Swirl Free Black...WITH SS REFLECTION!

S

ScubaStevo

New member
YAY! I worked on the first of three cars for a big shot investment corperation owner. This Lexus LS400 was bought new in 2000, and hasn't had any maintenence since. No wax as far as I could see, and there was no beading evident.



Rims were peeling, and paint had deep scratches along the side of the vehicle. I have no idea how they got there, as this thing goes throught the touchless only.



The hood was repainted with a CC paint, and the rest of the car was SS paint. The single stage was easier to work on, but I was having trouble with buffer haze in some parts. I polished with #82 and then glazed the area to eliminate that problem.



Well, might as well post the pictures, I'll leave the processes as a surprise for the end.



Before:



lx400%20002.jpg


mmmmmmm....bugs

lx400%20003.jpg


lx400%20005.jpg


lx400%20006.jpg




EWWWW, thats dirty leather:

lx400%20008.jpg


This is the dustiest and grimmiest I've seen an engine bay, never mind on a flipp top of the line lexus.

lx400%20011.jpg


lx400%20012.jpg


Yicks, thats deep swirls:

lx400%20014.jpg




Please resist posting till I tell you I'm done.
 
After photos: (some are inbetween, so if you notice something out of place, don't mind it)



Nice reflections, and wetness to the paint, even it heavy overcast:

lx400%20050.jpg


lx400%20053.jpg


lx400%20056.jpg




Rims afterwards:

lx400%20057.jpg


lx400%20064.jpg




lx400%20068.jpg


lx400%20043.jpg


lx400%20048.jpg
 
More afters:



lx400%20024.jpg




Whoa, thats deep

lx400%20114.jpg








Interior afters:



lx400%20083.jpg


lx400%20084.jpg


Leather after (used flash to show just how clean it was):

lx400%20095.jpg


lx400%20101.jpg


lx400%20123.jpg






Shoe mark after: (obviously not much work on the carpets. Did the leather first off, then the plastics.)

lx400%20116.jpg
 
Last one:



Engine bay and processes:



lx400%20074.jpg


lx400%20075.jpg


lx400%20073.jpg




Processes from exterior:



SSR 2.5 on whole vehicle x2 on spot cutting pad

SSR2.5 on whole vehicle x1 with LC cuttting pad

#82 on cuttingpad x2

#82 on polishing pad x2

NXT on finishing pad x2



I took nearly 7 hours of polishing to get to what I have. A rotary wouldn't have helped me much, as the paint seemed to have a mind of its own. I really wanted to impress him, as this was basically a test to see if I could work on his Supra (DAMN THAT THING IS SO NICE!)



Trim (metal) got some blue magic cutting cream

Tires were scrubbed, and dressed with NoTouch tire shine, then buffed to remove high gloss

Wheel wells were scrubbed and dressed with Armor All

Rims were polished and sealed with BlueMagic Magic Polishing Cream



Interior processes:

Scrub with oxyclean

Lexol leather cleaner x3 on seats, and x2 on rest of interior plastic

Poorboys Natural Shine on all trim and leather recieved x2

Glass was cleaned with Windex

Wood and plastics polished with SSR1 and then Plastx



Engine bay:

Scrub with Acetone/Varsol/Water dilution, with a toothbrush

Dress with Armor All and Wet shine tire dressing.



Thats it, you may now post. :D Thanks for looking, and please post what ever comments you may have.
 
Love the exterior shots in the garage and the pic above it. Dang! That's really reflective! Great work on the leather too!



I'm not a fan of chrome wheels and chromed arches - too much bling for me - but the owner must've loved it!
 
While I'm not a fan of the big Lexus there's no denying it's a very nice automobile. Whenever I see someone treat that type of car like this I want to thwack them in the back of the head!!



I would love to have seen the look on the owner's face when he saw the truly outstanding work you did on his car, the incredible improvement you've made inside, outside, and under. Hopefully he was impressed as I am.......damn fine job you did there!!
 
Mike-in-Orange said:
While I'm not a fan of the big Lexus there's no denying it's a very nice automobile. Whenever I see someone treat that type of car like this I want to thwack them in the back of the head!!



I would love to have seen the look on the owner's face when he saw the truly outstanding work you did on his car, the incredible improvement you've made inside, outside, and under. Hopefully he was impressed as I am.......damn fine job you did there!!
Click to expand...



Heh, I had a customer just dropping off his cavilier when the owner of the lexus was just seeing the car. He was like "holy ****!" and the cavilier customer heard him half way down the block. :)
 
7 hours of polishing is a long time, it definitely paid off. The car looks great. How long did it take for the total detail? Please tell my more about your Engine bay technique and your solution of acetone/Varsol/Water dilution.

Did anyone else notice the business card?
 
Did you wash down the engine bay before and/or after attacking it with a toothbrush? That must've been one heck of a big toothbrush! How long did that take?



I'm really, really interested to know more about the process since I'm wary of doing engine bays. Could you give us more specifics? Did you wrap anything with aluminum first or what?
 
Car look amazing, but I'm not sure why you think a rotary wouldn't have helped much. It usually eliminates the need for so many passes. I just thought that was an interesting comment to make considering you've never tried a rotary.

Again great work on the entire car!



JJ
 
J.J. said:
Car look amazing, but I'm not sure why you think a rotary wouldn't have helped much. It usually eliminates the need for so many passes. I just thought that was an interesting comment to make considering you've never tried a rotary.

Again great work on the entire car!



JJ
Click to expand...



I've tried the rotary, and am pretty good at it already. I just found that the slight hazing even the PC created, with gentle cut products, so the rotary would have either made the time drastically better, or drastically worse. Oh well.
 
For the engine bay, I first sprayed down with my Varsol water dillution around 15:1. Just to loosen the dirt while I washed the rest of the car. Then I went ahead and took my Acetone solution (very diluted as well) and scrubbed for a couple minutes on the stuff that wouldn't be dressed. Then wiped down plastic with the same solution.



Let compleltly dry, and get to the dressing. I used over 400ml of dressing on all that plastic and wheel wells. :(



Thanks for the compliments, now I gotta get back to my other detail.
 
looks good. any direct comparision shots on the paint for before and afters? i'm interested to see how a PC and 2.5 actually cuts. i think a rotary definately would have spend that up. the interior looks one heck of a lot better! great job on that for sure. one piece of advice, get around that brake fluid resovior;) nice work though!



V Biz
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top