First off, I am new to the detailing scene and looking for help with a specific problem. I have some general detailing tools including a PC I picked up about a year ago. I just aquired a 1995 Lexus that is in great condition w/the exception of the paint. The top side of every panel has these white imperfections as seen in the photos. Ideally I'd like to 'fix' these and make them as close to invisible as I can. My fear is that it's too late...but I'm hoping that the cumulative knowledgebase hete has that magical silver bullet that will solve all my problems. I'm willing to try any recommendation at this point so please feel free to give your honest opinion. Thank you and advance.
Black Nasty - Any Hope?
- Thread starter 317
- Start date
TuxedoTaurus
Member
Your pictures didn't load. With some we could help point you in the right direction.
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Ronkh
Wax Waster
Ronkh
Wax Waster
Start of cc failure?
Some sap ?
Some water etching ?
Some sap ?
Some water etching ?
TuxedoTaurus
Member
I agree with the above, and maybe rockchips.
I would get something like Terminator or Poorboys Bug Squash, an iron remover, aggressive clay, a paint gauge, and say a prayer!
After a heavy decor wash get paint readings to see if a paint correction is feasible.
If not, use a chemical paint cleaner like Blackfire Gloss Enhancing Polish, Poorboys Blackhole Glaze, then apply one of Poorboys Natty's paste waxes (probably black).
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Poorboy
Founder Poorboy's World
Welcome and sorry ... the above posts are correct .. you have clearcoat failure in the checkered spots .. the water spots look like they have been there quite a while and there are chips and a haze ... hopeless ..no ..it can be a 5 footer again ... paint cleaner, glaze, lots of wax
Although the history is unknown, I think it just sat outside without much care and the neglect caught up to it. Good thing the car was cheap.
I'll take a 5-footer over what it is now, and I don't mind the practice, apparently I can't make it too much worse than it is! And if I somehow manage that I have a buddy that paints cars so I'll just have to work a deal with him even though I was trying to avoid going this route.
Thank you for the recommendations, I'll look into it and try to post back results after I clean it up.
One more question, any recommendations on an 'aggressive clay'? I've not had much experience (I notice you all have black cars) and I'd like to get it right the first time so I don't have to spend the money more than once trying to find a good one.
Again, thank you for the help and direction. It's not so bad polishing a turd because it's easy to see improvement.
I'll take a 5-footer over what it is now, and I don't mind the practice, apparently I can't make it too much worse than it is! And if I somehow manage that I have a buddy that paints cars so I'll just have to work a deal with him even though I was trying to avoid going this route.
Thank you for the recommendations, I'll look into it and try to post back results after I clean it up.
One more question, any recommendations on an 'aggressive clay'? I've not had much experience (I notice you all have black cars) and I'd like to get it right the first time so I don't have to spend the money more than once trying to find a good one.
Again, thank you for the help and direction. It's not so bad polishing a turd because it's easy to see improvement.
512detail
New member
third pic is start of cc failure
I saw those tiny marks on my friends Yukon hood and they grew much larger a few months later
the white ones.... calcium inside the cc failure?
I did a two step in the past and then used some dr color chip and made a drastic improvement on some marks very similar to that before---they were typeII bird bombs I believe
I saw those tiny marks on my friends Yukon hood and they grew much larger a few months later
the white ones.... calcium inside the cc failure?
I did a two step in the past and then used some dr color chip and made a drastic improvement on some marks very similar to that before---they were typeII bird bombs I believe
Ronkh
Wax Waster
Imho
With the way it looks use a milder clay, not aggressive.
Itll make less work
With the way it looks use a milder clay, not aggressive.
Itll make less work
TuxedoTaurus
Member
I only recommended an aggressive one so his arm doesn't fall off try to remove contaminants.
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rlmccarty2000
Active member
When you touch the white spots are they raised up? Some look like very old pine tar (I'm an expert, lol). I would purchase a decontamination kit to start with to try to remove any contamination. After that I would use something to remove any pine tar, such as Stoners Tarminator or CarPro Tar-X. It looks like you have some hard water spots also, try CarPro Spotless to try to remove these. Then I would give it a good wash and start "claying". I prefer a clay towel over detailers clay especially for the amount of contamination you are dealing with. After you have done these steps you will have a better idea of the real condition of your paint, then you can compound, polish, and wax. Above all enjoy the process. Anyone can take a new car and make it shine. Taking a car in that condition and making it look better is time consuming, but well worth the effort. Don't try to do it all at once, set small goals and reward yourself with your favorite adult beverage when you reach them. We have good people here on Autopia with a wealth of knowledge that will be happy to give you guidance along the way. Welcome!
