[laluks]

Hi dot, better late than never. That's one beautiful civic you have there.
I love its third gear, which to me is my AT mode in my MT

So two drivers cars and a single dot!!

@Guderian saar - I guess the driver is very indecent with those babies. OT when are you hitting Leh with your admiral.

@dot - yes, what have you named her?

[Guderian]

Originally Posted by laluks

Hi dot, better late than never. That's one beautiful civic you have there.
I love its third gear, which to me is my AT mode in my MT

So two drivers cars and a single dot!!

@Guderian saar - I guess the driver is very indecent with those babies. OT when are you hitting Leh with your admiral.

@dot - yes, what have you named her?

LaluSaare, As soon as some idea of leave gets crystallised in Sept this year ! Any trips planned anywhere from your side ?

[sushrutha]

@dot. Fantastic ownership report. Nicely maintained car too.

Originally Posted by Guderian

Great and that silver (is that what it is called by Honda ?) colour is smashing (whooops....wrong phraseology for a car !) good !

It's called Bluish Silver.
I too own a same coloured car ;-)

[Guderian]

Originally Posted by sushrutha

@dot. Fantastic ownership report. Nicely maintained car too.


It's called Bluish Silver.
I too own a same coloured car ;-)

Ahhh...no wonder ! In one of the first snaps of Dot's car I thought I saw a bluish tinge on the skin.
And Sushrutha you own one too, of the same type ? So without knowing the vintage of the car - here's congratulations to you as well, maybe late though !

[dot]

Just logged in after a hectic day. Really felt nice to see so many replies. When I started this thread, I was a newbie, looks like made lot of friends since then.

Originally Posted by vasoo

dot, that was a great and crisp report! I am also driving now almost 90% using paddles and really enjoy the 2nd and 3rd gear. Congrats once again and wish you thousands of safe miles with your beauty.

Vasoo, Thanks. As I had written before, I have learnt to use the paddles from your thread. So you had a lot to contribute.

Originally Posted by laluks

Hi dot, better late than never. That's one beautiful civic you have there.
I love its third gear, which to me is my AT mode in my MT

Laluks, Thanks. Beautiful is one word which is truly applicable for Civic. My head still turns when I see a Civic on road. Even though now I own one, the magic has not gone and they have been around for four years now. Yes third gear in S mode is a virtual D mode, agreed. Specially in city driving. Pulls fom 13 kmph all the way to 50-60 without any stress.

Originally Posted by sushrutha

@dot. Fantastic ownership report. Nicely maintained car too.
It's called Bluish Silver.
I too own a same coloured car ;-)

Sushrutha, Thanks. Yes, I saw your car's picture in one of the threads. It was shining!

Originally Posted by Guderian

Hi Dot, I know I am late round these parts - but then never too late to congratulate you on your new (now old-ish) acquisition.

How does the new baby take the road humps of Pune ? Any real issues with the ground clearance ? Or is it just a case of poor handling by drivers ?

Thanks General to pay a Civilian visit!!

Sorry cound not resist the pun, it was intended.

Considering ground clearance, not a scratch so far. Been around in Pune all over and a trip to Bombay (Powai-Ghatkopar), yet no bottoms out so far. Some reasons are (1) good roads in the region, (2) low weights of burden (just three of us, two midsized Indians and a baby) and (3) maybe, just maybe, better driving.

Unfortunately we have not given a name. Its still THE Civic. Now that you all encourage, will give one.

[jatinpatel]

@dot how about the name
flying blue?

[noopster]

I have driven this car and it is lovely! Don't know how I missed the resurrection of this thread but here I am!

I agree with @jatinpatel you need to christen your ride, dotty. How's "Bluestreak"?

Keep postin'!

[Ace F355]

Originally Posted by Guderian

is that what it is called by Honda?

Originally Posted by sushrutha

Bluish Silver

Was writing to respond to Guderian's post, damn internet went off at JFK, New York. It is indeed bluish silver. My hands are itching to drive my Shark once I am home! Just couple of hours!

Originally Posted by Guderian

I couldn't find it anywhere here, what have you named the babe ?

Originally Posted by dot

Unfortunately we have not given a name.

@ Dot - the CIVIC is still regal, you see!

jokes aside, assign her a pet name since she is family now!

[dot]

@noopster, we should plan a longer ride with both the cars.

@Ace, do post the reunion experiences with the Shark.

Originally Posted by jatinpatel

@dot how about the name
flying blue?

Originally Posted by noopster

I agree with @jatinpatel you need to christen your ride, dotty. How's "Bluestreak"?

Originally Posted by Ace F355

@ Dot - the CIVIC is still regal, you see!
jokes aside, assign her a pet name since she is family now!

On the name, I asked my son if he had a name. He said "Scorponok"

[sushrutha]

Originally Posted by Guderian

And Sushrutha you own one too, of the same type ? So without knowing the vintage of the car - here's congratulations to you as well, maybe late though !

