2010 Lexus ES350 - Rupes UHS + Meguiar`s Ultimate Fast Finish

[The Guz]

The owner of this car is my aunt (my dad`s sister). She bought it used a few years ago. My dad told me that she asked who detailed his car which can be found here. Little did she know that it was me that did it. So she told my dad that she was going to call me to set up a date and time for me to work on her car. I did this one during the Super Bowl Weekend. Delivered it right before kick off.

She just wanted to have the exterior cleaned up because she told me that it needed some work and that she plans to keep it for a long time since she will be putting her daughter through college. I originally thought an AIO job would have been just right given that this is a daily driver and that it doesn`t get proper care like us forum members are used to. At the time I had not even seen the car yet. I will get to my surprise in a bit.

Here it is as it arrived. Notice the lack of gloss.





Upon further inspection, this is what I found. Severe oxidation on the hood, roof and trunk. I will point out that she lives closer to the beach than I do.



Literally no gloss on these areas.





It was even on the headlights.





I did not get too many photos of the interior but this thing was trashed inside. I could not let her roll with a filthy interior. I don`t think it has ever been cleaned. The steering wheel was disgusting with caked on grime on the leather parts. The seats were nasty as was certain areas of the floor. Good thing I had plenty of gloves and masks.

Here are some examples of the floor mats. I vacuumed them followed by spraying optimum carpet cleaner at full strength and agitated them with the Sonax red brush. Came back and wiped them with some terry towels and one final vacuum. The towels were nasty and I ended up just throwing them away.

Passenger side. The driver side was worse.



Optimum Carpet cleaner is awesome. At the moment I have to say I will be investing in the larger bottle.



One of the rear mats.





I went around all of the leather and cleaned them with a brush and Meguiar`s D181 Leather Cleaner. These seats are pretty beat up. The rear seats were much nastier with grime and who knows what. Well she does own dogs.



All the leather was conditioned with McKee`s 37 All In One Leather Lotion.



Final shot of the interior. The door panels and various plastics were wiped down with Meguiar`s D103 APC+ and dressed with McKee`s 37 All In One Leather Lotion. The navigation screen and wood grain areas were wiped down with McKee`s 37 Fast Interior Detailer.



Next up was taking care of the wheels and tires. Tires were cleaned with McKee`s 37 Tire & Rubber Rejuvenator while the wheels were cleaned with an iron remover wheel cleaner that is not carried by Autgeek. Various wheel brushes were used.

Passenger side front wheel



Wheel cleaner doing it`s thing. I only have one photo of the wheel cleaned up and it will be down below in the final photos.



Next up was to wash the car. I used the The Aggressive Approach to Washing a Car to wash it. I deconed it with Optimum Ferrex and proceeded to rinse and foam the car. McKee`s 37 Xtreme Foam was the car wash of choice.



Re-foamed the car and use the fine grade Griot`s clay mitt to mechanically decontaminate the paint. The paint had no protection at all to begin with. The water sat flat on the paint and took awhile for it to sheet off the surface.



This thing needed to be clayed badly. I dried it off and took a look at what I was working with.

Oxidation on the trunk. Was not phased by claying.



Just out of curiosity I wanted to see what an AIO would do to the oxidation. I put up Meguiar`s Mirror Bright Polishing Wax up to the task. I used it on my Rupes LHR15 MK 2 on speed 4 using a Meguiar`s burgundy foam cutting pad. Not bad but lacking in gloss due to all the defects within the paint.



I moved to the trunk and went with D300 on a microfiber cutting pad. That worked very well. Followed that up with Rupes Diamond Ultra Fine Gel Polish (white polish) on a white Rupes pad. That worked great on the trunk. I went to do the same process on the hood and I noticed some DA haze after compounding with D300 on the microfiber pad. I stepped down to the Rupes Zephir compound on the Rupes blue pad. That worked much better with no haze. But it left more RIDS. I was ok with that as this was not a show car. I followed up with the Diamond Ultra Fine Gel Polish (white polish) on a white Rupes pad as well. Did the same thing on the roof. This was only done on the oxidized areas of the hood, roof, trunk and driver side doors. The remainder of the car was done with the Rupes UHS.

Here is the Rupes UHS doing some defect removal. In the photo I am wearing the scangrip headlamp which is great.



Much better. Left over RIDS but that is ok.



The lower front bumper on the passenger side





Big fan of the UHS combo for one steps.



The nano working those small areas. Using UHS pads and UHS polish.



50/50 of the using the UHS combo on the passenger side rear door.







I was sealing as I went along the car. Here`s a photo of Meguiar`s Ultimate Fast Finish flashing on the paint.



Final shots of everything completed.

Who knew there was paint under all that oxidation. Huge difference.





It was overcast on Super Bowl Sunday when I took these outside.

Gloss restored on the hood and headlights. The headlights were compounded with Rupes Zephir and coated with opti-lens followed by opti-seal a few hours later to protect them as there is rain in the forecast for Monday.














Click here to view the original image of 1024x602px.


Gloss on the roof restored. No more oxidation.



Scangrip handheld on the trunk. Swirl free.



On the passenger side rear door. Deeper RIDS left behind.

[The Guz]

Swirl free on the hood as well.





Wheels were sealed with hydo2 during the wash process. The tires were dressed with McKee`s 37 tire gel.



I dropped it off at her house and she could not believe how great it looked. The look on her face was priceless when I pulled into her driveway. Her jaw dropped . She told me that she has never seen it look this good even after she bought it. She also told me the guy at the Lexus dealer offered to detail it for her. It`s too bad it will rain a day after I did all this work. But I offered to wash it the following weekend to clean it up so she can enjoy in on a sunny day.

