DIY Color matching Civic EK sideskirts and side guards [UPDATED]

[philip_pc]

Disclaimer: The following is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and neither myself nor Ozhonda take any responsibility for the outcomes of someone else doing the following. You follow these steps at your own risk!

Ive always liked the look of the type r styled cars how they dont have those black colored moulds on the side, looks hawt.....anyways had some spare time today and colored mine and thought id share it with other members of the forum just to show how easy it is, some motivation for you to get your ones painted too

Aim: To Color match EK civic sideskirts
Required: Sandpaper (i used wet 600grit and 1200grit), cleaning cloth, plastic primer, matching car color paint, clear coat, working stands (optional)

Steps:

1). First step is to remove your sideskirts, on each side of the car there should be 3 screws under the skirt and another 3 just behind the front wheel holding the skirt in place. Remove all these screws and place them in a place you wont forget. So there should be 6 screws in total on each side, total of 12.



Once all screws are off, open your door, grab the skirt firmly and push towards the front of the car and they should pop off, there will be little clips still on the car, just jiggle them around to remove them cause you'll need them to secure the skirt again later. Do this to both sides and you'll have your sideskirts removed, easy peazy.

2). Next step is to use your 600grit sandpaper to sand down the skirt, you dont have to use wetsand of 600 but i just did in this case cause so yeah. the 600 will remove most of the larger uneven spots, dirt or grime buildup or so on.

3). Once done give them a good rinse and dry with the cloth, they should dry rather quickly (a good thing )

4). Your next step is to place them on your stands and prime them with plastic primer, i used K&H plastiprime that i got from autoban, actually i got all my spray cans from autoban.

5). Spray, wait to dry, sand with 1200(no water) just to remove any running or uneven sprays you may have accidentally made, dust off with another cloth (make sure you dust as much off as possible). Spray again and sand again untill you are satisfied with the result , from my memory i think i applied around 6-7 coats of primer with sanding in between every one, last step should be sanding, paint will go onto sanded primer surface (well this is what i did).



6). After all that is done, then spray your sideskirts with the matched color you purchased, shouldnt need to sand here unless you accidently have some running paint or something again, apply as many coats as you like till satisfaction i applied i think about 4-5 coats.



7). All these layers should dry rather quickly (within 2minutes or so) as long as you dong spray too much on in one go. Next step is to spray the clear coat, now you want lotsa this hahaha to protect your paintwork, i sprayed about 3-4 pretty thick coats (thicker then the primer and paint at least).

8). Once all is complete, assemble your sideskirts back on the same way you took them off (affix those little clips you removed earlier on to the inside of the sideskirt and then just align them to the holes and push to pop them in) and viola you have your color matched sideskirts....SEXY AS







Other comments: Im planning on doing the upper moulds too later on but i think i'll do bit by bit and leave them for another day, going to do the mirrors too but not sure how to remove them on an EK, guess i'll just be using a while heap of tape and newspaper, if anyone knows how to remove the side mirrors on an EK id greatly appreciate it

Anyways thats enough of me, happy spraying fellow ozhonda people

Side moulds have now been color matched too, pictures can be found on page 2 or on this link.
http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/showthr...=100705&page=2

[chunsa]

Looks like an awesome job. Gotta give this a try on the Prelude side skirts too.

Perhaps you have to remove your door panel before accessing your side mirrors (that's how you do it on the Prelude). It could be the same in your case too.

How many cans did you get and how much all up?

[RtN]

Nice!! imo should have done the moulds, mirrors, and handles also while you're at it lol.

[Raztaz]

nice!! thats a good end result im gonna do this after my exams. To get to ur mirrors just get a flat head screwdriver and pry off the black plastic triangle bit on the door (on the INSIDE of ur car) ( the other side of where the mirror is attached lol) and then unscrew the mirror off

[RtN]

I guess the hard part would be to paint the inside of the mirrors lol.

[beeza]

Great work!

Just make sure you get EXACT colour.The color code will be on the driver's or passengers door frame.If you take this code to a good spray paint shop,they can make up a pressure pack (spray can for you).

[philip_pc]

I guess the hard part would be to paint the inside of the mirrors lol.

yeah ah i dont think im gonna do the inside of the mirrors, just gonna paint the outer section of the mirror, if you take notice there should be a crevice that seperates te mirror housing into two peices, gonna just paint the back section and leave the front section towards the actual mirror black, like most cars are now, give it some silver but also leave some black for some contrast, not sure if i described it well here though lolz, if not i'll try get a picture up.
oh yeah i only had time to do the skirts today, the side moulds and door handles and stuff i will do also but thats gonna have to be for another day, i'll try get another DIY up for that as well, as for the mirror, sounds easy enough to take off, i'll give that a go.

[philip_pc]

Looks like an awesome job. Gotta give this a try on the Prelude side skirts too.

Perhaps you have to remove your door panel before accessing your side mirrors (that's how you do it on the Prelude). It could be the same in your case too.

How many cans did you get and how much all up?

got 3 cans all up, one primer, one color and one clear coat, all together cost me under 50 bux and i used only a little bit of it, still got quiet alot left in the can, gues it would be enough to do the handles, mirrors and even the sides.
it looks soo much better without the black moulds. oh the 50 included the sandpaper as well

[BNK]

Very nice dude

[Ek4Vtir]

that's great work man. I'm looking to paint mouldings on my car colour coded aswel.. With the clear coat does it make the texture of the paintjob the same as the car? Gloss smooth n shiny ay? Does autobarn sell matching colour coded paint? Or were u just lucky they had urs?

[Raztaz]

that's great work man. I'm looking to paint mouldings on my car colour coded aswel.. With the clear coat does it make the texture of the paintjob the same as the car? Gloss smooth n shiny ay? Does autobarn sell matching colour coded paint? Or were u just lucky they had urs?

Autobarn matches paint, go in there with ur code and they do it on the spot, you can watch em as well lol. Takes about 10-15min

[philip_pc]

that's great work man. I'm looking to paint mouldings on my car colour coded aswel.. With the clear coat does it make the texture of the paintjob the same as the car? Gloss smooth n shiny ay? Does autobarn sell matching colour coded paint? Or were u just lucky they had urs?

yeah autobarn can mix your paint for you no problems. mine was a mixed one too. as for the texture it doesnt give exact feeling as the actual car body or even the bumpers, im just under the impression that car body work is done by the pros with the proper tools thats why they can get such a smooth and glossy feeling. As i used spray cans here the feel of it is not as smooth as the car body but still very smooth, just make sure you keep sanding with high grade grit paper to remove lumps and bumps. glossyness? im satisfied with it, when you stand from a distance you cant even tell that its a DIY job, you'd think it came out of the factory like that (what my sister said)