Immaculate Reflections - Lexus IS250 Scotch-Brite damage restored with a full correction

GoFast908Z

New member
A forum member referred his friend to me after she used a Scotch-Brite pad to wash her car a few weeks back. The result of the wash was some very extensive damage to the paint and it needed an equally extensive correction to fix it and bring it back to the beautiful Lexus black it used to be. As the last month has been extremely busy and I had several other cars coming in for correction, I brought my friend Marlon in to give me a hand. He has the "eye" for detailing and was putting out great work.

Process for correction:
-Spot wetsanding with 3M Trizact 1500 and 3000
-Surbuf with Meguiars 101 (multiple hits)
-Meguiars MF cutting disc with M105 & D300
-Lake Country orange flat pad with D300
-Lake Country black pad with Menzerna 106FA

LSP was Meguiars 301

Total time: 52 hours





Upon arrival, you can see how dull and gray the paint looks.


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The offending Scotch-Brite marks...

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The clear film was in very poor shape as well. The damage was too extensive to repair as the Scotch-Brite left scratches near the equivalent of 800 grit sandpaper. Clear film would be removed later in the detail.

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Even in indirect light you could see how bad the marks are...

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After washing and claying, the true extent of the damage is revealed. Much time would be required to repair this.

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50/50 shot on the hood.......there is hope!

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Oddly enough the bumper did not have clear film on it and even though the car only had 40k miles, the rock chip damage was quite bad. Plenty of Scotch-Brite marks here as well.


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Closeup...

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50/50 shot....

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Looking much better

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50/50 shot

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Some of the really bad areas would require wetsanding

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Careful use of a 4" Surbuf pad on the Griot's 3" DA helped clear this narrow section up well.

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Greatly improved. Final polishing to be carried out later.

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Driver's fender looking pretty rough

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Heavy scratches removed

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Marlon working the C-pillar

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Passenger fender

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After several rounds of compounding

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Rockers needed some attention. Some kind of tar or sticky residue covering the majority of the lower rocker and covered with a layer of dirt.

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Marlon working the lower rockers

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Many hours of compounding on the hood was required to remove the scratches. Multiple rounds of polishing would be required to restore the gloss.

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Hood polished up and the fender still needing additional compounding.

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The clear film that Lexus installed to protect the top edge of the bumper for loading/unloading cargo was in bad shape.

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Restored!

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So at no point did she look, realize what she was doing, and stop before nearly destroying her entire paint job???? I wonder sometimes at the people who do things like this.

Incredible save Jeff and Marlon. As expensive as this detail must have been, it saved her from a respray. Top notch all the way!
 
Great work Jeff! WOW!!!! What an amazing turn around. How many hours (labor-total) did you guys have into that?!

Todd
 
So at no point did she look, realize what she was doing, and stop before nearly destroying her entire paint job???? I wonder sometimes at the people who do things like this.

Incredible save Jeff and Marlon. As expensive as this detail must have been, it saved her from a respray. Top notch all the way!

Yeah, my thought exactly! What was her explanation for using a scotch-brite pad on her car?

Great job on the correction!

-J
 
wow, pretty amazing save guys. i hope your compensation matched your hours of hard work to get the finish back to that beautiful state.
 
WOW! jeff. what a headache & a nightmare that mustve been at the start huh? lol. i bet your glad its over!
awsome work!!!!!
 
Great save!! Thought that was a goner.

Thanks!

:yourrock:bigups:yourrock:bigups

NICE!

Thank you :)

So at no point did she look, realize what she was doing, and stop before nearly destroying her entire paint job???? I wonder sometimes at the people who do things like this.

Incredible save Jeff and Marlon. As expensive as this detail must have been, it saved her from a respray. Top notch all the way!

She didn't realize it until she was drying it and the marks weren't wiping away with the water...

Thanks Mike! Much appreciated
 
Great work Jeff! WOW!!!! What an amazing turn around. How many hours (labor-total) did you guys have into that?!

Todd

Total was 52 hours. Thanks Todd!

Yeah, my thought exactly! What was her explanation for using a scotch-brite pad on her car?

Great job on the correction!

-J

She had seen someone wash their car with a mitt that had netting on one side for scrubbing bugs off, and I guess she thought the Scotch-Brite would do a great job of getting them off.....and it did lol.

thanks J!

Wow! Good job! That must have been a costly mistake for the owner.

Thanks! She won't be making that mistake again ;)

wow, pretty amazing save guys. i hope your compensation matched your hours of hard work to get the finish back to that beautiful state.

Thanks! It was well worth the work put in. Seeing the final transformation was like icing on the cake.

:jawdrop:R U kidding me!!????

That's a wonderful restoration...Good Job!!!!!:thewave:

Thanks juliom2!

WOW! jeff. what a headache & a nightmare that mustve been at the start huh? lol. i bet your glad its over!
awsome work!!!!!

It was hours and hours to find the right combo to work on this tricky paint, but the payoff at the end was great. Thanks Andrew!
 
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