Zelfiris

Been waiting forever to post this up! In a previous thread I gave a teaser on paint correction on my 2IS but I did not find time to post it up.

Background on the car:
I have owned this beautiful 2011 Lexus IS250 F Sport since June 2013 and I'm actually the second owner on it. Unfortunately before the keys got to me, it was washed several times at a Lexus dealership. With the paint being obsidian black, the deep scratches and swirls really showed in the sun and just about whenever light reflected on it.

Here's my process:

Exterior Wash/Decon
Tires/ Wheels - Nothing! I will show everyone in another thread..
Foam Presoak - Dp Xtreme Foam + Griot's Foam Gun
Wash - CarPro Rest + Shmitts
Iron/Tar Removal - CarPro Trix
Paint Decontamination - ONR + Fine Grade Autoscrub Mitt

Paint Correction
Compound - Rupes Zephir /w Rupes' Blue MF Pads via Rupes LHR15ES and Rupes LHR75e
Polish - Rupes White Diamond /w Rupes' White Foam Pads via Rupes LHR15ES and Rupes LHR75e
Coating Prep - IPA Wipedown x2 + CarPro Eraser
Roof + Rocker Coating - Optimum Opti-Coat 2.0
All other paint panels + headlights/taillights - CarPro CQuartz UK 2014

Foam Wash


Initial Condition


Swirls and deep scratches


During Compound






50/50 shot after polish


Rocker


Pretty much the whole car is in the same condition


After






Roof - Before


Roof - After


I decided to coat the roof and rocker with Opti-coat instead of Cquartz UK. I had opti-coat on my previous car and I was very happy but I have been reading on Cquartz for many months and it brings an effect to darken the paint. I had to try it.

Roof - After Opti-coat 2.0

Zelfiris

Bumper - Before




Bumper 50/50


After


Getting ready for CQUK 2014!


Another shot before CQUK 2014 application


After shots in the sun






Look at that gloss!




Last one


After thoughts
After polishing the whole car it really made me thought twice about maintaining a black soft paint car for a daily driver.. and its parked outside with winter every year.. Sigh lol
I should also mention it was my first time I applied CQUK and I think I applied it a bit thick.. wiping it off was not easy but I learned from trial and error from my experiences

Thanks for viewing, I hope everyone liked it!

zmcgovern4

iTrader: (2)

Looks awesome!! Well done

tmf2004

iTrader: (15)

well done... Looks like that Rupes machine can do almost anything...

How do you like the dual light your using for detailing? that is my next purchase....

Zelfiris

Thanks!

The light I'm using is 1000W halogen and honestly I find it too hot to have it on for hours. Prior to my IS250 I did an 11 hours paint correction on a different car and let's say this light definitely made the garage way too hot.

What would you be using it for?

zmcgovern4

iTrader: (2)

I highly recommend an LED light setup rather than halogen.

Halogen lights work for showing the more severe defects, but they are useless for spotting marring and other finer defects.

Here is a write up I did about a DIY LED setup you can put together. It works great.


If you aren't familiar with micro-marring... check out this thread.

tmf2004

iTrader: (15)

for car detailing.... I've heard that from a few people that LED is better and the Halogen is way to got... didn't feel like shelling out $100 for a nice LED with stand....


thanks Zac... I'll check out the LED light..

tmf2004

iTrader: (15)

just looked at your thread and the dual swivel light is unavailable...

so i found these... Will these work

i think the second one matches the one you linked in that thread because it mentions the E27?

zmcgovern4

iTrader: (2)

Yes, both are fine.

tmf2004

iTrader: (15)

thank you sir.

Zelfiris

This is an old thread but I'm bumping it back up because I decided to.. start an YouTube channel today!

I took the photos and made a slide show out of this detail. First time editing and it took about 2 hours before I decided to let it out to the public for opinions.

Please feel free to view and provide your feedback:

97-SC300

iTrader: (17)

Great work.

You have alot more patience than I do. Went into the detail business full time a bit over 3 years ago and it's taught me one thing. To never buy a jet black daily driven car! Only if it's a show car that sees the summer sun.

Zelfiris

Thank you for the feedback!

This black IS250 taught me two things:

1) how much work is required to maintain my standard of acceptable paint finish
2) how quickly I sold it right after I did my two stage paint correction. It actually sold within 6 days after I posted the car online

Dr. Jekyll

iTrader: (1)

EXCELLENT job on the detail! Amazing work and a great sense of accomplishment!

For those of you who don't want the hassle of assembling the dual LED lights I suggest you look into this all in one unit available at Lowes. It's just a few bucks more but has 2 distinct advantages: 1) it's 500 lumens brighter 2) it folds up real nice for storage and portability

http://www.lowes.com/pd_760357-33229...ech+led+lights

charley95

I went to Lowes and picked one of those up. Hope it works better than my old halogen. I have a 14 RX Stargazer black and just couldn't see the flaws well enough when buffing with the old light.