Stokdgs
dansautodetailing.com
Welcome to the Forum, 317 !
Hope you have been getting much knowledge reading and thinking about what you learned..
Lucky for you, Lexus used (and continues to use very good paint) very good paint 21 years ago, and that is probably the only reason the paint is still on the car and not falling off..
You have much damage to it, starting with a zillion rock hits from driving on the 405 freeway in Western Washington in the rain for example...
The areas where the paint is gone and now something white is in them could be a lot of different things from a wax job, spray wax at the swirl-o-matic-car-wash, etc., or paint failure even...
It would take a whole lot of Dr.Colorchip and days of patience to try to fill all them in - in fact, don't even think about that unless you are really Detail Oriented to the max and have days to spend on this, without knowing how well it may look or even last on the paint...
As has already been perfectly advised above, just wash it really well, try to get something like Clay Magic Blue Color Bar and a good claybar lube, and go over the car to help further remove stuff stuck on the very top layer of the paint, to try to help smooth it down and it may even look a little better..
I also concur with the advice to use the PC and a product to clean the paint and put a little shine on it and perhaps see if you can find a wax that is already dyed Black to help match up the off colored areas and that might be a pretty good Temporary - fix for it...
Later on if you still want to talk about getting it painted, that would be a great option if you wanted to do that too..
Lexus is known for good painting, they even color sand the paint down between coats, and that is why you never see a bad from the Factory Lexus paint job...
Congratulations on your new ride ! Hard to beat Lexus quality inside and outside...
Your amazing 21-year-old car looks great !
Good luck with your project !
Dan F
Hope you have been getting much knowledge reading and thinking about what you learned..
Lucky for you, Lexus used (and continues to use very good paint) very good paint 21 years ago, and that is probably the only reason the paint is still on the car and not falling off..
You have much damage to it, starting with a zillion rock hits from driving on the 405 freeway in Western Washington in the rain for example...
The areas where the paint is gone and now something white is in them could be a lot of different things from a wax job, spray wax at the swirl-o-matic-car-wash, etc., or paint failure even...
It would take a whole lot of Dr.Colorchip and days of patience to try to fill all them in - in fact, don't even think about that unless you are really Detail Oriented to the max and have days to spend on this, without knowing how well it may look or even last on the paint...
As has already been perfectly advised above, just wash it really well, try to get something like Clay Magic Blue Color Bar and a good claybar lube, and go over the car to help further remove stuff stuck on the very top layer of the paint, to try to help smooth it down and it may even look a little better..
I also concur with the advice to use the PC and a product to clean the paint and put a little shine on it and perhaps see if you can find a wax that is already dyed Black to help match up the off colored areas and that might be a pretty good Temporary - fix for it...
Later on if you still want to talk about getting it painted, that would be a great option if you wanted to do that too..
Lexus is known for good painting, they even color sand the paint down between coats, and that is why you never see a bad from the Factory Lexus paint job...
Congratulations on your new ride ! Hard to beat Lexus quality inside and outside...
Your amazing 21-year-old car looks great !
Good luck with your project !
Dan F
Accumulator
Well-known member
317- Welcome to Autopia! Cool car, I always liked those.
That clearcoat failure looks similar to that on my '93 Audi (dark blue pearl). I've beem able to avoid repainting by just 1) doing one good, full detail, 2) keeping it out of the sun as much as possible, 3) being very careful to *NOT* do any more damage/precipitate faster failure, and 4) keeping it very well-detailed in the sense of *NOT* marring the paint any more and always re-LSPing (LSP = Last Step Product, i.e., wax/sealant/coating) it before it needs it (stay ahead of the curve, it really helps).
I would *NOT* aggressively clay it. That's too, uhm...."uncontrolled" a process for my taste on compromised paint especially as it usually involves abrasion. Rather, I'd do a chemical decontamination (I used FinishKare's FK 1119 on the Audi and it worked great, but ValuGard's "A" is more pleasant to use, if weaker), concentrating on the "alkaline" step rather than the "iron-removal"/"acidic step".
