Black Lexus IS250

[Radian78]

Greetings everyone!



I'm starting to get some business from work, and this collegue happened to have an `05 Lexus IS250.... in black!



I was pretty apprehensive to do a black car, but I think it turned out nice. You can sure see EVERYTHING on a black car... sheez! This is my first `full` customer detail including polishing.



Process:



- Wash with Z7, leafblower to dry

- Clay with claymagic

- Polish with SSR 2.5 & SSR 1 on blue edge pad, speed 5 (PC)

- ZAIO by hand

- Z-5 pro by hand

- Z6 gloss enhancer

- Z16 on tires

- Z-AIO on wheels after cleaning with Eagle One Wheel cleaner (love this stuff)



(no inside pics, but this was a vacuum, Eagle One Nano leather conditioner & Meguiars Quick Interior Detailer)



Total time: 9 hrs. (including 15 minutes getting the SSR dust out of all nooks & crannies grrr)



Before:

Some brakedust... not too bad

Swirl city!

After:



Nice & clean

Hood shot

Trunk...

Some more pics (wish the setting was something else than our boring driveway)

Swirls? We don't need no stinkin' swirls!

 

[Old Pirate]

Awesome turnaround on the Lexus! very wet and bet the owner was very happy!:goodjob

 

[VTechFan02]

Great Job!! Huge improvement on that car especially for your first full detail!!

Would've liked some interior pics though, but I understand, you were probably exhausted after a 9 hr job.

 

[tnl1984]

i have the same car, how do you remove the swirls?

 

[moosey]

Great job. Did you use both SSR 2.5 and 1 on the blue Edge pad or just SSR1 on blue?

 

[Radian78]

Thanks for the comments Yes the owner was very happy... this is his baby.



I actually tried out the Green Edge pad with SSR 2.5 as well, but it caused micromarring.



The tips from Budman3 were very helpful http://autopia.org/forum/machine-polishing/93144-pc-ssr2-5-ssr1-0-more-swirls-than-before-help-2.html?highlight=ssr+2.5



So I stuck with the blue pad, which worked well.



As for amount, I used about 3 dime-sized dabs per panel, and worked the polish for about 4 minutes, or until pretty clear.

 

[moosey]

Thanks for the tips, Radian. One more thing, with the Edge blue, do you ever have problems where it seems like it's not spinning unless you give VERY little pressure on it? I noticed that the last two times I used it with a light swirl remover.

I gotta try and get my work to turn out like yours.

 

[Radian78]

Hi Moosey,



yeah I do get that with Edge Blue... seems like the pad is very `grabby/ sticky` and the pc has a hard time moving it. I think that's where a UDM would come in handy.



I generally start with a moderate amount of pressure (maybe 15 lbs or so), then on the last pass I just use the weight of the machine. As I keep going, the pad will start rotating more and you can feel the polish working in and getting smoother.



Greetz