2003 Accord Coupe Black - Bad Exterior - pics included
 

Hi there,
I have a 2003 honda accord black coupe and the car is amazing, nonetheless I want to do something with it's exterior... To have a better feeling myself and to be able to sell it for a higher price. I know that the value of the car would go down a lot if I left it like this (and it is an amazing car - fully loaded EX-L even with the navi).
I need to mention that the car is located in SoCal where the sun is pretty strong and unfortunately I do not have the option of shaded parking

I am including pictures of my main concerns. Even though it might be obvious I circled the critical areas in red so that it is clear.

1.
http://imageshack.us/a/img836/555/img2933c.th.jpg
white spots that are on the front bumper and all over the hood

2.
http://imageshack.us/a/img19/3243/img2934b.th.jpg
foggy headlights.. I tried to use the turtle wax restoration kit on those a while ago, it helped a bit but now it is bad again

3.
http://imageshack.us/a/img826/553/img2935t.th.jpg
a piece of paint is gone on the left side mirror

4.
http://imageshack.us/a/img37/2866/img2936s.th.jpg
the biggest problem - this is what is going on on the roof

5.
http://imageshack.us/a/img855/7412/img2937vj.th.jpg
seems like it is starting on the trunk as well..

6.
http://imageshack.us/a/img641/3192/img2938gx.th.jpg
door - the vertical scratch was "taken care of" already and the horizontal had to be some !#!@#$ going over it with a key..


I know that a best option would be to leave it to a professional, nonetheless I do not have the funds now to spend several hundred dollars on a exterior restoration..

What is there that I can do myself to make it look more appealing?
It happened to me that a guy stopped me on the road suggesting that he can help me remove it for cheap (I think he was addressing the roof), but I was in a rush at that time. So there has to be a way how to make it look better.

It doesn't have be professional, but I would like to see a as good of a result as possible.
I have SimonIz Fix it Pro (the little stick) and was thinking of applying it to some little scratches but I don't expect much from that. Another idea was to buy the same color in spray (any suggestions where I could get that eventually?) and just somehow fix it with that.
As far as I know doing complete new paint would be very expensive and probably not worth it? how much do you think it could be? If I'd do black or perhaps change it to white or silver.

Or I was thinking of putting a black matte foil over it which I've seen on some custom BMWs which looks very nice. How much would that run me?

Please help, I appreciate any suggestions.

p.s.: car was always washed in automatic car washes, the way it is on the pics is that it wasn't washed for 3-4 days.. where I live it is very dusty

so after considering some options I am seriously conidering to plasti dip it..

no thoughts on my idea of plasti-dipping? :(

Hello from another SoCal resident. Judging by the dust you are talking about, I'm guessing you are from the IE? The dustbowl?




Ok, I'll go step by step and give you my advise on what I would do if it were my car.


1) Your car is suffering from typical SoCal road rash. If the car is your daily driver, its pretty much inevitable. The only way to really fix it so it matches the rest of the car is to repaint the whole bumper. And honestly, it will just happen again with enough time. You can however get a ClearBra to protect it.

2) Your headlights are hazing because the UV protective coating is gone. Those headlight restoration kits are good for short term use, but don't fix the problem long term. You could polish the headlights with a rotary, and then seal them up with a UV clear coat.

3) Same as the bumper, if you really want it to match, you'll have to repaint the whole thing.

4 & 5) There is really no other solution other then repainting the roof and the trunk now that the clear coat has started to go.

6) I really don't know much about scratch removal........other than bondo and repaint hahaha.





And Plasti-dip won't be worth it......its gonna cost you about $180+ worth of cans to do the whole car. And its not gonna last that long.


Honestly, if it was me, I would just keep saving until you can afford a new professional paint job. Do it once, and do it right. That's how I mod my car.

apparently a lot of accord owners that have this generations have the same problem. seems like there even is a lawsuit going on against honda etc.
my question is though, is there any way I could at least fix this with some black touch up paint? it is really starting to look horrible.

nobody figured out a solution to this? Honda should really step up, because as I researched online there are even petitions going on about this. I wonder how much it would be to at least get the worst parts of the car fixed.

so I talked to a body shop and they offered to fix all the dents and do a 2 stage paint job with clearcoat, basically make the exterior look brand new, for $950.

Do you guys think it is worth it? will I be able to make up the $950 when I am selling the car?

You can't really see the dents and the scratches in the pictures, but I do have quite a few.

$950 for a 2 stage paint?, on the entire vehicle?, with some extra clean up before? What a deal! if you have seen some of their previous work and it looks good. More than worth it. IMO. I could never get close to that price around here.
But don't do it to get an extra $950 when you sell it. Do it so you can have a good looking car.

yea I've seen their work and it looked flawless.. He gave me that price because we are not complete strangers. I would want it to be an investment though and bump up the value by doing it. Thanks for the comment though.

correction - it is a 1 stage without clearcoat

and I think I won't have the car for more than a year