Venturi

Hello
Just bought a fully loaded with performance package RCF
Ultra white, Grey interior, carbon roof, cf fin, mark levineon,, radar cruise, etc

I was looking for a forum, so far this seems the only dedicated one


Need to know if I am the only one thst went through this

I have tried to buy SEVEN different RCFs I he past 18 days, all bitter disappointments on paint .

No, the paint seemed to be orange peel free and laid well without trash in it

HOWEVER


1 Drove 4 hours each way for the first one, silver with red interior. Dealer claimed car was immaculate repeatedly so finally I decided to drive the distance to go get it. Upon arrival, I found the car to be covered in stone chips - the dealer said no one drove it but it had 51 miles on it and had scuffs on the door sil, 11 chips in the front including hood and front bumper, so I did not do the deal.

2 Drove 4 hours each way again to same dealer who claimed pristine only 14 miles on the one that just came in, blue with black interior. This car had little cuts and chips on both sides of the upper hood, these are not stone chips, they look like nicks or cuts on left and right side of upper most hood area. Also the same nicks and cuts above the headlights on the same hood. Strangely, the middle was perfect, so was the front and the fenders were perfect. But I could not accept it like that.

3 drove 4.5 hours each way to a different dealer, same promises, nice folks, claimed car was perfect. They meant well. This was silver with red interior. Same EXACT hood issue, no stone chips on front, 12 miles on it. Hood had same micro cuts and nicks in the SAME EXACT area. WTF? The dealer tried so hard, I just didn't feel like being cruel, so I bit my lip and just told him I changed my mind.

4. Drove 2 each way to a different dealer. Orange on black, 52 miles on it same issue, same areas. And it had stone chips and the door sil lower lip was cut by someone's boot/shoe

5. Drove 45 minutes each way to local dealer, a white on red, same issue and real stone chips, 55 miles on it. Dealer had been driving it to golf tournaments but it did have the same hood issue beyond the stone chips.

6. Drove 3.5 hours to the last dealership in the area. Went through many assurances that the car was perfect so the next day I drove to pick it up. Silver black interior. Unfortunately it had a door chip and a few of the hood scarring I told you about. I was quite upset at this point, was in the "F -it" mode
This last dealer, really had tried to keep the car immaculate, fresh of truck, didn't even do the technical test drive, car had 7 miles on it. And then it dawned on me that the side chips could be done in transport

and 7 - He had a fully loaded white one with the grey interior, so while he tried to locate a different car, I inspected the white one. Under the dealer front show room lighting I did not see the hood issues so I ended up buying it. And had it flat bedded back to my house the same day. Dealer was amazing and professional

Well

When I got home, under my garage lights, I found the same hood issues, guess the white paint did a better job of masking my showroom inspection or it was my excitement.

The ultra white with grey was amazing looking with the cf roof.

Well, I know it it's SUPPOSED to have self healing clear coat, so I did all I could logically:
I tried the hair drier to heat up the surface to promote self healing, nothing. Parked it in the sun, nothing. Tried the warm water and microfiber to rub the chip area, nothing, self healing paint is marketing crap. No changes, not even microscopically. The self healing paint is supposed to work within a few hours/days of moderate warm temperatures. Between parking it in the sun on 93F days and the warm water or a hair drier ( never letting hood temp above 104F) the paint did absolutely NOTHING to close the fissures/cuts/nicks.

The cuts are in the clear coat, not in the base coat, the don't penetrate to the base coat.

So, after 2 days and absolutely no change to the paint situation I decided to do some rudimentary ice cold wet sanding on 39 individual spots in the hood, very carefully using specialized 3000, 4000, and 5000 sand paper. Then 3 stages of diminishing compound, I was able to remove it enough so that I can't find most of them. Then fine micro polish followed by three sealants. Topped it off with 80% carnauba

However, it was 60 hours of work and stress and just seem mid boggling that Lexus cars are that crappy a quality or their process allowed for something to occur to all the cars I saw
All the body panels and cf roof are perfect. So WTF happened to the hood of these cars?
I get the stone chips part, that's the dealers fault and test drivers, but what's up with the hood nicks???

SEVEN RCFs out of the only 7 RCFs in my area (less than 5 hour radius) with hood paint issues!

DOES ANYONE ELSE HAVE THESE ISSUES??? Do you know how to find them?

