2014 Lexus IS350 - new car prep & opti-coat

[Audios S6]

Today I helped out a fellow geek (sonyhome) with his brand new lexus IS350. He took a ton more photos than I did, so I expect to see some more either in this thread or a dedicated thread.

So this car has been in the hands of the owner for 2 days. One might not think so from the photos below.

Marring on the passenger mirror cap


RIDS on the hood


swirls on drive rear door


swirls on roof rails


weird scratched on hood


Tape residue and possible chemical stain passenger front quarter near wipe cowl


nasty swirls and weird marring at dirvers door handle


marring on drivers C-pillar


swirls and marring on driver mirror


swirls on hood - driver side near wipe cowl


swirls on passenger front quarter near headlight


Being an opti-coat project and with no running water, this was done almost exclusively with Optimum products.

Process was as follows:
ONR wash all body panels, exhaust tips and wheels
OPC 4:1 on tires
ONR @ clay dilution with blue clay magic and fine speedy prep towel
Optimum hyper polish with Crimson HT pad on GG6 and HF DA 3 passes at speed 5+ medium pressure and 2 passes at speed 3 with machine pressure.
Fast glass towel on exterior glass
Opti-coat 2.0 on body, glass, wheels and trim
Opti-lens on lights
Tuff Shine clear coat on tires (sorry optimum)

successful test spot



It took a few tries to dial in the process. This paint is super soft. A gray CCS pad with hyper polish was leaving some haze that I couldn't correct in one step. The borders on miracle towels and supreme 530s were leaving scratches; not light marring, actual scratches. So we moved to the crimson HT pad with hyper polish. We wiped off the polish with a damp miracle towel, then dried with a 530, avoiding the borders - Bingo.

Before


After - what looks like a scratch under the light sources is the power cord to the garage door opener


Before


After


near side of trunk finished


trunk complete


Before


After (this was Sonyhome aka Dan's work - first time with a DA)


Hopefully Dan will chime in with some better photos of the finished product.

questions welcome.

Thanks for viewing

 

[Pureshine]

Great job

 

[SonyHome]

First I want to thank Bob (Audios S6) for helping me with this detailing. For him to offer his time & help to someone he hardly knows show how much he really loves and enjoys everything related to detailing. For a newbie like me to have someone like Bob show me the ropes while also getting some hands on help in applying the right technique and tools is priceless! Thank you so much Bob!

As Bob indicated I've had the car for approximately 2 days. Taking advice from others I requested that dealer do not detail my car for prep which they complied. But I was shocked to see so many scratches, swirls and marks on the paint all over the car as we prepared the car for polishing.

See below one of these swirls.

It took some time and few tries but Bob was able to dial in the process to remove these scratches, swirls and marks.

After ~8 hours of working through the soft Lexus paint we were able to complete the car. Unfortunately I may have introduced some more scratches while applying and wiping down Opti-Coat 2.0.

Depth of knowledge Bob has for detailing and his ability to apply this knowledge to achieve great results, below photo sums it up perfectly. What you are seeing below is the reflection of the ceiling off the Lexus hood that Bob clayed & polished. :buffing: :dblthumb2: Unfortunately I introduced few scratches while applying Opti Coat 2.0 which I'll need to try to remove before I get my PPF put on but knowledge and experience I gained today through Bob will help me take much better care of my car's paint!

Thank you Bob! :thankyousign:

 

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Beautiful work guys! That black paint is glowing now!

 

[SonyHome]

Went to Bob's parent's place to pickup my Lexus IS350 F Sport and took few more pictures with day light.

Lexus obsidian color looks wonderful when cleaned and polished!

 

[Sbmin]

Looks great guys!

 

[MshawnBauer]

What a great looking car! Nice work!

 

[zmcgovern45]

Great work guys!

 

[Jrocket]

Looks Awesome!!!

Love the new Fsport in Obsidian !!

Wish they would bring Atomic Silver over to the states..

My favorite 2 IS350 colors.

Lexus Paint def deserves a Coating.. The soft paint scratches so easy

 

[Audios S6]

Thanks for the comments all.

Dan, I'm glad your liking the finished product. You did a great job as a first timer on a challenging paint.

For me there are a few big takeaways from this project:

1. Dan made the right call using a coating. Even ideal wash technique would have taken its toll on the super soft paint over time. The PPF guy probably would have destroyed the finish with a normal wipe down prior to film application.

2. Taking the time to dial in a process is vital on difficult finishes. Taking this car to a shop with a one size fits all process would have spelled disaster.

3. It amazes me how many defects came on this brand new car. Many were not apparent until after claying. Which tells me the dealer's touchless wash probably has some fillers. Some of the marring was caused by the clay and speedy prep towel, but there were so many unrelated defects.

 

[530inv]

Looks amazing! I love the new IS's .. Great choice for sure.

 

[Gurge]

I've done 3 of these cars recently. The two that were black were both really difficult.

very soft clear. which I can see on this car by the marring in your photos. Clay magic blue and the speedy prep towel did all that. not the swirls but the uniform flattened marring appearance. When I get a car dried after wash / decon and I see that I know its gonna be a LONG day if the goal is full correction (or close to it)

did this one have a tinted clear? ones I did had a slight black tint in the clear

 

[SonOfOC]

Claying and Speedy prep towel will marr the crap out of Lexus black. Polishing is to expected after any claying in my book.

Thanks for the comments all.

3. It amazes me how many defects came on this brand new car. Many were not apparent until after claying. Which tells me the dealer's touchless wash probably has some fillers. Some of the marring was caused by the clay and speedy prep towel, but there were so many unrelated defects.

 

[Audios S6]

I've done 3 of these cars recently. The two that were black were both really difficult.

very soft clear. which I can see on this car by the marring in your photos. Clay magic blue and the speedy prep towel did all that. not the swirls but the uniform flattened marring appearance. When I get a car dried after wash / decon and I see that I know its gonna be a LONG day if the goal is full correction (or close to it)

did this one have a tinted clear? ones I did had a slight black tint in the clear

Claying and Speedy prep towel will marr the crap out of Lexus black. Polishing is to expected after any claying in my book.

I agree that some, if not most, of the marring was caused by the clay and the towel. The point I was trying to make is that tons of the swirls either weren't visible or were really faint before claying. There was something from the factory or dealer that was filling them.

On a separate note: I completely neglected to thank Zach. We exchanged a few PMs about this car/paint prior to starting the work. He was very helpful in confirming the softness of the paint and narrowing the starting point for the test spots. Alway nice to have some perspective before jumping in on a difficult paint.

 

[Gurge]

I agree that some, if not most, of the marring was caused by the clay and the towel. The point I was trying to make is that tons of the swirls either weren't visible or were really faint before claying. There was something from the factory or dealer that was filling them.

Definitely been down that road (fillers hiding the true condition). During decon on new cars a lot of times I'll use TRIX instead of straight iron x (like I would with something with a bit of age on it). I feel the degreaser in TRIX is helping to strip anything hiding the true condition