D Car — July 2004
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About this issue
246 available scans from D Car — July 2004, in right-to-left reading order. Japanese OCR and English translation drafts are available throughout. Drafts have not received exhaustive image proofreading; unreadable source remains recorded in the archival data.
Page 65 — English draft translation
“Maybe an American copied it?” This EG6 was built around the idea of a cute, trendy girl you might see in Hawaii. The tail section has been smoothed to create a beautiful rear profile. The body was painted in Honda’s factory pink, making the lines stand out. The owner says they saw a Civic in exactly the same custom state on the West Coast. It also has Mazda Roadster fenders and carbon-look vinyl on the dummy ducts.
Captions and page details
Filling the license-plate area and tail section creates a clean, smooth rear end!
Machine check
Check
The usual license-plate area has been filled, leaving a smooth trunk gate. This alone completely changes the look of the rear.
DCAR
It wears a three-piece ViS Racing wing. Smoothing makes the taillights look more compact, giving the rear a playful character.
The wheels are TMW Federal 17×7J front and rear.
The aero is all ViS Racing, but it mixes versions: an OMEGA front bumper, BOXER side skirts, and a CONBAT rear bumper.
“The more effort you put in, the better the finish.”
Weld in sheet metal for strength
That…
We will fill in this section The first step in smoothing is removing the parts from the area to be worked. Here, the pieces around the taillights and trunk gate, along with the license-plate surround, are removed. A large opening is left behind. What happens next?
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He also drives a Civic himself…
We asked veteran NOBORUN, an expert at Prison #8, to demonstrate smoothing a Civic Ferio. His careful work is genuinely impressive…
MAGAZINE
…that is the kind of work it is.
★ Instructor NOBORUN handles bodywork. He says he wants to do work he can be proud of even if the car changes owners and moves on.
Prison #8’s smoothing technique revealed! What are the steps?
This time, we asked them to smooth the trunk…
We had the trunk gate (license-plate area and taillights) smoothed! The rear is where the effect is easiest to see. Filling the central plate recess and partly deleting the taillights that span the body side and hatch makes the back look much cleaner. First, remove the parts from the area to be filled…
Remove the parts from the area to be filled
Cut the sheet metal Use the removed taillight as a template and trace it onto sheet metal. The chosen 0.8 mm thickness provides good strength and makes the work efficient. The difference in strength with and without this backing panel is considerable…
…as well.
Weld sheet metal for strength
Cut out the sheet metal
Cut sheet metal to match the shape
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…and trim it to size.
After tracing the shape, cut it slightly oversized with metal shears…
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Weld in the sheet metal
Apply three types of filler…
…in layers.
Shape it with aluminum body filler
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From the wide-open hole to primer and final paint, we followed the whole process. Even with an experienced craftsperson working continuously, it cannot be finished in one day. Let’s go through each step.
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Shape it with body filler
Test-fit and level the panel Rough-cut sheet metal is fitted to the car and aligned. It is adjusted, removed, trimmed, and checked again and again until it fits perfectly. But…
A rough cut will not fit perfectly. Keep adjusting it until…
Turn to the next page
Apply polyester filler for the final shaping
Fit the adjusted sheet metal. If it does not sit flush, tap it into shape with a hammer…
Apply primer
…and smooth it out.
This perfectly aligned sheet-metal panel will prevent the filler from shrinking and preserve the smooth finish.
Paint to finish!