Turning a "50 footer" into a "5 footer"... 2001 Lexus IS300 - the worst paint I have ever seen. You've been warned.

[zmcgovern45]

The owner of this car contacted me a while ago because he wanted to get his IS300 cleaned up before he sold it. He had originally scheduled a 1 step correction with me because he was not after perfection, he just wanted the car to look better and did not want to spend a ton of money on it since he was going to sell it anyway. I had originally done a test spot on his car last month when I had done the initial inspection to show him what he could expect from a 1 step process, and he was OK with the results. When he dropped the car off yesterday for his appointment, I had a feeling I personally would not be OK with doing just a 1 step correction, so I decided to do something a little different.

Since the car needed so much work, I felt it would be time well spent to overlook some of the smaller details such as polishing exhaust, hand polishing the trim around the windows, and even my traditional glaze/sealant final process. Instead, I felt that the car would look much better if I spent more time correcting paint (ie doing a more aggressive correction), as that would yield better results when it was all said and done. To help save some time, I decided to use an AIO as my final polishing step. This would allow me to polish and protect the paint simultaneously, however it does not bring the intense depth and gloss that comes with a traditional glaze/sealant/wax combo... again this was just one of the compromises that I felt I needed to make in order to bring out the best finish given the time that I had.

The car turned out pretty good, but still far from perfect (which I think you will agree is very reasonable once you see the pics!). The owner described the car to me as a "50 footer"... meaning she looks good from 50 feet away. So I would like to think I made this "50 footer" into a "5 footer"!

Now onto the pics!


Process
Wheels: CG Diablo Gel (4:1) (w/ various brushes and sponges)
Tires: Meg's D103 (10:1) with Tuf Shine Tire Brush
Wash: CG Citrus Wash and Gloss
Dry: DI Waffle Weave MF Towels
Decontamination: Iron X
Clay: DI Fine Grade Clay
Paint Thickness Readings
3M Blue Painter's Tape
Compound: Meg's M105/D300 mix on MF Cutting Pads via Rupes LHR21ES
Polish: M205 w/ White Pad via Rupes LHR21ES (on some areas where paint was soft and there was heavier marring left from compounding)
Polish/Sealant: CG Black Light on LC White Polishing Pad via Rupes LHR21ES
Final Wipe Down: CG V7 Spray Sealant

Before

The car was pretty clean when it was dropped off, so I was able to inspect it in the sun before washing it. You can clearly see the paint was trashed. Swirls, scratches, dents, dings, cc failure... you name it, this car had it. So with that in mind, I was simply aiming to improve the finish, since it was obviously way too far gone to be fully corrected.











The wheels were beyond saving with detailing, they needed to be refinished.



Lights were oxidized, dull, and faded.


The exhaust was clearly beyond repair.


You can see the dull, hazy reflections. Door dents/dings all over the passenger side as well.


The front bumper had some severe damage and the clear coat was peeling in several spots... needless to say I did not correct the bumper at all since it needed to be repainted.







During

After the car was washed and decontaminated, I was able to take a better look at the condition of the paint under the intense halogen shop lights. This only confirmed what I already knew... this paint was destroyed.









After staring at the paint for a few minutes in shock... I decided I should get to work. I was going to start my testing on the hood.



I settled on a 2 step process (M105 + orange pad, followed by Black Light on White Pad) that would allow for a dramatic difference, but obviously still will not be perfect. I decided to use Black Light as my finishing polish to save myself some time since I had not originally planned on doing a multi-step correction on this car. (I found out later that most of the other panels had been repainted and were not as soft as this factory paint... so I had to step up the aggressiveness for the majority of the car after this test spot and went with MF cutting pads.)



Closer look



Fender before correction



Fender after compounding



50/50 Shot of the driver's door (after compounding)



Rear door after compounding. You can see only minimal haze was left from the M105/MF Cutting pad combo, this allowed me to get away with using such a fine finishing step and still be alright.



Trunk before correction... this area had some seriously heavy defects.



After compounding... much better, but still a bunch of RIDS



Closer look at the trunk



C Pillar before correction



After compounding



Side by side comparison of the B-Pillars... left side was compounded, right side was not corrected yet

[zmcgovern45]

50/50 Shot of the mirror



Rear light was very dull



Cleaned up well after polishing



Headlights were not terrible, but definitely needed to be cleaned up.



After M105 on a polishing pad they looked like new




After

You can see the car looks much better, however there are still a good amount of defects over the entire car, but the difference is dramatic nonetheless. The paint looks deeper, darker, and much glossier.

It was raining right when I finished, so I took some shots in the garage...










It stopped raining for a few minutes right before the owner showed up, so I snapped some quick pics outside.













As always, thanks for looking! Questions and/or Comments are always welcome!

[Evan.J]

Nice job Zach! Just another stellar turn around for you

[Kyle@PrecisionPolish]

Man that was terrible. Great job. What did the owner think?

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Great work Zach! Those before pictures hurt my eyes!

[AutowerxDetailing]

WOW. Nice save! You are great at documenting your work. I bet it brings you a lot of jobs due to the dramatic results you deliver. Again, nice job!

[geekdout]

Thank you for posting this. My mom has a 2005 black Toyota Camry Solara contvertible that has just about paint defect you can imagine. It has heavy swirls the worst of which are on the hood. The front bumper is beyond repair, but I know I can improve it somewhat. Stone chips on the hood and front bumper. I have done a lot of cars that were worse but because it belongs to my mom it just seems more intimidating. Your before and after pictures give me a lot of hope as to what I can do with her car. thank you

[kimokalihi]

Wow what did that cost? That was baaaad. I'm surprised they bothered trying to have it fixed.

[Circa40]

That was a remarkable turnaround. I bet these pics will convince the owner to be a bit more careful with the paint in the future. I've always had a thing for the first gen. IS

[charleyh2]

Great work.

I have to say I was pretty squeamish with the before pics, but you turned that into amazement.