Lexus IS200 with a serious makeover job

[Gen2]

Initially this car was supposed to come for the detailing session during the last IMF meeting period but the owner was involved in the event, so it was postponed to a later date. Before coming to me, the owner brought the car to a painter shop to touch up the front bumper and they offered to polish the whole car at a very special rate since he did the spray job there. The owner took up the offer since it was such an irresistible price but in the end the owner paid a higher price to fix what they had done to the car.



The car actually looked pretty shiny and reflective under the shade when it came for the detailing session, but the moment I moved it into the sun…WOW…was I surprised to see those swirls and holograms (it was not that bad during our first meet-up). Not only there were swirls and holograms, it had lots of scratches on the paint work too. Here are the pictures to tell the story,

Here come the process,



1. wash and clay

2. Power Gloss/RMG mix + yellow cutting pad + cyclo (2 passes)



and these are the before and after photos after the above steps,

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

 

[Gen2]

As you can see from the after photos, some of the deeper scratches and swirl marks are still visible but I would consider that as a very big improvement as compared to the before state. Subsequently I follow-up with the steps as stated below,



3. Intensive Polish/RMG mix + green polishing pad + DA @ speed 5

4. Prime Acrylic + blue polishing pad + DA @ speed 4

5. JW Acrylic Jett Trigger with MF towel by hand



This is how it looks like after all the polishing work,

Some close-up shots to show the details,

Can’t help doing this shot,

 

[imported_Dave KG]

Man that car was a mess before hand... Excellent defect correction there, the 50/50 shot shows the extent of the improvement espeically, and rewarded with a super gloosy looking black in the after shots. :up Its not always possible to remove all of the swirl marks from a finish and while we always strive for perfection, in some cases things like paint thickness prevent us from achieving 100% defect correction: personally, and I always discuss this with the owner, I would rather have a 98% correct finish with only 5um of paint removal than remove another 20um to take out the last 2% of RDS on most cars.

 

[gmblack3]

Gen2, I always enjoy reading your posts and this one is no exception. Excellent job on the major correction you did!!!



Dave, You makes some great points about defect correction. We all would like to have that 100% corrected finish, but clearcoat life is always something to consider.

 

[gav'spurplez]

awesome car,

and great work on the detail,



the after shots in the sun and reflections are great :2thumbs:

 

[skitelluride531]

Looks great!

 

[j3ffff]

I love that car. You made it like 10x better!

 

[Gen2]

Hi guys, thanks for all the compliments



Dave KG - Totally agree with you on the defects removal. Usually if I cannot get rid of the swirls or scratches after 2 passes with cyclo+power gloss+cutting pad, I will not go further and move on to IP or PO106FF.



gmblack3a - I really enjoy your postings too, your latest posting on the Twin Turbo Porsche looks fabulous :2thumbs: .

 

[klnyc]

Man that look 100x better

Fababalooius werk :2thumbs:

 

[rockz9]

That car looks great, i did an is300 with really bad waterspots and it came out great as well.I noticed that the clearcoat on those cars are really soft .

 

[imported_Pro-Mo]

Nice job :wow:

 

[Gen2]

Thanks for the kind compliments once again.



rockz9 - The paint work on this car was not that soft at all, most likely the bonnet and some other parts were repainted before, so not working on the original paint work.

 

[Mr.Cool]

Omg that was one hell of a transform, the reflection on the paint is unbelievable man your work is crazy.:bigups :bigups

 

[Scottwax]

Excellent as always! You've shown that in the right hands, a Cyclo or PC can correct significantly swirled and marred paint.

 

[imported_DieselMDX]

wow great job!

 

[^&04types]

what is this JW Acrylic Jett Trigger ???? a rinseless car wash?? pls im very interested please explain.

 

[imported_GregCavi]

Nice Restore!! Looks great!





Greg

 

[porta]

Good work! Did you tried with IP and cutting pads?



And why didn´t you use the Cyclo all steps, do you prefere the PC?

 

[Gen2]

I cannot thank you guys enough for all the kind compliments .



Scottwax - Even since I started using cyclo, all the major paint correction I will always reach for it and most of the time the cyclo get the job done very well. Btw I am waiting for the 4" Edge 2000 pad to be released, I believe these pads should work better with the cyclo.



^&04types - AJ Trigger is an acrylic sealant from Jeffs Werkstatt, follow the link below and you will find more information on the products.



JEFFS Werkstatt: the finest in automotive detailing wax and sealants



porta - Tried using IP with a cutting pad but not much improvement, so I switched to PG with the cutting pad. In fact even after 2 passes with PG and cutting pad, there were still some deeper swirls/scratches still remained.



Usually I used cyclo for major defect removal, also it is kind of heavy to handle as compare to my DA and lastly because the cyclo cannot reach some of those tight/difficult areas, so usually I prefer using the DA for finishing.

 

[imported_grease]

spectacular turnaround! the car itself is gorgeous too! 1 " bigger rims might have set the look off a little more, but the style of rims, the bodykit, the tip, very tastefully done IS! could almost pass for OEM!



great job!