Lexus Detail Help

[a g thang]

Hello Fellow Autogeekers,

I need some help. Im gonna be polishing my cousins I wanna say (2002?) Lexus LS430 tomorrow. I observed the car today and noticed the bottom of the drivers door has a little clear coat faliure so im guessing the clear is a little thin. Also a few panels have been repainted and there are tons of rotary buffer swirls all over the car. I was originally going to do a 2 step with SIP/106fa with orange and white lc pads. Now im a little worried I dont want to be the one responsible for him having to get a new paint job, if i crack his clear. So i was thinking of changing my process to a one step with megs d151 with lc white pads and just cleaning up the paint a bit and restoring its shine instead of removing most of the swirls.

Does that sound like a good idea??
id rather play it safe than be sorry.

Thanks Guys!!!!!!!!!

[hernandez.art13]

Pictures would be a great help.

If I was you: (I am still learning)

I would just use a extra fine polish. Then wax it. Where there is obvious CC failure you can just wax it (don't polish it)

If he already has CC failure anything you do that does ruin what little is left should be disclosed to him that you aren't responsible. And your doing him the favor. (That's what I would say lol, been watching a lot of Pawn Stars haha) 😇😎

[bigbadbp7]

Hello Fellow Autogeekers,

I need some help. Im gonna be polishing my cousins I wanna say (2002?) Lexus LS430 tomorrow. I observed the car today and noticed the bottom of the drivers door has a little clear coat faliure so im guessing the clear is a little thin. Also a few panels have been repainted and there are tons of rotary buffer swirls all over the car. I was originally going to do a 2 step with SIP/106fa with orange and white lc pads. Now im a little worried I dont want to be the one responsible for him having to get a new paint job, if i crack his clear. So i was thinking of changing my process to a one step with megs d151 with lc white pads and just cleaning up the paint a bit and restoring its shine instead of removing most of the swirls.

Does that sound like a good idea??
id rather play it safe than be sorry.

Thanks Guys!!!!!!!!!
When in doubt play it safe. Not worth your time and hassle, just one step it and shine it up. If you do not have a Paint depth gauge don't get aggressive.:buffing:

[Bates Detailing]

Point out the clear coat damage to the client..... take your DA which is super non aggressive and polish the steps you were wanting to polish/Cut. I would worry if you were cutting heavily with a rotary, but if you stick solely with a DA - you are good. Be smart and stay away from the edges of clearcoat failure - but the rest of the (paint) should be fine if using a DA...... you are cutting minute amounts of clear compared to that of a rotary and so on. Use common sense and produce great results - that simple :dblthumb2:

[cardaddy]

From the sounds of it, your cousin hasn't been taking the 'best' care of it anyhow. That not withstanding, you need to point out ALL areas of concern. Likely he doesn't even know, (or care) and it'll not be a big issue either way.

That being said, he needs to know exactly what you plan on doing. Although if he can't see holograms, swirls, RIDS and whatnot, then he wouldn't know if you did a 20 hour paint restoration or a 2 hour buff and shine. And might not care. :dunno:

I say that because the last 2 Lexus's I did had owners that were of like mind. Neither had ever taken care of their cars, and neither could understand why ANYONE would spend that kind of time cleaning and polishing a car, ANY car!

FWIW one was in March, a ES 350, that we only did the exterior, multi-step paint correction, about 8 hours total including the wash (with the owner helping the entire time). All in all probably 11+ man hours on that one.

The other a LX 470 we did last weekend and two of us spent SEVEN HOURS just on the interior!!! Then I spent about 6 on the exterior including washing, followed with D151 and two coats of Megs 156, (they really didn't want, or CARE to have anything more on the exterior) and honestly wasn't paying for more either. Yup... 20 man hours on that one truck!

So yes... if you really want to do a 2 step, then you surely can, on the parts that can withstand it. No harm in doing the areas with plenty of paint that way then just doing a light polish where the CC is failing. FWIW the resprayed panels will have plenty of paint on them, likely twice what the factory coating is.

[a g thang]

Thanks for all the help guys, I'm gonna play it safe and do a one step. You got it car daddy he doesn't really take care of it. He runs it throught the car wash lol.

[hernandez.art13]

Thanks for all the help guys, I'm gonna play it safe and do a one step. You got it car daddy he doesn't really take care of it. He runs it throught the car wash lol.

Then wash it then just glaze it. That's what I would do.

If you take spend all this time/money to correct it and he just goes messes it up again. Then why even bother? Idk just saying

[c8n]

Then wash it then just glaze it. That's what I would do.

If you take spend all this time/money to correct it and he just goes messes it up again. Then why even bother? Idk just saying

I agree on the glaze since there is potential for clear coat failure.
Clear coat failure looks worse than swirls and scratches in my opinion.