While I'm certainly not opposed to the products that are made to remove ferrous contamination, I just don't see it being an issue (or at least not the primary issue) on this older, black car. But the decontamination step I suggested above is something I'd *ABSOLUTELY* do as the first step. Period.
Then I'd do a very careful compounding of the most compromised areas, just to smooth them a bit. Yeah...double-edged sword there as it'll abrade/further thin the already compromised paint. Don't overdue it. Maybe even...don't do it at all! But I did it and I'm glad I did.
Then a Final Polish step to bring up the gloss. Either use a product that doesn't "dry white" in the cracks/etc. or do some sort of process to remove that residue chemically (I wouldn't use FK1119 a second time through, it's pretty nasty stuff). If anybody here knows of a product that does good filling/concealing without drying white, that'd be the stuff to use (I use 1Z WaxPolishSoft but AFAIK that's no longer available).
Then I'd use a LSP that, again...doesn't dry white or else use the wipe-on-wipe-off technique to apply/remove rather than letting it dry before you buff it off.
And of course if you're gonna do any touchup work, try to avoid the "wetsanding to level the touchups" as more abrasion isn't a good idea (I'd use DrColorChips but used like conventional touchup paint rather than according to the directions, or use Langka Blob Eliminator, or just don't bother leveling them). OR just don't bother with the touchups (I didn't on the Audi).
That's what I did to my '93 Audi back in '08 when I got it from the original owner, and it's still looking great (lots of compliments from people who apparently ignore the flaws) in 2016 despite *not* having the obviously-required repaint that I har originally figured it'd need long before now.
That's such a nice car, and Lexus is pretty good about parts (I can't get certai parts for the '93 Audi, not anywhere on earth..
), so I myself would be saving up for a really nice repaint. But IMO you can delay that for a long, long time if you go about it right.
That clearcoat failure looks similar to that on my '93 Audi (dark blue pearl). I've beem able to avoid repainting by just 1) doing one good, full detail, 2) keeping it out of the sun as much as possible, 3) being very careful to *NOT* do any more damage/precipitate faster failure, and 4) keeping it very well-detailed in the sense of *NOT* marring the paint any more and always re-LSPing (LSP = Last Step Product, i.e., wax/sealant/coating) it before it needs it (stay ahead of the curve, it really helps).
I would *NOT* aggressively clay it. That's too, uhm...."uncontrolled" a process for my taste on compromised paint especially as it usually involves abrasion. Rather, I'd do a chemical decontamination (I used FinishKare's FK 1119 on the Audi and it worked great, but ValuGard's "A" is more pleasant to use, if weaker), concentrating on the "alkaline" step rather than the "iron-removal"/"acidic step".
While I'm certainly not opposed to the products that are made to remove ferrous contamination, I just don't see it being an issue (or at least not the primary issue) on this older, black car. But the decontamination step I suggested above is something I'd *ABSOLUTELY* do as the first step. Period.
Then I'd do a very careful compounding of the most compromised areas, just to smooth them a bit. Yeah...double-edged sword there as it'll abrade/further thin the already compromised paint. Don't overdue it. Maybe even...don't do it at all! But I did it and I'm glad I did.
Then a Final Polish step to bring up the gloss. Either use a product that doesn't "dry white" in the cracks/etc. or do some sort of process to remove that residue chemically (I wouldn't use FK1119 a second time through, it's pretty nasty stuff). If anybody here knows of a product that does good filling/concealing without drying white, that'd be the stuff to use (I use 1Z WaxPolishSoft but AFAIK that's no longer available).
Then I'd use a LSP that, again...doesn't dry white or else use the wipe-on-wipe-off technique to apply/remove rather than letting it dry before you buff it off.
And of course if you're gonna do any touchup work, try to avoid the "wetsanding to level the touchups" as more abrasion isn't a good idea (I'd use DrColorChips but used like conventional touchup paint rather than according to the directions, or use Langka Blob Eliminator, or just don't bother leveling them). OR just don't bother with the touchups (I didn't on the Audi).
That's what I did to my '93 Audi back in '08 when I got it from the original owner, and it's still looking great (lots of compliments from people who apparently ignore the flaws) in 2016 despite *not* having the obviously-required repaint that I har originally figured it'd need long before now.
That's such a nice car, and Lexus is pretty good about parts (I can't get certai parts for the '93 Audi, not anywhere on earth..
), so I myself would be saving up for a really nice repaint. But IMO you can delay that for a long, long time if you go about it right.