ajahearn

This posting could not have been more timely. My son took his 96 LS to a drive through car wash and when he came back the bottom panels of the passenger side doors had started peeling tremendously. It is a two tone model, beige and cashmere if I recall the colors correctly. Strange thing is there was absolutely no sign of this problem until this happened - almost all of the paint is off one panel and most of the other. Is this normal? I can actually peel the paint off the car as it clear is not sticking to the paint below. Any suggestions on what I should do here? The driver's side is still intact - should I spray some clear coat over it? I'm more interested in the car functionally than the paint as my son has already given the car his "touch".

Also if anyone has any suggestions on leather seat repair I would love to hear them. I tried one of those leather repair kits that comes with a heating iron but really no luck. Thanks in advance.

CELSI0R

Do you have any pictures of the peeling, ajahearn?

My guess is that the molding may have been peeling slightly near a corner or another area of the piece, and the rags from the wash pulled up the layers of paint. It is not normal to be able to peel it off yourself.

If you clear coat it, there is a chance that it will still peel anyway, as the clear coat layer may not be enough to hold it down properly. The best thing to do would be to respray, re-clear, and eventually wax (after about a month to let the paint settle properly). Definitely make sure the other side is waxed to protect the layers.

I tend to avoid car washes, because of the grit and potentially harsh substances that can be rubbed into the paint. This video shows a pretty good visual representation of what can happen in different types of washes:

Losiracer2

My 97' Diamond White Pearl paint is holding up great aside from quite a few rock chips on the front bumper and edge of the hood. I bought a Lexus touch up paint pen, but it didn't really match 100% but did take care of any future rusting that would've happened.

My car was born an AZ car and had details I believe for the first 10 years of its life. After that, i'm unsure as I don't have any other records that go past 2007 on the Lexus Driver's website.

But all in all, I'm pretty impressed its held up this long, almost 20 years and the paint still shines and has that pearl effect in bright sunlight.

An older pic from 6 months ago before I installed the Depo all clear headlights and corners and fixed the power antenna, right after a wash

dicer

The main cause of the clear coats pealing off newer cars, is the use of non catalyzed paint for base coat, and that is also why the base coats lift from the primer too. Too much using junk paint these days. I'm not sure what the older LS's used. But I guess they seem to weather better than some newer cars and trucks do.
Since GM used water colors in the 80's who knows?

ajahearn

Thanks for the quick response - this board is terrific. Haven't had too many problems with car washes but I understand your point. This car has always been in CA, but the last few years have been much harder on it than in the past - we don't garage it but it is shaded. I may be partially at fault here as I have made some poor attempts to cover up scratches/etc that my son seems to find so easily so perhaps some of my sprays have introduced some less than desirable particulates but I don't recall ever touching up the lower panels.

I uploaded to photos to drop box because I never remember how to load pics here. Hopefully not violating any rules here. After we discovered the problem I went through and sanded/cut with an exacto knife to try and control the damage. The car does not have a perfect body any longer so really all I want to do is prevent further damage and if I can do this inexpensively (I have decent paint guns that I use to repair my painted wheels) I wouldn't mind trying to clean it up.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/li296vu8x2..._0931.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ajq7ynitsc..._0932.JPG?dl=0

dicer

Some day I'd like to see how reclearing would work, that is before it peals, and maybe even with the pealing.

aptoslexus

To me it looks like a bad respray job and the car wash was abrasive enough to peel it away.

ajahearn

The only issue is there was no respray. All I did was touch up some spots. In addition the other side of the car is fine. I'm starting to think that the car wash place used something pretty harsh on one side.

billydpowe

iTrader: (1)

the SC's are going up in price. And maybe a better choice than the LS400's. ...BOY your stock just fell with that comment..

lextout

beautiful car, always loved the pearls on a lexus

lextout

The black gs im driving is a black 98 base coat with no clear coat from the factory. i polish/wax twice a year and its still saucy glossy,The key is polish/wax. The 90's era lexus's had more craftmanship and money invested in them.