vinodc

hey guys, well I got my 04 ls430 a couple months ago. It had quite a few stone chips and someone keyed parts of the car(literally days after buying it) so I had various parts of the car repainted. I had the front hood, trunk, and rear right quarter panel. Initially it looked stunning(back in may when it was done).....but after bringing it home, I could see the swirl marks, areas where it was touched up...and i pointed it out to the body shop. They said its hard to get an exact match for the black color.......and said it needs for the clear coat to be put on, and be buffed out.

I got it back......literally the same swirl marks and same touchups can still be seen. They redid it THREE TIMES! When I went back the 4th time, I was pretty upset, luckily the dealership principal was there. I explained what went on, he assured it would be fixed. They repainted...put new clear coat again......I got a call saying it was done, but wanted to keep it for a fews days to make sure it was fine. A few days later, get called again saying....the marks are back...were going to redo it all again!! He explained the humidity was causing these problems.

Now keep in mind, this is a very reputable place in town, very large family run dealership. The dealer principal is a really nice guy and very genuine. So basically they redid the job 5 times...... BUT!!!!!.... its been 1 month since ive had it back.....and the swirl marks are back......but even worst!! now the entire trunk and rear panel look awful. The hood has it again, but not as bad as before. My state farm agent is well aware, in fact last time....they sent an inspector out to confirm the car was perfect before releasing it to me. So what do I do? I have never seen such a thing...how can the same issue keep reoccuring? Do i take it somewhere else? Is this a common problem with Black color cars? I would post pictures, but hard to see the issue in pictures.

my car info....2004 lexus ls430 ML with 34k miles. Always garaged, and in Mint condition(otherwise).

SW17LS

What happens is they cover the car in a glaze that fills in all the problems and then over time the glaze wears off.

I would take the car to a professional detailer and get their perspective on whether it can be machine polished and what the outcome would be...

My guess is the paint is fine, they're just hacking it up when they trim it out because their detailer sucks.

carlos

iTrader: (1)

Maybe there's some toxin in those areas of the paint.

VIPDrizzy

Bad body work means bad paint plain and simple if they are just fixing the clear they haven't changed anything. It sounds like the problem was left in the black paint not the clear coat.....

JSDND1980

There should be no problems with humidity with the current state of the art paint booths that are used today. i agree with VIP's comment....it's all about the preparation. The prior paint should all be sanded off, then any kind of filler needed, then a prime coat and more wet sanding until it's smooth. When I had my previous Acura repainted they actually took the trunk and hood off the car and painted them separately. Then the final coats should be applied along with the clear coats. Ask how many coats they're putting on. Good luck!

lextout

no money could buy back a factory paint job, the factory paints the car when its bear metal on the factory line.
I really hate non factory paint jobs, if i were you i would sell it and try to recoup back what you paid for it. I'm sure with that low mileage you could probably get back more then what you paid.

vinodc

hey guys.........have an update. So my state farm agent, had an inspector come out to my house. Him, myself, and the inspector looked at the car. At first she was being coy, not really acknowledging anything......but basically she said.....the ENTIRE thing needs to be redone, so i'm relieved. She was suggesting, that all the parts need to be sanded down......and started all over again. So atleast I have state farm on my side, which is a huge relief. She took pictures of it all, and actually sympathized for me. It helped i was very through in pointing out every single flaw.

So i'm going to find out on monday what the next step is going to be. I really love this car. The mileage is so low, and literally it still smells new. I'm going to allow another body shop to fix this and hope for the best. If not, who knows what options are available......maybe state farm will total the car?(i know sounds crazy, but i've seen it happen)

darchard

Can you share a picture of the problem?

anthony430

iTrader: (2)

Without seeing pics, it may be impossible to assess the situation correctly, but I'll give it a shot. If the only issue is swirl marks, that is completely normal from body shops since their detailers are very often hacks who do a quick cut and buff (to get rid of orange peel) and call it good. Usually, they have very low standards and have never even seen a car that's had a professional paint correction done to it. You can point out their bad work to them all day long and they will act like you're crazy.

SW10ES is correct that they will use products with "fillers" that fill in light scratches/swirl marks so the paint looks nice when you pick it up, and then because the swirl marks haven't actually been buffed out, they will of course come back over time.

