This was a fun/interesting detail and learning experience. It was my first ever machine polish(Porter Cable) on a car that was given to me by my dad. As expected, he didn't care much about keeping the car 100% and it was never waxed since the day he got it until I took over it about 2 years ago. The result was a lot of etching, scratches and swirl marks caused by both the Dealer, and my sister when she used a brillo pad to clean it before. Clearly I had my work cut out for me when I decided to restore the finish of this 12 year old neglected Lexus. It had a respray but it was slightly off in color so that explains why my driver panels are different from the hood and rest of the car. ------------- STORY 96 ES300 (12 Hours) I picked up a PC about a month and a half ago. On the first day I got it, I managed to correct half my trunk, as seen here: Start: Finish: Full View: Now fast forward about 3 weeks... Due to unforeseen circumstances, after a day of heavy polishing on the rest of my trunk/hood/passenger panels, the backing plate of the PC completely melted on me: As usual, like any heavily concerned customer, I emailed Greg at Detailed Image AND Lake Country themselves. Due to my overgrowing concern about the backing plates, both Greg and LC sent me the revisions of the backing plates. As a result, I have both revisions of the plate, one that looks exactly the same as the old one and one that has a puke yellow center. Now it was back on the detailing with hopefully little hitch :woot: Fast forward another 2 weeks for backing plates to come in... Finally got done with the polishing of my car which probably took about 12 hours due to the severity of my scratches and swirls. Basically multiply all the scratches you see of my trunk to the rest of the car: Anyway, in all actuality, it probably took me about 12 hours to fully polish my car to the shine and clarity of my standards, which are pretty high if you ask me. All in all, I got rid of probably 96% of the heavy marring which were induced with a brillo pad thanks to my sisters... Process: -Wash with 2 bucket method with NXT wash -Clay with Mother's Clay Bar Kit -50/50 water and alcohol mix to get rid of whatever was left -Taped up trim with GREEN tape -ScratchX on half the trunk with Megs foam applicator pad -Polish @ Speed 6 with Menzerna IP with combination of Yellow and Orange LC pad with PC -Polish @ Speed 5 with Menzerna FP II with White LC pad and PC -Meg's Showcar Glaze with blue LC pad @ Speed 4 with PC -Mothers Chrome Polish -Black Magic Matte tire shine -NXT 2.0 applied with PC and Black LC pad @ Speed 4 -Zymol Creme applied by hand 96 ES300 Afters (Pics are only altered to bring out the colors that day. Nothing else has been altered ) And yes I posted this in Autopia and Club Lexus. I'm just extremely proud of my work
That is very nice work!!! Taking pictures just as the sun is going down can show off the gloss a little better.