And WHAT is the self healing paint supposed to do anyhow????


If Lexus IS reading this, I have the vin codes to all the 7 RCFs and the dealership names. Lexus, you have issues in QA, transport, and dealerships.

...and WTF is the self healing clear coat supposed to do????

Hey Johnny

iTrader: (3)

welcome!

Any pics of the issues with the paint?

VTsuckah

iTrader: (1)

First, welcome to the forum. It's not uncommon for brand new cars to have paint defects. Scratches, swirls, and scuffs are common. Like you said the chips are likely caused by transport and I would think Lexus would cover the trouble areas with film.

Overall, Lexus paint is VERY soft. I highly recommend investing in a professional detail, followed by a clear film. Ceramic coating can also be applied to provide long-term protection as well. I think you were a bit premature in wetsanding. You likely could have taken care of the issues with varying degrees of compound. Anyways, there is Lexus customer service page for these types of issues. One of the threads mentions the self healing paint. Apparently it's only applicable to select colors.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/lex...oat-paint.html

Venturi

Thank you

I tried but was unable to show in a picture the paint issue on my white car,

It would be nice to know what colours are self healing in advance

Also, you're right, but I did test with the compounds and polish before attempting the light wet sanding. I started in nothing lower than 3000 or 3500.

Before any steps were taken with wet sanding I :
Cleaned, clay barred, apply light polish, then moved to 1-2-3 level compounds , them when all that seemed not to improve the situation, then moved to the cold wet sanding - even then only in small 1-3cm section and feather lite wet sanding, applied compound, inspected and repeated if necessary.

My goal was to remove the very least amount of clear coat possible, I borrowed a depth meter and it measured a mere .003 variation on my efforts. I'm not a pro, but a pro would probably ended up with the same result.

I had the choice of apply filler acrylic / clear coat to the cuts, but they were too narrow for the clear coat and the associated viscosity to penetrate and settle in the cut. These ranged from UV curing compounds to air dry compounds


I hope that explains my course of action better

Side note
The blue paint with many a surface cut/nick was not self healing because the mica was the worst I saw.
The silver was not self healing then either because it had many of the same paint cuts and was inspected right of the truck.
The orange was also not self healing in that case as it had been sitting in the sun for two weeks.
The white was not self healing then either

The colours I can't comment on are noble grey, infrared, and obsidian - so are any if those self healing?


Side note #2
I had a silver GTR that had self healing paint. Works with minimal results. Heat up area, hair drier or sun, warm wet rag and gently work area to "smudge" the nick. Within about a day later it seems to melt together.

The RC F paint yielded NO such behavior

elusive

iTrader: (2)

This owner had some damage on his hood (possibly similar to yours), and Lexus sub'd out the paint repair to a detailer.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rc-...ed-advice.html

MerryK

Mine was pre-ordered and came off the boat, and onto the transport and then to me. So mine was pristine when I got it

Venturi

Thank you


I'm still baffled by the location, pattern and type of pain nicks on all 7 cars.

Statistically it's too high to be coincidence



and quite importantly :

IS SELF HEALING CLEARCOAT BS????

jkeifer3

My car had 62 miles on it and, to the unaided eye, the paint was perfect in every respect.

zekeman

Assume you mean self healing film (wrap), right? Don't know there is a self healing clearcoat paint. The self healing film, of which there are many brands, does work for very minor rock dings, but even if a rock hits it hard enough, maybe at the correct angle, it will leave a ding in the film and maybe the surface of where it's covering. I had it on my Porsche and a small pea gravel size pebble got me and it tore the film.
Z

Venturi

Actually, NO
The owner's manual says that the car comes with self healing clear coat. It goes further and says that the clear coat self healing capabilities is supposed to last 7-9 years

I had a GTR that had self healing clear coat. Add heat (sun, hot water, hair drier), smudge the cut or the nick softly and within about a day, the clear coat "melted" back together. (Within reason, not a stone chip or something severe, we are just talking minor scuffs and nicks limited to the clear coat without penetrating beyond the clear coat to the base coat)

The RCF is supposed to have it, but I call BS, I've seen no such capability.
I completely repaired the issue manually but it was without any "self healing" help from the clear coat

The trouble is that its SUPPOSED to have the self healing capability, that's in the owner's manual as well.