My best guess without seeing it is that you may just need a good paint correction done to the car. If you proceed down this route, make sure to ONLY hire someone whose work you have seen. You need to see before and after shots of their work in the sun/good lighting. Please take it from me that without that, 10 out of 10 of them will bs you that they do great work and you'll waste tons of money. Take a look at this thread to see what I mean -- this is one of the top detailers in the country: http://www.detailingbliss.com/forum/...estoration.htm

VIPDrizzy

^^That thing is sick i tried to do a full paint correction a few times and I can do a decent job but by no means am I pulling off miracles like these guys, but again if the body work is bad the paint is bad and if your agent told u it all needs to be sanded down it sounds like bad body work to me.....

Jabberwock

90% of a paint job is prep and sand. Take it to a really good paint shop and it should be no problem. Ask them to describe prep process and if the are taking shortcuts run in the other direction. For example trim pieces should be removed and not taped. Every coat - sealer, primer, paint should be wet sanded. The paint shop, equipment, and paint booth should be clean and super well organized - a sloppy shop and equipment = a crap paint job.

vinodc

hey guys. Ive tried taking pictures...simply to have proof for myself and to document, but no matter how hard I try, its not coming through. The issues are obvious, when you look at the car in angles and especially when freshly washed. You can see areas where the the direct of the buffing or sanding occured. Or literally someones palm print(lol?..thats beyond me!). as you guys mentioned before, clearly these guys used shortcuts. The trim's were taken off, because the edges look terrible. There is paint drippage galore. You name it.....they screwed up. The sad part is....this shop is a high end luxury auto store, that has a very strong reputation, and is a select body shop for state farm. So it a lot of us puzzled, the key next is to find the right shop, which now seems to be an almost impossible task(esp in my small community).

I will def keep you guys updated. Sadly to say, I went out and bought a high end Nikon DSLR camera, just so I can take pictures of it and post it on here. I might be nuts...

VIPDrizzy

Hey man I took my last car almost 280 miles away to a diff town for a good paint job expand your search look at before and after pics of the shop your decide on. Remember even a car with not a dent or ding can look terrible with bad paint dirty tires and fender inner lining. Just me 2 cents the tires and fenders you can controlling the paint needs to be done right if you want to keep it looking fresh.

Silver'04

iTrader: (13)

Sorry to hear about your situation man, I feel for you. Like others have said, hard to really say with out pics, but when you say swirl marks, that usually refers to an issue with the final sand and buffing. Getting rid of swirl marks on a black car is difficult, even for an experienced Tech. Difficult, but definitely not impossible. But if the issues you're seeing are more like sand scratches, that's usually visible under the clear and will not go away with re-doing the job. For them to tell you that the color is a hard to match....meh. Not sure what color code black the LS430 has (My 2GS is 202, Black Onyx), but there's no metallic or mica, so I don't believe that the shop should have that hard of a time matching color. Especially because I'm pretty sure with that kind of mileage, the paint is/was in pretty good shape, which makes color matching a little easier.

When you mentioned State Farm was involved, was the work done on your car part of an insurance claim? If it was, tell your agent you want a referral to another SF Select Service shop and be done with these guys already. The work will be redone at no charge to you and should be done to your satisfaction. Another thing for you to mention to the shop that did your work, or the next one you take it to (for that matter), if the car really was repainted that many times, there's no way they can repaint it again and be able to warranty it. Most paint manufacturers have a maximum mil thickness that the paint can reach before it can't be warrantied anymore. I would express this concern to your shop of choice, so that they know that the paint needs to be taken all the way down to metal and not just scuffed, prepped, and painted. Most times, all it takes is 2 or 3 times that a part gets repainted and it's past the recommended thickness. Pretty safe to say at the 5th attempt, it's done.

Also, on a side note, take your agents recommendation with a grain of salt. Most agents do not fully understand the repair process or are not fully qualified to make recommendations like "the whole car needs to be repainted." I would say 98% of the ones we deal with here in Hawaii don't have a clue. They're just normal people who sell insurance. It's not to say that they're not good people who care about their customers, but in my opinion they shouldn't be making statements like that to you because it makes the situation seem worse than it really is. The entire car doesn't need to be repainted, you just need the right shop to do the work for you. Our shop is a State Farm Select Service shop here in Hawaii, so if you want to ship your car over, I'd be glad to take care of it for you!

lextout

Sounds good, if i were you go to your nearest lexus dealer and ask them where they recommend to get it done, im sure they know the best place.