CUTigers

Hey every one,

The car only had 4,800 miles on it when I bought it but had some pretty noticible swirls and scratchs. Clearly someone let their kid wash it with a terrible tower or something else awful. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to fix it? Its still smooth, so I think the scratching is light.


thanks

zmcgovern4

iTrader: (2)

That is pretty severe as far as "normal wear and tear" type swirls and scratches.

It can definitely be removed, or at least very much improved with a DA polisher and the right pads + products.

This is a BMW M3 that was trashed... you can see what can be achieved with a DA polisher and the right products and pads (as well as time and knowledge).


Are you wanting to DIY? If so, I'd be more than happy to help you on the right track. Owning a DA machine is something everyone should have and learn to use. They are an extremely valuable tool when it comes to properly maintaining your finish.

zapa

That is absolutely terrible. It looks like someone took a hard brush to it and went back and forth maybe even one of those green sponges used to clean dishes.

But as long as it is smooth yes you can take it out. Like said above the solution depends on if you want to go at it yourself or let a detailer do it.

Is the whole car like this or is it just a few spots?

zmcgovern4

iTrader: (2)

On this soft Lexus paint, I would bet that damage like the OP showed in his pic is mostly from improper washing and drying - maybe even with common sponge/mitt and towels, not something extreme like a scotch brite pad. I have seen damage done with a scotch brite bad and it is much worse.

The correct washing and drying methods and products make ALL the difference when it comes to maintaining a swirl/scratch free finish.

CUTigers

Ya, i think it was just a terrible wash and dry procedure. It is on the front drivers side quarter, down the side below the driver side windows, and the top part of the rear quarter. I dont know if someone realized they screwed up or what. The damage was done during the 5 year period (4,800miles), so its not like it was washed a lot I wouldnt think.

I would like to try and work on it on my own, I thought about paying $150 for a pro, but I would rather learn how to at least make it better now and even in the future. You have to be in direct sunlight to see it, but if you look you can most def tell its scratched up . Crazy to see that much damage on a car with such low miles.



and a friend in high school had his car being washed by his GF because she wanted to be nice. He walked out to see how she was doing, she was using a legit brilo pad allll over his black maxima.. royally screwed the paint. it was terrible.

zapa

Okay since you are going to do this yourself you are going to need to pick up a polisher and watch about three hours of youtube videos on how to polish a car. Autogeek has some good ones.

You also need to decide how much you want to spend on a polisher. A lot of new guys start with the Megs,griots, or porter cable machine. I jumped straight to a flex 3401 VRG. Its powerful and is the "Best" DA polisher but I made sure I had someone teach me in person how to do use it. I also played around on a few test panels.

You are going to have to invest more money now to save money later.

This would be a good starter kit
http://www.autogeek.net/wolfgang-por...l-remover.html

I would also recommend getting a few more pads as well.
Hope that helps

zmcgovern4

iTrader: (2)

I wash my car about once a week (weather pending)... which is not uncommon for those of us who regularly maintain their paint. So over the course of 5 years, that car could have seen A LOT of washing. You just never know.

You were quoted $150 to have someone correct your paint? Wow that is INSANELY CHEAP. So cheap that I would question that person/shops ability to do the job correctly and in a safe manner. You should expect to pay 3X that easily for a correction job like that, and much more from a "well known" professional. As the saying goes... you get what you pay for... and for $150, in my personal opinion, something sounds fishy.

Here is the basic 3 part video to get you started thinking about how to machine polish your car. It really isn't rocket science. ANYONE CAN DO THIS! and you can get professional results, safely, on your first try. All it takes is some patience, a lot of prior research, and some practice. I promise.


I would say you should expect to invest around $300-$400 for the correct washing & drying products, decontamination products, a DA polisher, a set of buffing pads ranging from cutting pads to fine finishing pads, as well as compound, polish, sealant, etc.

Many online retailers like DetailedImage, Detailers Domain, and Autogeek have packages/bundles which include most/some of the products you will need for your paint correction. I would highly recommend checking some of these out as the will save you some money over purchasing everything individually.

I would suggest reading through this entire detailing guide so that you can pick up on the basics of proper detailing techniques.

Some basic product recommendations, in my personal opinion, for beginners are as follows:

Wheels and Tires:
-5 gallon bucket (available at any hardware store for a few $)
-Tuf Shine Tire Cleaner
-CG Diablo Gel Rim and Wheel Cleaner (makes 64oz when diluted 4:1 in a separate bottle - very cost effective!)
-EZ Detail Brush (simply the best way to clean your wheel barrels)
-TUF Shine Tire Brush
-Generic Wash Mitt or Sponge dedicated for wheels only!
-Optimum Opti-Bond Tire Gel + some sort of foam applicator

Washing and Drying
-Two 5 Gallon Buckets (available at any hardeware store for a few $)
-Two Grit Guard Inserts (a must have to avoid swirls and scratches!)
-Sheep Skin Wash Mitt
-CG Citrus Wash and Gloss Shampoo (highly concentrated! only need 0.5-1oz for each wash, unless you want to strip the wax, in which case you dilute it much less)
-Waffle Weave Microfiber Towels x3 (super absorbent and safe for your paint!)