2nd issue is that the hood of 7 cars in a row had the issue with the nicks in the same exact spots

zekeman

I'm sure the claims are valid under the "PERFECT conditions." You probably didn't have those conditions Personally, I wouldn't believe them or pay any close attention to them. I have a clear bra on mine which the dealer installed; normally I don't have dealer installed stuff like that and do it after the fact, but it was part of the deal so let them do it. I think you can get some pretty good after market film installed for significantly less with much more coverage than your local dealer.
Z

johnnyreb

Man, you seem like you'd be a Salesmans Worst Nightmare! Lol! I know it's a Very Expensive Car but i'd like to hear Their side of the story too, i mean 7 out of 7 Really! Pics are worth a thousand words!

zekeman

Z

primecut

iTrader: (1)

It doesn't sound like an issue specific to the RCF or even Lexus. Any new car you buy, unless it has all its vinyl covering still on it and straight from the port, will have nicks and scratches on it from people touching it, car washes at the dealership, and/or test drives. Rock chips are a bit more uncommon, but again if it has 50 miles on it then most likely it might have a couple of them.

If you want a paint perfect car you should order one and give specific instructions so you are the one to inspect and get a first look/touch at it with 0 miles on the odo. Only then can you blame the model/manufacturer if there were imperfections straight from the factory.

It sounds like you are experienced with paint correction so you should already know this, IMHO. Every detailer will tell you the same: (At 1:30 he talks about new car instructions prior to delivery).

As for the self-healing paint, I don't know much about it, but it's not revolutionary magic. I'm sure it may correct some very fine hairline scratches, but it's not going correct things that are obvious.

Venturi

Thank you

Primecut - that's a great video!

I did on the last two cars ask them not to prep the cars in any way. The dealer that I bought the white one from, honored that on both of the cars and in both cases the issues was not caused by any of their staff - in fact they were greta to work with.


I've taken over a hundred cell phone shots before I did the corrections and none of them on the white paint show up so that it it makes sense in photograph. Unfortunately, with the convenience of cell phones in the past few years I never bought an SLR camera so tiny iPhone is all I have.

I took pictures of the cars that had the problem and that I did not purchase, but the issues did not show up in the shots.

The best i can do is post pics of the rejected prospects and possibly some slightly blurry not as revealing shots of the white paint issues. I will try tonight to find the best example I have in those cell photos.


On detailing
Thank you for the video. I'm really just a novice. I've made plenty of mistakes on prior vehicles and learned the little I know the hard way.

on ordering
I did wrestle with ordering one, but did not want to wait 3-4 months. I did at one point place an order for a buid date that was eminent and with a delivery about 60 days out, but that build date magically got pushed back more than a month and so I kinda gave up.

So I thought I could find one loaded the way I wanted locally (more or less). After the stone chip issues with dealers that were driving their rc f or parking them at mall kiosks, or driving them and parking them at golf tournaments on display - well I embarked on going to see ones that were just arriving or arriving the day of the visit at the dealership. The last three were left undriven and plastic left on the car till I arrived (they had 6 to 7 miles on them when they rolled off the truck). The damage was done with the plastic still on. The damage on the last two was not done from stone chips due to driving. The silver one that was exactly what I thought I wanted and was the one with full stone chips on the side - the front was blemish free. Somehow it got nicked up on the driver side high on the door and on pillar in transit. The other silver one had a "port repair" done to it and it was not done very well.

The white one (that I bought) seemed perfect when it was moved to the showroom delivery bay. My excitement probably kept me from seeing the issues but white many times can mask a problem on a quick pass. Luckily none of the issues were beyond the clear coat.


If I had ordered one from scratch I would have had it delivered in a covered carrier and all the accutriments that go with it.

The one I bought was better than the other prospects and I was able to save it. The other prospects with paint chips through the clear coat, color and several cases right down to the metal - well, I lack the skill to return those to factory condition. I'm a novice and did not want to tackle that.


The car looks good now.



The premise of my original post was not to go down to this level of discussion.
It was quite simply:

1. There seems to be a reoccurring pattern of etched cuts on the left and right sides of the upper hood only and was wondering if anyone else had the same issue.

and

2. I was under the impression the car had a modicum of self healing clear coat which I have not seen on my white one. So I was wondering of others actually had the self healing paint as the owner's manual reports?


Thank you