Originally Posted by dot

Sushrutha, Thanks. Yes, I saw your car's picture in one of the threads. It was shining!

Thank you friends.
Heck it was not polished when the pic was taken ;-)

Gave a quote of Wax -polish(collinite 845) this Sunday, but I couldn't find much of a difference in the shine.
When applied the same polish on my red bike, there was pretty much difference in the shine + colour too.
May be this wax polish is not that effective on Bluish Silver I feel.

[dot]

When I bought the Civic, it came with a few minor dents and dings here and there. I had etched it on my to-do list that when the car, Scorponok, is about 5-6 six months with us, I will repair them. The 5-6 months was a kind of test to check if Scorponok is behaving well enough to be a long termer in the family.

Well, six months is up and it was time to do something. Have a look at the dents.









Normally I am little bit of touchy and feely kind of guy when it comes to things I really like. I know quite a few body shops in north Pune area by now. Even if they have a swanky name or a nice covered garage area, I wont be convinced until I see how they go about their business. How they treat the cars that come to them, how they interact with customers are very important for me. So after spending some snooping around time at several places I zeroed down to Anil's Garage. This also happens to be very near our home, just a co-incidence, BTW. For the last two weeks I would walk down to this garage and watch how they are working. Took Scorponok a couple of times and talked on how we can go about doing things. The dents are not big, but they deserve the best treatment.

Finally opportunity presented itself. I was feeling pretty unwell and decided to take a day off. It was also a perfect opportunity to give Scorponok for some well deserved body treatment. Thankfully Anil agreed to take the Scorponok that day.

Late morning I went to check how things are going. Body putty was already applied at the scarred areas. Anil had also decided to work on the bumpers, even though we had not thought about that initially.







There are two type of puttys utilized for body repair purposes. For deep dents, a two pot polyester-hardener (peroxide really, to polymerize styrene) is used. Here is a picture of polyester hardener box set!



For surface dents and to finish polyester putty, cellulose based "top-coat" putty is used. Cellulose based putties give a better surface finish that is needed during the painting step. Here is a picture of the drum of putty that was used on Scorponok.



To be continued..

Mods: can you kindly modify rest of the title with - "Scorponok" -six months up

[dot]

These pictures and descriptions might seem silly, since they are really a minor and common body job. But when it happens to your car, it is a great feeling. I think BHpians can understand.

I already started to feel excited when I saw the surface has been puttified.
So got some "chai" for the folks and sat down to watch the next step.

Next step is to sand the putty to match with the surface contours.







Once the putty has dried up, it is time for priming. Since it was about 40C in Pune, the putty dried fairly fast and soon they started the priming spray. The last two photographs are after the priming is over.







After that I decided to take a break and head home for lunch. Around 4 p.m. phone call came that paint has arrived. So walked back to Anil's. Paint matching expert, Vinod, declared his credentials when we met.

"Dont worry, sir, no one will notice the difference. It will be better than Honda painting your car"

Usually such statement are harbingers of doubts and worry. Which was was exactly the case.

Anil decided to spray paint a coupon. Which revealed that color didnt match.





Then some formulations was carried out.



Again another coupon level test.



Not satisfied, some more formulations.


Another coupon test.



This time it looked good. And spray painting was undertaken.





When the paint dried, lacquer was sprayed. Here are the pictures of the last operation of the day.





I ordered some more chai, which we sipped quietly, looking at the handiwork. As chai got over, I took Scorponok home for the day.

[dot]

Next day, Scorponok was dropped at the garage for sanding the painted area. I had also asked Anil to paint all the four power window switch casings, since they were scratched right from the beginning. Here is a picture of the painted plastic parts.



Turns out that the casings are made out of ABS, a better plastic than usual PP parts found in most cars.



This is how the newly painted casing look on the door trim now.



I had also asked them to paint the calipers red. The red would be better than yellow as it looked smashing on several BHPian's Civics like @Ace's or @Sushrutha's. This is what I saw.



He had painted the whole thing red! Shocking. After the initial shock died down, I thought that it looked wicked.







Took Scorponok back home again where wife told me that I must have gone color blind. The paints on the disk surface peels off immediately as the car moves, so it looks less "grand". Changed my signature to what you can see now.

[dot]

Finally the last step arrived today when Scorponok got a full wax treatment, at Anils'. I was not around to take pictures of the process. They do a full mechanized polish which takes about 4-5 hours for the whole car. When I came to pick up Scorponok in the evening, this is how it looked.







Some more shots taken later in the evening.

















Thats all folks, for now. The dents are gone. Scorponok looks better. Next mods and plans coming up soon!!

[Guderian]

Hi Dot,
Great snaps and process walk through !
About the name I trust it is after the Transformer business and not because some Scorpio gave your wheeled beauty some knocks !

Well done and great going. Keep the journey on with snaps and write ups !