(mis)adventures of a neglected black Lexus *56k Warning*

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bunmango

New member
This past November, we picked up a used 1998 Lexus LS400. Mechanically, the car was in good shape, but the condition of the paint was horrible. Having black paint is bad enough, but being a single-stage paintjob didn't help either - the paint is so soft that you can scratch it with a fingernail. To be honest, I was kinda glad that it was a single-stage job. It made my life a whole lot easier when it came time to removing all these defects. The previous owner did not take care of the paint at all, and it showed - major oxidation, heavy swirlmarks, and numerous etchings left over from bird bombs :down



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After claying, the surface looked a little bit better:



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However, in these pictures, you can still see the "cloudiness" of the surface - not a "mirror" finish as a black car should have. Now after some love with my PC, DACP, SFP, SEC, and S100, the "mirror" finish was (not so) quickly brought back to life:



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This was all done last December, shortly after picking up the car. Fast forward 6 months and we have a different story. We were in the process of renovating the inside of our home, so our beloved cars were forced out of the garage onto our driveway. Those trees shown in the reflections are notorious for shedding leaves, and 6 months later, the heavy swirling and scratches had returned - a combination of both improper washing techniques and a California Car Duster embedded w/ the aforementioned leaves.



Since finishing our house renovation and clearing up the garage, I felt it was time to let the LS back into the garage - but not before a proper detail of course.



I started out with my PC and a yellow LC pad for the DACP. I used two different pads because the product/paint kept caking up rather quickly- I found myself cleaning up the pads after two panels or so. While one was out drying in the sun, I'd use the other for a few panels, then switch... lather, rinse, repeat. I followed up this step w/ the SFP and another yellow LC pad. After the SFP, I followed up with a white LC pad and VMW, and topped with EX-P by hand. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.



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I did this over a span of two days, and a good portion of that was spent messing around with my Nikota rotary buffer and DACP. For some reason, it was gumming up pretty badly, so I just went back to my trusty PC. I should've taken pictures of the residue on the hood but I didn't think of doing so at the time.



One thing I found (as Mike Phillips demonstrated at the Autopia/Meguiar's Meet) was that the rotary + DACP left a crystal clear finish, whereas the PC + DACP left a somewhat cloudy finish. It was not until following up with SFP on the PC that the clarity of the surface was on par with that of the rotary + DACP. I like using the rotary, but I'm thinking about getting at least a new backing plate so I can use my LC pads with it. Right now I'm using an 8" 3M Foam Polishing Pad which is quite large, and I don't really care for the convoluted surface much. I read that it reduces the risk of burning paint since there's less contact area; even then, I feel that the pad makes it hard to keep the buffer level, even on vertical surfaces. Anyhow, enough about that...



The next step is the interior, but I'll tackle that task another time :bounce



Please feel free to post any comments/rants/raves/etc., I could always use some feedback from you guys :up
 
Holy ****!!!!! I think those are by far the best before and after PC results I've ever seen :eek: :shocked

:bow :up
 
Beautiful,painstaking work!I did not think it would come up as well as that.Well done!I bet it never gets like that again in a hurry.

My wife has an identical car in Pearl White.
 
S**t, that is just awesome. With a PC? Damn, damn fine job! Thanks, now I'll be having wet dreams about the PC till I get one in a week or so.
 
Just simply amazing!



Honestly looks like 2 different vehicles. That combo is a hands-down winner in my books too.



Those first two pics are among probably the worst paint I've even seen.



Excellent job!
 
Wow! What a transformation! Good thing Lexus black is single stage and has decent thickness (soarer's 9-year-old black SC400 had paint thickness of about 5-6 mils when we checked it at the meet, so I am sure your car should be similar. Even though the paint seems to be pretty forgiving, when it gets as bad as it was in the before pics, it takes some real skill to bring it back the way you did.



You've probably added several thousand dollars to the value of that car. :up
 
Awesome work man, what a great transformation. I'm sure the original owner woudnt even recognize it. Keep up the good work.
 
bunmango said:
One thing I found (as Mike Phillips demonstrated at the Autopia/Meguiar's Meet) was that the rotary + DACP left a crystal clear finish, whereas the PC + DACP left a somewhat cloudy finish.
Click to expand...



:eek:



Incredible transformation! Now imagine if you had to do that by hand!
 
here's another "before" picture to add to the mix:



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I also replaced the emblems with some black pearl ones, which, IMO, look a lot better than their gold counterparts (don't mind the 4x4 in the background ;) )



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edit:



for some reason my server seems to be lagging really badly... those of you on broadband connects might actually feel like you're on a 56k :lol
 
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