Anyone have experience with Lexus paint?

[clnfrk]

I have just started detailing my mother's white Lexus ES300. Having been outside most of it's life (it's a '99). The paint looks unbelievably brand new. No water etching or swirls whatsoever. I am certain that it is much more durable and resistant to environmental hazards than german car paint. Also, I think much of the fact that the paint is virtually defect free is that it hasn't seen all that many carwashes for it's age, which means less chances of marring. And the washes that have been performed have been mostly done by me and has only been run through an automatic car wash maybe a couple of times or so.



However, I am having a difficult time removing some slight hairline scratches that I noticed on the hood and trunk. I've tried Optimum Compound, 3M Perfect It II rubbing compound and SSR 2.5 and none of them really make all that much of a difference. After detailing a black '05 or '06 997 Carrera last week all of those products listed above made a huge difference except for the 3M, which I didn't try out on that car.



Even when I use those products on the Lexus I do not get any hazing at all and I am looking at the surface with a 1500w dual halogen lamp. On the black Porsche, I got major hazing, which was removed using Menzerna Final Polish II.



Do I need a more aggressive product for this car? Are my lack of results due to a hard clearcoat that is difficult to level out? The scratches that I am referring to are not bad at all. I was certain that they would be able to remove fairly easy, but that just isn't the case so far. Help please!

 

[Lou K]

I have just started detailing my mother's white Lexus ES300. Having been outside most of it's life (it's a '99). The paint looks unbelievably brand new. No water etching or swirls whatsoever. I am certain that it is much more durable and resistant to environmental hazards than german car paint. Also, I think much of the fact that the paint is virtually defect free is that it hasn't seen all that many carwashes for it's age, which means less chances of marring. And the washes that have been performed have been mostly done by me and has only been run through an automatic car wash maybe a couple of times or so.



However, I am having a difficult time removing some slight hairline scratches that I noticed on the hood and trunk. I've tried Optimum Compound, 3M Perfect It II rubbing compound and SSR 2.5 and none of them really make all that much of a difference. After detailing a black '05 or '06 997 Carrera last week all of those products listed above made a huge difference except for the 3M, which I didn't try out on that car.



Even when I use those products on the Lexus I do not get any hazing at all and I am looking at the surface with a 1500w dual halogen lamp. On the black Porsche, I got major hazing, which was removed using Menzerna Final Polish II.



Do I need a more aggressive product for this car? Are my lack of results due to a hard clearcoat that is difficult to level out? The scratches that I am referring to are not bad at all. I was certain that they would be able to remove fairly easy, but that just isn't the case so far. Help please!

I own a number of Mercedes and recently got rid of my 2 adventures with Lexus. The first was a 2004 SC430 and the one most recently dumped was a 2004 LS430.



The SC developed some good acid rain etching in less than 6 months. Keep in mind the car was always garaged, so the drying of rain never happened in the sun. The LS 430 chipped like crazy and both of them picked up swirls easier than a sailor on leave in a whore house.



The Lexus paint is very soft and easy to chip, swirl and mar. That is the bad news the good news is that the paint is easy to "repair". On both of the cars I used Menzerna intensive polish followed by final polish and then an LSP. This was done with a Porter cable buffer. Occasionally there would be some stubborn light scratches that had to be removed using the 3M light rubbing compound , again with the PC and then followed with the same routine as described above. The acid rain spots could be minimized but not totally removed.



Now let's get to the German paint. No acid rain spots, very little if any chipping and they maintain their shine much better. The cars all have the nano paint that is far superior than the Lexus paint. The downside is that they are so hard that it does take more effort to remove blemishes. In the final analysis the Lexus paint is more prone to imperfecions induced by careless washing and other issues induced by ourselves. The Lexus glass from my experience is also softer and much more prone to chipping.



By the way the Lexus colors were black and mid night pine pear.. 2 of the Mercedes are also black so it a fairly apples to apples comparison.

 

[imported_NT2SHBBY]

i never did a 4 step process with my Crystal White Pearl GS400 (just Klasse twins) but I can tell you, claying was damn near impossible (no matter how much QD, bar would dry and mar) and rock chips were inevitable....