chippern73

Two years ago I bought a '93 LS400. It is the champagne color outside and a dark brown (chocolate brown) interior. It cost $4500, had only 115k miles, one owner, only three minor exterior blemishes, and two minor issues:

1. Broken drivers seat, did not recline - fixed
2. Two speakers not working - fixed and upgraded the amp.

My dream car was a black or a dark blue Lexus, but since the car I got was in such great condition I didn't care much about the color.

Well now I am wondering, could I get a great enough paint job in black or dark blue that it would look odd? Not too many dark cars have a dark brown interior.

What do you think? Is it worth the cost and would I get what I want? i know there are many outstanding paint shops, but before I took the car to them, I though I would ask other Lexus owners who have done this sort of thing before! Thanks.

Here is a photo of my car when I purchased it. Looks very much the same now.

Banshee365

I wouldn't touch it man. Toyota has about the best paint from the factory out there. If you paint is still in good shape please don't let some shop put sandpaper to it. I'd spend my time and money washing, claybaring, and waxing that paint to keep it looking great and original. Especially if you want black. It's very hard to duplicate a factory black finish unless you're dealing with guy's that paint show cars or something and you plan to spend alot of money. In order to get a nice, deep, orangepeel free black finish you would have to spend alot of time prepping, painting several layers, then wetsanding, buffing and polishing every square centimeter to make it look factory. I spot aftermarket painted black cars from a mile away because most look matte due to heavy orangepeel and it just looks hideous. That's just me, I'd leave it. Looks like a nice car man.

amcdonal86

I agree with Banshee. Lexus paint is fantastic! A good paint job will cost you a pretty penny. You could easily buy a black LS for the price of a good paint job.

By the way, your LS looks great! Love the wheels!

ck90211

I would kind of disagree about quality of Lexus paint, because so many samples I have seen have peeling clear coat (from Gold to Black). The only color Lexus/Toyota knows how to do is White (or near-whites), and it would make sense, because 60+% of cars in Japan are all White. MB and BMW on other hand sure knows how to do their metallics and dark colors; I have gone to junk yard and still see many perfectly painted 80's MB's and BMW's.

I am not trying to be disagreeable, I currently have 3 Toyota/Lexus right now (1 Previa and 2 LS400) and all have slight to severe peeling clear coat problems (and some fading problem). Yes I do live in sun belt (SoCal) but have had MB and Honda during the same time and never had paint problems.

amcdonal86

I think it is pretty good quality--if it's still in good condition. There is very little orange peel, and at least on my '97 LS400, which was probably garaged by the original owner for 12 years, the paint still looks great.

I challenge anyone to prevent a car's clear coat from peeling after a decade of baking in the sun, even with regular washing and waxing!

Schnitz

iTrader: (5)

As far as I know Lexus didn't use clear coat until ~2003. When I had my car (2000 LS) detailed this summer a ****load of black on the pad. My detailer did his research he found they only used single stage paint.

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

this was only true to a point. it was multi layer, but had a black tinted clear. and it was ONLY the black paint that was this way, every other color afaik was traditional "CLEAR" clear.

oh, and the black went to traditional clear in 01+