!

 

Thanks

2 quarts of Gloss almond Rust-Oleum. I also added Japan dryer as a hardener. Sprayed one coat Friday morning sprayed 2nd coat Saturday morning. I bought a $15.00 spray gun from harbor freight. I used Krylon fusion gloss black in a spray can for the bumpers.

I know Rust-Oleum is not the first choice for most people. I was looking for something cheap. Surprisingly the color matches the original color under the hood and in the door jams pretty well. I have it in my head that I took a $1000.00 and turned it in to a $1200.00 car. I'm very happy that it turned out as good as it did for a driveway paint job. I will post some interior pictures tomorrow.


Thanks. A few of my friends had the same reaction when I told them I plan on painting it in the driveway. They were pretty surprised when they seen it.

 

Sorry for the poor quality of the interior pictures. The car came with those ugly seat covers on the front seats. I haven't had the guts to take them off and see how bad the seats are under them yet.

 

Looks fine to me and I'm assuming that it's a 1300 because of the 12 inch wheels. It also sorta looks like the base model, (judging from the lack of an armrest on the doors), and should be a four speed...

 

interior looks clean! Work up your nerve and check under those seat covers.

 

Unfortunately, Honda Civic seat materials during the Gen II era were not very good and by 100K they were usually shot. The cloth materials that followed in later years were much better. All of my Gen II seats are crappy...