Street Dreams Detail (dsms detail) - Hammered Lexus LS460!

**dsms** · 09-13-2010, 08:14 PM

Lexus LS 460L in for an extensive paint correction and interior detail.

Majority of the paint issues came from automatic car washes and later a paint chip repair guy who attempted some "buffing" of his own, naturally that only added to the issues.

This writeup contains lots of 50/50 pictures and several videos including one on DA wetsanding.

Prep procedure:

Pressure rinse

Foam

2 bucket wash using strong mix of CG citrus wash

Riccardo clay + ONR lube

Multiple IPA wipedowns to completely strip paint of old glaze

Wheels:

Sonax on wheels

Powerclean on tires/wheel wells

Started with the hood, many rock chips attempted to be fixed on the hood and more damage was left than damage fixed

Closeup of defects under Fenix LED

After M105 + wool pad and Menzerna Powerfinish

Wool compounding

Front fender corrected, door uncorrected

Trunk section was too damaged for high level correction using even a wool pad and M105, no sense in even testing out that combination as I would have yielded no more than maybe 75% correction, the gouges and deep rids would be left all over the trunk. In trying to chase down those very deep defects with a wool pad at high RPM I would most likely remove more clear coat than I would like to in the process.

So I opted to wetsand it instead. The entire trunk was DA sanded using 3000 grit discs

Lots of deep RIDS and gouges, again rock chip repair was attempted here and failed miserably.

Before beginning prep on the trunk I let the paper soak for about 40 minutes in lukewarm water

Two 3000grit discs soaking before using

Proper adapter screwed into backing plate for sanding, then the backing pad was put on

Finally after soaking, disc was centered on. I used 1 disc for the right side, and 1 disc for the left side after which both were thrown away.

Slurry left in the process of sanding, water in a sprayer bottled had a tiny bit of pH car soap for lubricity, some like that some dont, I prefer it. Not a ton of water used in this process so I guess you could classify it as "damp sanding" rather than wet sanding.

Readings taken after also

DA sanding Video

YouTube - Machine Wetsanding by Street Dreams Detail

Results and 50/50s after removing sanding marks with the same black wool pad and M105 combo plus foam compounding with Powerfinish, no finishing polish at this point

I like this picture because it shows the natural color of the finish with the heavy concentration of swirls compared to the sanded and polished side

Left side then sanded also

Onto the rest of the car

The doors had some of the heaviest concentrations of swirls I have seen so far on any car

The 3 lightsource test.. if it passes this you achieved what you wanted.

- Halogen

- LED

- Camera Flash

Uncorrected under 3 different light sources

Corrected side under the same 3 light sources

Video 50/50

YouTube - Street Dreams Detail - Video 50/50 Before and After polishing

Closeup

Drivers side door, same issues

**dsms** · 09-13-2010, 08:15 PM

Mirror

After all compounding and polishing work the car was finished using the DA and Menzerna PO85rd. Lexus paint is very nice to work with but can be a bit of a pain to finish down via rotary so before taking any chances I switched down to the DA and it worked great.

I`ll open up a door or pop a hood so I can polish all the way to an edge without spilling over on the next panel...

Like I did here

After gentle finishing and some more inspection after another IPA wipedown I pulled the car outside to double check my work in the sun. No LSP applied yet

Sun shots after correction only

Trunk, nice and leveled

Back inside for interior work

Before

After

Doorjambs sealed using Opti seal

LSP: Powerlock x2 applied by machine

Inside for the final wipedown using distilled water

Final shots

Trunk as I imagined it would look after the time spent on it

Hood reflection

Walkaround video

YouTube - Street Dreams Detail - Lexus LS 460 After Massive Correction

I usually keep my favorite picture for last, one that sums up the detail as a whole...in this case it was not a finished shot but a 50/50 of the trunk...

Thats it, thanks for looking!

**sacdetailing** · 09-13-2010, 08:21 PM

Hey, after seeing your posts i want to polish lol very nice work.

**JohnKleven** · 09-13-2010, 08:26 PM

Perfection!!

**uniquedetailing** · 09-13-2010, 10:21 PM

That looks awesome, whats the name of the black wool pads you use, i have a customer with same car colour, how many hours invested in this one?

**Alexshimshimhae** · 09-13-2010, 11:48 PM

dude you`re absolutely nuts... hope you made at least 4 figs on this

**Rickrack** · 09-14-2010, 07:20 AM

Very nice Dave!!

I don`t know what it is about Lexus, paint, but they really seem to get hammered.

One thing I will say is that I love polishing Lexus paint. If you invest the time, they always come back in the end.

Truly phenomenal work on this one!!!

**a_guerrajr** · 09-14-2010, 07:48 AM

god that was bad

great work as always!

**JCastro1085** · 09-14-2010, 09:12 AM

**drums5757** · 09-14-2010, 11:57 AM

Great results... that Lexus was REALLY bad you made it look perfect.

**Accumulator** · 09-14-2010, 01:23 PM

dsms- Wow, great job (and great documentation too)!

Q- how much clear did the 3K sanding take off? Looks like you needed about three passes (in the sense of "trips across the area") to get things level, right?

Oh, and is that a Griot`s 6" RO, used without the handle?

**The Wraith** · 09-15-2010, 06:35 PM

One of the best write ups I`ve seen. Incredible work, man.

**dsms** · 09-16-2010, 07:57 PM

Originally Posted by RickRack

Very nice Dave!!

I don`t know what it is about Lexus, paint, but they really seem to get hammered.

One thing I will say is that I love polishing Lexus paint. If you invest the time, they always come back in the end.

Truly phenomenal work on this one!!!

Thanks Rick, I would say if this same level of defect was on a rock hard clear I would not have been able to bring it back to the same level as this, Lexus paint does correct nicely and come back with great gloss!

Originally Posted by Alexshimshimhae

dude you`re absolutely nuts... hope you made at least 4 figs on this

Sure did:heelclick

Originally Posted by Accumulator

dsms- Wow, great job (and great documentation too)!

Q- how much clear did the 3K sanding take off? Looks like you needed about three passes (in the sense of "trips across the area") to get things level, right?

Oh, and is that a Griot`s 6" RO, used without the handle?

Down to a precise number of mil`s taken off I cannot recall from the job but I reckon I would have taken off more with 5-6 passes using wool on the rotary opposed to the 3k sanding and 1 shot of wool I ended up with.

As for passes I`d say you were correct, again I cannot recall exactly but I did sand one particular area (the one shown in the video twice because there was a tone of gouges there in every direction)

And yes that is the griots DA. I dont use bale handles on DA`s, I can distribute more even pressure on the buffer head without it and see exactly where my pad is spinning from every angle.

Originally Posted by The Wraith

One of the best write ups I`ve seen. Incredible work, man.

Thats a great compliment, thank you :xyxthumbs

**ADetailedFinish** · 09-17-2010, 11:03 AM

Wow, absolutely amazing work dave

**Accumulator** · 09-17-2010, 11:44 AM

dsms- Thanks for adressing my Qs! Yeah, I often think that wetsanding can end up taking off less clear overall, now I need to start doing it that way when the job calls for it!

I agree 100% on the bale handles, well...on most *any* handle; I just don`t care for `em, and the one on my Griot`s seemed especially bothersome to me.