LawrenceSA
New member
Aah.... my first Lexus detail - and I was really glad that the first one I did was on the IS-F, in this color. Having see the condition of the paint on arrival, I simply could not wait to see it all corrected....and so was very excited about getting the opportunity to detail this car.
As we all know you really never can be sure of how the paint on each car will react to correction, and to make assumptions about brand 'x' being soft and brand 'y' being hard, is rather dangerous. I assumed that the paint would be on the softer side and thus was anticipating only having to do a 1-step correction. However this paint was actually rather hard (like Audi hard) and had quite deep damage. In the end a 2-step correction was needed to restore the paint but was well worth the additional work. This however meant that I was a bit pressed for time and did not get many 'during' pics. (the car is also deceptively big, especially the bonnet housing the 5l V8)
So Saturday morning was rather dark and gloomy and rain was predicted for pretty much the entire weekend. I managed to snap a few quick pics before getting stuck in - With no sun around, there was not much to see in the way of below surface defects
But then a little while later the sun managed to peek out from behind the clouds long enough for me to take these
Arches: Cyclo APC / Mothers Fender Well Brush / HP Rinse / Shield Sheen
Tires: Meguiars All Wheel and Tire Cleaner / Mothers Tire Brush / Optimum Optibond Tire Gel
Wheels: Glossworx Wheel Cleaner / Daytona Jnr / Various brushes/ Autofinesse Oblitarate / APC rinse / AF Iron Out / Daytona Jnr / HP Rinse / Menzerna Powerlock
Door shuts, window rubbers, fuel flap, badges: Cyclo APC / Various Brushes / HP Rinse / Chemical Guys V7
Wash: Chemical Guys Maxisuds II via foam cannon / AF Lather / 2BM with Lambswool wash mitt
Dry: ONR at QD strength / WW Drying towel / Compressed Air
Tar removal : Autoglym Intensive Tar Remover
Iron removal : Autofinesse Iron Out
Remaining Contaminants : Autoglym Fine Grade Clay / ONR at clay lube strength
Glass : Autoglym Fine Grade Clay / ONR at clay lube strength
Paint correction : Menzerna FG400 / LC Orange pads, followed by Menzerna PF2500 / LC Tangerine Pad,
Tail light correction: Menzerna PF2500 / LC White Pad / Menzerna SF4000 / LC Black Pad
Paint protection : 2 coats Collinite 845
Door rubbers, plastic trim : Shield Heavy Duty Vinyl and Rubber Cleaner / Smartwax Smart Dressing
Exhaust tips : AF Mercury Metal Polish / MF Towels
During tape up
Correcting the B-pillars
And then the paint after correction
2 Quick shots with the car still in the garage
And then some taken out in the fading sun a few minutes before the owner collected on Sunday afternoon and with light constantly changing between cloud/sunny and then going into evening, the white balance is a little all over the place on some of the pics (was fiddling with it and don't have any post processing software, so sorry about that).
Total time spent = 31 hours
Thanks for looking and as always and questions or comments are welcome.
As we all know you really never can be sure of how the paint on each car will react to correction, and to make assumptions about brand 'x' being soft and brand 'y' being hard, is rather dangerous. I assumed that the paint would be on the softer side and thus was anticipating only having to do a 1-step correction. However this paint was actually rather hard (like Audi hard) and had quite deep damage. In the end a 2-step correction was needed to restore the paint but was well worth the additional work. This however meant that I was a bit pressed for time and did not get many 'during' pics. (the car is also deceptively big, especially the bonnet housing the 5l V8)
So Saturday morning was rather dark and gloomy and rain was predicted for pretty much the entire weekend. I managed to snap a few quick pics before getting stuck in - With no sun around, there was not much to see in the way of below surface defects
But then a little while later the sun managed to peek out from behind the clouds long enough for me to take these
Arches: Cyclo APC / Mothers Fender Well Brush / HP Rinse / Shield Sheen
Tires: Meguiars All Wheel and Tire Cleaner / Mothers Tire Brush / Optimum Optibond Tire Gel
Wheels: Glossworx Wheel Cleaner / Daytona Jnr / Various brushes/ Autofinesse Oblitarate / APC rinse / AF Iron Out / Daytona Jnr / HP Rinse / Menzerna Powerlock
Door shuts, window rubbers, fuel flap, badges: Cyclo APC / Various Brushes / HP Rinse / Chemical Guys V7
Wash: Chemical Guys Maxisuds II via foam cannon / AF Lather / 2BM with Lambswool wash mitt
Dry: ONR at QD strength / WW Drying towel / Compressed Air
Tar removal : Autoglym Intensive Tar Remover
Iron removal : Autofinesse Iron Out
Remaining Contaminants : Autoglym Fine Grade Clay / ONR at clay lube strength
Glass : Autoglym Fine Grade Clay / ONR at clay lube strength
Paint correction : Menzerna FG400 / LC Orange pads, followed by Menzerna PF2500 / LC Tangerine Pad,
Tail light correction: Menzerna PF2500 / LC White Pad / Menzerna SF4000 / LC Black Pad
Paint protection : 2 coats Collinite 845
Door rubbers, plastic trim : Shield Heavy Duty Vinyl and Rubber Cleaner / Smartwax Smart Dressing
Exhaust tips : AF Mercury Metal Polish / MF Towels
During tape up
Correcting the B-pillars
And then the paint after correction
2 Quick shots with the car still in the garage
And then some taken out in the fading sun a few minutes before the owner collected on Sunday afternoon and with light constantly changing between cloud/sunny and then going into evening, the white balance is a little all over the place on some of the pics (was fiddling with it and don't have any post processing software, so sorry about that).
Total time spent = 31 hours
Thanks for looking and as always and questions or comments are welcome.