That was a Superficial paint job, only fixing some dings and dents; but I liked the Results.

 

However, this inspired me to do with this KiaStein, what I did with my Subaru BumbleBeast years ago;

to do a body restoration and a Complete paint Job, as it should be; due to three situations:

1) the original paint was really scratched and faded after more than two decades, also it has dings and small dents.

2) during this awful Pandemic times there's not many places where we might go safely nor we want to travel...

3) to get Rid from the Horrid Purplish-Blue that the factory painted this Car...

 

As always I wanted an innovative colour for it, something more like a Sky Blue but my Wife is very Formal...

She wanted the car to be as Dark as Possible, withouth changing too much the colour.

So, first I started by asking a Friend who has a small Paint Garage in his Backyard, to let me get the "KiaStein" there, and do the Job using some of his tools. As kind permission was Granted, I started with Sandpaper on the metal sheet, while identifying areas that needed more attention.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Starting to Paint the Base:

 

 

 

 

 

 

These images are self explanatory, so no further words are needed; but I wan to add that I also prepared all the undercarriage to be painted with a Special "Anti-Gravel" paint, just like the interior. While I was preparing the undercarriage, I decided to add extra anchor points for the Rear Bumper, so it gets firmier, attached better to the Body. Here are a couple of Photos, prior to paint the Undercarriage:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Colour I mixed is Darker than what you can see on the Pictures...  as my Wife wanted.

Still being a Deep Blue but absolutely far from the horrid eggplant purplish blue that it used to have.

Here you can see that the interior received the same Black Anti Gravel paint than the underside.

 

 

Here's a short video of the Process

 

 

This photo was taken Prior to Polish the Paint,

it needs a Month before settle and be Polished; so it has a layer of Dust but looks Great under direct Sun light:

 

The Colour looks somehow Greener under the Golden Sunlight; 

after polishing it and under natural light, the Car Looks Bluish.

 

 

 

the KiaStein is hard to keep Clean...

 

...Living in a small rural town, on the Honduran Mountain highs...

 

...at least, we have Awesome Coffee! 

 

https://imgur.com/bEcl1wN

 

Just has some Hondurans do some remodeling/additions here at my house. They are from Progreso ?

great guys.

A fresh paint wasn't enogh to bring back life to the "KiaStein" as the old HeadLamps were yellowish and lost their transparency beyond all repairs, if fact I polished the old ones several time but they looked plain Ugly with the fresh paint, so, that was time for a New Set of aftermarket Headlamps.

 

 

Powered by a Great LED Retrofitting Kit, whose size match the Halogen bulb's size:

 

Also the mere illumination points match the Halogen ones,

so this LED keeps Low and High Beam as Factory intended.

it also needed new underbumper lamps, I decided to go LED instead of Halogens, but keeping the low budget, I purchased a set of cheapo chinese lamps made with glass instead of plastic, and changed their regular H1 Halogen bulbs with a set of H1 LED that illuminates in yellow light, in order to use them as Fog Lights.

 

 

 

 

 

I smeared the Lamps with transparent silicone to weather proof them.

After improving the outside...

 

...I got to improve the interior of this car, a little; I wanted to install a rear view camera to aid when backing, especially due to the tiny space we have at home, for parking two cars on the garage; there is only an inch left of space between them, also between the "KiaStein" and the Garage's Gate, as you can see in the following video:

 

This was the previous Head Unit that the KiaStein had:

A simple USB player with FM radio