Not Exactly A Lexus.......okay, It's A Civic - But No Ordinary One

[PJ S]

To say this car was much unloved by its previous owner is a helluva understatement!

For such a new car (2-3 year old), the paintwork looked like something you'd even struggle to find on a 20 year old classic, whose owner had used nothing more than a chamois or tea towel (whichever came to hand) and dishwashing detergent, on a fortnightly basis.

Suffice it to say, the paint looked utterly lifeless, and what had been done to the roof, beggars belief.

So, one beleaguered Honda Civic was picked up by its current owner at a bargain basement price (for his wife), and handed over to "see what you can do with it".

Anyway, enough of the preliminary narration, on with the picture show......click on images to view full size version.

Scratch on the driver's door, extending to the rear passenger's, with a continuation just above the rear arch for 4 inches.....

That's only a fraction of how poor the paint looked!

Car washed, clayed, and dried.........and now you'll see the REAL mess that I had to contend with! In all my time of detailing, I don't think I've ever been witness to such a state as that which you're about to see - forgive the poorly focused shots, I should really use the preview more.

Nonetheless, they still portray the sorry state of affairs the roof was in.

Doesn't look too bad, sure it doesn't? Think again......!

Starting to get there, after one hit (relating to the mid-back of the roof - the first image above).

And now the "reveal" of the second image above (the heavily scored front passenger's side of the roof).

A couple of deeper marks remain after 2 hits.....

.........et voilà....!

There's something about being in a position to be able to provide this sort of transformation for the owner - this has to take a certain pride of place as one of THE most satisfying details to have done.

And so, the finished article, with which the owner was over the moon.

Wonder how much the seller/dealer might have been able to charge for the same car, after a full correction (save for the too deep scratches on the doors and arch - but dramatically reduced)?

Guess we'll never know!

Now for the expected products and tools list used to obtain the results.......okay, here goes:

Roof initially tickled with a few combinations of pad and polishes, but the one that unlocked it for me, was Scholl Concepts S17 (a medium polish) in conjunction with their Wool pad. You'd think this was suicide on supposedly such soft, and thin, paint (it wasn't that thin to be honest), but the combo worked really well, and to such a degree (with my very long working of the polishes technique) that it didn't need any refining.

A couple of new products were also employed from Autobrite - glass cleaner, and QD on this occasion, both of which worked very well indeed.

In fact, as much as I've said before in the past, that most detailing glass cleaners are no better than what you can buy in the supermarket, this one has surprised me.

The QD has a nice smell to it, and leaves a nice finish - nothing false or plasticky like some do, just a very honest, no nonsense look.

Wheels were treated to Very Cherry Wheel Cleaner, and whilst doing an admirable job in the main, it took a local supplier's Stone Brite to deal the killer blow to some very heavy contamination at the spokes/rim radiused interface.

Tyres got Mark V California tyre dressing applied - leaving a nice, almost natural, satin sheen.

Interior was vacuumed, and given the once over with 303 Aerospace Protectant, and similarly the engine bay plastic/rubber.

And last, but by no means least, the LSP was............a new sealant which is being trialled for suitablity and durability - and no it's NOT something Bilt Hamber have provided!

More talk about it in due course.

Hope you liked the write up and images - voice your opinions as you see fit, below.

[E910]

End result looks good. Fancy a trip to NZ to tidy up my paint work

[Parthiban]

That is unbelievable, looking at how bad it was to begin with had no hope that it was going to come out like that - nice job!

[PJ S]

Thanks guys.

E910 - where's me ticket?

[LOcKY]

you should start your own business :D show what skills you have on bringing dead paint work back to life :) good job

PS you already have a customer whose willing to buy you a ticket to NZ

[Tango]

PJ S - Was the car clear-coated or were you working direct on the colour coat?

One of the guys on this forum took 2000 grade paper to his black paint to remove OEM orange peel and followed up with polish etc. and the end result was fantastic, but this isn't an option with a clear coated car.

The Lexus paint appears to be very prone to light scratches, and although I take great care in detailing, day to day use seems to make them appear like magic

I have the Porter Cable 7424 and a decent range of foam pads, but have yet to find a polish that easily removes anything more than light swirling.

Do you have any recommendations? I'm also very wary of removing too much of the clearcoat by using a polish that's too aggressive.

The easiest way to check would be to invest in a paint thickness meter, but (1) the good ones are expensive and (2) they're not likely to differentiate between clear coat and colour coat, and presumably any spot where the clearcoat was removed would be very noticable.

[Asi]

very nice mate. looks lovely

[Yeldarb]

Pleasantly surprised at the outcome - nice job.

[PJ S]

PJ S - Was the car clear-coated or were you working direct on the colour coat?

One of the guys on this forum took 2000 grade paper to his black paint to remove OEM orange peel and followed up with polish etc. and the end result was fantastic, but this isn't an option with a clear coated car.

The Lexus paint appears to be very prone to light scratches, and although I take great care in detailing, day to day use seems to make them appear like magic

I have the Porter Cable 7424 and a decent range of foam pads, but have yet to find a polish that easily removes anything more than light swirling.

Do you have any recommendations? I'm also very wary of removing too much of the clearcoat by using a polish that's too aggressive.

The easiest way to check would be to invest in a paint thickness meter, but (1) the good ones are expensive and (2) they're not likely to differentiate between clear coat and colour coat, and presumably any spot where the clearcoat was removed would be very noticable.

Wet sanding clearcoat to remove OP (as this is where it'll be) is very much an option.

Think of OP as a woman with droopy baby feeders - too much tissue sagging down under the effects of gravity. Singlestage or clearcoat applied "too generously" will sag, hence you have the resemblance of orange peel, which is often the case in factory application, rather than multiple light coats to build up the depth.

It's the cheaper/quicker option, and has little to do with the paints being water-based - they're just water soluble solvents used.

The PC, and its ilk, are all fairly safe to use by the rank amateur, and Lexus paint is quite soft (like Honda's) so correcting is pretty easy - but then so to is introducing new scratches again!

There's a few things possibly at play here:

1) you're not working the polish long enough to break it down fully, so it's not correcting as well as it should

2) you're not using an aggressive enough combo of pad and polish, so not getting the full correction

3) from 1, you could be simply masking the swirls, only for the fillers to wash out

What pads and polish are you using?

Regarding PTG's, whilst you're correct about the typical ones not measuring each layer individually (those will set you back £1500+) the £150-£500 ones will give you an overall depth of paintwork. Measuring the door shuts and/or under the bonnet where there's only a very, very light layer of clearcoat (or thinner singlestage), and subtracting that from the outer panels you'll be working on, will give you an idea as to what you've got to play with.

Even those expensive ones are not exact - if it measures 40µm of clear, you'd still take that with a light dosing of salt.

I spoke to a number of PTG manufacturers, and asked them why they hadn't one in their line-up that would be suitable for plastics/composites, and the resounding answer from them was they consider the reflective value of the substrate to be very close to that of the paint layers, as to make the results highly dubious.

Of course, it could be they don't see the car market having enough sales to justify the R&D expenditure needed to bring one to market at the a price that's likely to sell, but I'll take them at their word.

As for Lexus solid black (and red, iirc) it's singlestage paint.

[PJ S]

you should start your own business :D show what skills you have on bringing dead paint work back to life :) good job

PS you already have a customer whose willing to buy you a ticket to NZ

very nice mate. looks lovely

Pleasantly surprised at the outcome - nice job.

Many thanks chaps