organicali

Just picked up a 2006 IS350, great mechanically but need to bring it up to my standards cosmetically (or as close as I can get).

The car is Onyx Black and has tons and tons of swirls, spider webbing, small scratches, etc. There is lots of shine in shade/cloudy weather so there is likely lots of clear coat left. to work with.

I have a DA polisher and full line of Chemical Guys compound/polishes and wax + sealant.

So, my question really is how aggressive should I be with this paint? My last car was an Audi which had very hard paint. I know Toyota is pretty soft, is Lexus the same? Should I go with a less aggressive polish/compound and start with V34/V36?

Looking for input from experienced members who have machine polished their pre-2009 paint when they changed the clear to the "self-correcting" type.

Thanks guys!

UDel

Lexus paint/clearcoat is extremely soft which means even drying it off with microfibers will create swirls in many cases if you are not really careful and gentle but it also means that you don't have to go very aggressive with polishes/polishing to get rid of defects. You won't need as aggressive polishes/pads like you would with German ceramic clearcoasts. I would use just a regular middle aggressive polish and orange pad if the car has a lot of defects and has not been polished in a long time and see what happens, if you use microfibers and are careful you should be able to maintain your car with more of a finishing polish and white pad when needed, you will just end up having to polish it more often with soft Lexus paint.

organicali

Thanks, I'll start with a 3-step using a mild/light compound to see what I get. Was debating even doing it by hand for fear of burning through the clear but I need my shoulders =P

VTsuckah

iTrader: (1)

If you have an orbital polisher, you'll be hard pressed to burn the paint as long as you keep it moving.

My advise is to start very conservative. To give you an idea, I was able to remove all swirls and micromarring on my Starfire Pearl is350 with a light finishing polish (mezerna 4000) with a white lake county pad. Granted that I had no deep scratches, that was all I needed since the paint/clear is very soft.