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[Prince]

I just thought I'd create a thread for everyone to post up various styling techniques that anybody can do at home.

Everyone feel free to contribute as many ideas as you like!

[Prince]

I will go first...

Caliper painting: If you have a nice set of rims, nothing finishes off the look better than a neatly set of painted brake calipers. This can be done at home by first aquiring the correct paint and then simply removing the wheel. The caliper can be painted whilst both on or off, however painting with the caliper on means you will not be able to paint the entire caliper and you will also need to be very careful not to spill paint all over the brake pads/discs. Another cool touch is to place a vinyl on the caliper.

[Massive]

Filling in Rivet Holes From damn badges!

ok so i presume you have removed all the adhessive now we want some car bodyfiller, i think i used loctite from hallfords, if comes with hardener and an applier. Simply take some filler and mix is 1:1 with some hardener, only small lines as you will use layers. apply enough to cover the holes and leave to dry. Usually about 10-15 mins, now apply another thin layer and do the same.

Now we want some nice rough sand paper so get rid of the roughness, ass you get closer to the paint work and it get smoother use some finer grade paper, and wet it abit. (dont worry too much about scratching you paint your going to paint it again anyway)

Now get some primer, your car paint(found on chasey plate,inside a door, under boot, or in your manual), t-cut, and laquer (if you have pearlescent? or metallic paint)

Next spray a nice thin layer or primer and leave to dry, then add another layer or two.
Use your colour coded paint and again spray a thin layer, dry and repeat a couple of times, we dont want any drips!
Now you can use t cut to blend in your paint to make it more hidden, be patient with this as its a real pain, a smudge mean you have to wipe it off a start again! So use as little as possible on a nice soft cloth (personally i used some kitchen towel paper)

If you need to use your laquer you will need to do this on the next day, simply spray over your area and it should give you a nice glisen!

hope this helps

[waynne]

A very easy styling mod is the application of stickers. Go with an in your face racing stripe or put multilayered vynyl on the side of the car.

Clean off the car.
Spray on some IPA or Filtered water
Apply the sticker and slide into place smoothing it out (the water/IPA allow you to work longer with the sticker.)

You are done. It really is as simple as that and you can change the stickers really easily which completley transforms the look of your car. Much cheaper and easier than a respray.

[Massive]

i think this tut needs to be looked at very interested with a fantastic outcome http://www.geocities.com/crx_auto/eagle_eyes.htm

[waynne]

Massive - I changed the link as I managed to find the original source. The site you found was covered with adverts and pretty hard to read, this one has more pictures and videos.

[Massive]

thanks, and i feel i have come up with a way to make my standard headlights into angel eyes, i can get a block of black thermoset plastic (so it cant melt) mill the shape of my headlight, the create three circular pillars where my side light, fog, and head are then bore or drill a hole in the middle for the bulbs to fit in! should be easy using the machines at work

[Prince]

I don't think I could do that at home...but it's a pretty cool site!

[Massive]

well it saying using a dermal tool, wouldnt be too hard at home i dont think

[Prince]

Yeah, but I don't wanna take the chance of wasting money, or even worse f*** up my Civic!

[Massive]

lol fair point