Here is what I used on it. I think I got everything

Interior:

Glass: Meguiar`s Glass Cleaner Concentrate
Door Panels: Meguiar`s D103 APC+ (discontinued) and McKee’s 37 All In One Leather Lotion
Leather: Meguiars D181 Leather Cleaner 128 oz. and McKee’s 37 All In One Leather Lotion
Navigation screen and wood grain: McKee`s 37 FAST Interior Detailer
Carpets: http://www.autopia-carcare.com/opti-...l#.WJi3fPKrHyU and http://www.autopia-carcare.com/sonax...l#.WJi31PKrHyU

Wash:

Car Wash: http://www.autopia-carcare.com/dp-xt...l#.WJiyyPKrHyU
Clay: http://www.autopia-carcare.com/fine-...l#.WJi29fKrHyU
Decontamination: http://www.autopia-carcare.com/ferre...l#.WJi3bPKrHyU

Wheels: Iron remover wheel cleaner not sold thru Autogeek and http://www.autopia-carcare.com/fine-...l#.WJi29fKrHyU

Tires: http://www.autopia-carcare.com/dp-ti...l#.WJiytfKrHyU and http://www.autopia-carcare.com/dp-ti...l#.WJizAvKrHyU

Exterior:

Glass: Meguiar`s Glass Cleaner Concentrate and http://www.autopia-carcare.com/opti-...l#.WJi3fPKrHyU

Compound and polish (hood, roof and trunk): http://www.autopia-carcare.com/ru-ze...l#.WJi4efKrHyU and http://www.autopia-carcare.com/ru-ze...l#.WJi4efKrHyU

Polish (one step for the remainder of the car): http://www.autopia-carcare.com/rupes...l#.WJi4NfKrHyU

Tools:

http://www.autopia-carcare.com/sonax...l#.WJi31PKrHyU
http://www.autopia-carcare.com/ibrid...l#.WJi4AfKrHyU
http://www.autopia-carcare.com/ibrid...l#.WJi4AfKrHyU
http://www.autopia-carcare.com/scang...l#.WJi44vKrHyU
http://www.autopia-carcare.com/scang...l#.WJi45vKrHyU


Pads:

http://www.autopia-carcare.com/ru-15...l#.WJi4x_KrHyU
http://www.autopia-carcare.com/ru-15...l#.WJi4x_KrHyU
http://www.autopia-carcare.com/ru-10...l#.WJi4rvKrHyU
http://www.autopia-carcare.com/ru-10...l#.WJi4rvKrHyU
http://www.autopia-carcare.com/6-inc...l#.WJi4NPKrHyU
http://www.autopia-carcare.com/4-inc...l#.WJi4MfKrHyU

Paint Prep: http://www.autopia-carcare.com/carpr...l#.WJi3J_KrHyU

Paint Protection: Meguiars Ultimate Fast Finish

Final Wipe: Meguiar`s Glass Cleaner Concentrate

Headlights:

Compound: http://www.autopia-carcare.com/ru-ze...l#.WJi4efKrHyU

Prep: http://www.autopia-carcare.com/optim...l#.WJi3ufKrHyU

Protection: http://www.autopia-carcare.com/carpr...l#.WJi3J_KrHyU and http://www.autopia-carcare.com/opti-...l#.WJi3fPKrHyU

Exhaust tips:

http://www.autopia-carcare.com/pin-e...l#.WJi5FvKrHyU

Engine bay:

http://www.autopia-carcare.com/black...l#.WJi5V_KrHyU

Trim:

Meguiar`s D103 APC+ and http://www.autopia-carcare.com/wolfg...l#.WJi5NPKrHyU

[JustJesus]

That looks good, The Guz.

Funny. Was working on my mother-in-law`s car the last two weeks. I did the hood with Rupes Blue and Zephyir (and worked up to White), and did the trunk with D300 and MF Cut disc! AND, I was planning to do the roof with UHS. Similar combos as you

Car looks clean, man.

[Angus]

Wow! What a turn around!!The paint pops in all the after photos. Great work, Guz.

Photos like this make it too easy too justify a Nano...

Oh how I want one.

[The Guz]

That looks good, The Guz.

Funny. Was working on my mother-in-law`s car the last two weeks. I did the hood with Rupes Blue and Zephyir (and worked up to White), and did the trunk with D300 and MF Cut disc! AND, I was planning to do the roof with UHS. Similar combos as you

Car looks clean, man.

Haha. Great minds think alike. You can`t go wrong with any of those combos. They all work great. Been satisfied with all of the Rupes products I have used. UHS has been my go to for one steps as it doesn`t dust and has a long working time.

Wow! What a turn around!!The paint pops in all the after photos. Great work, Guz.

Photos like this make it too easy too justify a Nano...



Oh how I want one.

Thanks. You should just get the nano already .

[rlmccarty2000]

Nice save! The Meg`s microfiber pad and D300 is just what the doctor ordered for that Lexus. I always like to see trashed out cars come back to life.

[The Guz]

Nice save! The Meg`s microfiber pad and D300 is just what the doctor ordered for that Lexus. I always like to see trashed out cars come back to life.

Thanks. I agree that it`s a good combo. Left the trunk looking flawless.

[Ronkh]

Wow!

Resurrection.

[jrock645]

Haven`t had a chance to try the UHS system, yet but it`s been something I`ve looked forward to. Obviously did a great job here.

[RaydiantDetail]

Amazing job resurrecting that paint!

[RMD]

Great work.