I've been wanting to do my dad a favor for a while, so just in time for Father's Day I thought I'd spend some time on his car. This is a 2009 Lexus RX350. I'm not too much of a Lexus fan, but I have to tell you that I really like this paint for some reason. The finish came out deep and rich with a lot of metal flake. Before When the car got here it was in pretty rough shape and dirty. There were no really big defects or sctaches on the car which was good. He takes pretty good care of it in general. But there were some problems. First there were holograms all over the place from the initial prep. Really did a bad job at the dealership. These sorts of marks were pretty much all over and very visible in the light. There were also light swirls all over the place. I figured out what happened. He took this truck up to go hunting. (Yes he takes a Lexus RX into the woods) The car came back with some dirt and mud on it. He then took it to the dealership for an oil change and they did a terrible job cleaning it. Ground in that dirt really well and swirled the entire car. Didn't even need the lights to see this... I started with the wheels which were filthy. I used Zep Purple on the tires and cleaned the wheel wells with Zep Citrus. The sprayed the wheels with PS1S gel and let it sit for a bit. After rinsing, I had to polish them ever so slightly with Neverdull to get some tarnished spots back. I treated the wheel wells with Vinylex and used VRT on the tires. Wheels before And after [ After washing I tested an area with Menz 203 with a green Uber pad and the rotary and was able to take out 95% of the defects. A quick second pass on the areas with deeper swirls got rid of everything. After the test area I went around the whole car. Menz 203 did the trick except for a couple of spots where I used M105 by hand and followed with the 203. I sealed the paint with Blackfire and treated the trim with VRT. Let me know what you think of the indoor shots. Of course it started to rain just as we took it out, so there are not too many outdoor shots in the sun. Thanks for reading.
Great work!!! I forgot the name of that Toyota/Lexus color, but it I love it too. It has tons of flake and a slight gold tint. It looks awesome when finished right ... just like you did. I'm kinda surprised that it finished so nice with the polish/combo that you used. I usually experience a little bit of a haze with 203 on a dark colors like that. I haven't tried that combo out with a PC though.
this was a rotary but i was pretty surprised how well it did too. part of it is that every toyota i've ever worked on has had pretty soft paint. my wife's prius, her venza, and this car all correct and finish down really well. i wish i could say the same for my infiniti. that one is a PITA.
he loved it. he was skeptical about the time investment at first, but after the first panel he was convinced. he helped a lot too with things like vacuuming, interior treatment and IPA wipedown.