Decontamination
-Iron X is a great addition to the decontamination phase, it reacts with bonded iron particles and dissolves them. Simply spray on, let dwell, then rinse off. This (usually) great reduces the amount of time you need to spend claying because it gets rid of a good amount of the contamination already.
-Fine Grade (or Medium Grade) clay bar - depends how bad your paint is contaminated

Paint Correction
-DA Polisher - I would recommend the Griot's Garage 3rd Gen Polisher, another popular option is the Porter Cable 7424XP. The GG is more powerful and has a lifetime warranty, but either option is a great choice.
-Lake Country Foam Pads - Lexus has fairly soft paint, so you most likely won't need anything super aggressive. I would suggest getting orange light cutting pad, white polishing pad, black finishing pad, and blue ultra fine finishing pad (2 of each - I would recommend 5.5" Pads).
-Some popular polishes for beginners are the Meguiar's Line because they are SMAT and have less of a learning curve. The popular combo is from their professional line: M105 compound and M205 Polish. You could also pick up some of their consumer line at most any local auto parts store: Ultimate Compound and Ultimate Polish. I have not used the consumer line, but many people seem to like it.

Protection
-Menzerna Power Lock Sealant (great protection at a great price... there are tons of other options for great sealants as well)
-Menzerna Color Lock Wax (again, tons of options for wax too)

Miscellaneous
-Quality Microfiber towels - I can't stress enough how important this is. Pay for the quality towels!!!!!!!!! Trust me on this one! Those cheap MF towels from auto zone or wal mart will leave your car looking the way it does right now after a short while. The premium MF towels are money well spent. I was skeptical for a while, but especially on soft Lexus paint, you need the good stuff!

^There is a ton more that I can add, however I'm sure this is more than overwhelming at the moment so I will leave it at that. Please don't feel discouraged at the up front investment in both your time and money. Believe me when I tell you that learning how to do this will help you properly maintain all of the rest of the vehicles you will ever own, and ultimately save you money in the long run.

Also, check out the Autogeek Online forums. I'm sure there are plenty of members who are located in your area that would walk you through this in person and even let you try out some of their products and tools before you decide to purchase anything! It is a great community for detailing enthusiasts, and best of all, very open to beginners seeking knowledge for proper detailing!

Let me know if you've got any more questions!
-Zach

DunWkg

Please, however you start, remember "least aggressive method first" on a small test area. You want to use the least aggressive method to preserve as much paint on your car for a long life and multiple corrections over the life of the car.

Obsidian paint, actual the clear coat over Obsidian, is very delicate as your pictures show it is easily damaged. You maybe able to correct the defects if you can not feel them when you stroke then end of your fingernails perpendicular to the defects. You feel them, they may not be correctable.

As noted in the above discussions, you will need a DA buffer and review considerable number of videos before attempting any work. Perhaps on another car or a scrap hood purchased in a junk yard.

Good luck and stop back often with questions.

UDel

Those scratches look pretty bad, large and deep and possibly down to the paint in some areas, you may have to take a lot of clear off to fully get rid of them if you can but you can certainly make them almost invisible with a few passes of a DA buffer with a orange pad and pretty aggressive polish. For $150 I doubt they are going to correct those scratches, most people or places would charge in the neighborhood of at least $250-300 or more to polish a car with that much damage and correct most of it.

Damage like that can occur from a owner carelessly washing a sandy/muddy car, having a mitt or sponge full of sand particles and then wiping quickly with a lot of pressure or using a towel with sand in it drying it quickly with a lot of pressure but with those scratches it looks like someone used something pretty rough to wash or dry the car.

CUTigers

Thanks every one for the replies and supplying so much information for me to look over!

The $150 i said was just for a friends body shop to do a good clay and wax job. He told me the shop usually charges like $85 an hour for full paint correction and expected it to take like 6 hours for my car, so I guess around $500 for the full blown correction and then back to wax state.

Sucks that the consensus is that my paint is pretty jacked up. I had hope it was just light, guess not

CUTigers

The car was a garage chick( not queen since it wasnt taken care of, outside wise anyways lol. The interior was like new with factory plastic coverings still on after 5 years) and at a 2nd home of the lady. She only used it to drive while she was in this town at their 2nd home.

zmcgovern4

iTrader: (2)

6-8 hours sounds like a reasonable estimate for a 1 step paint correction... from the pictures, it looks like you would most likely need 2 (or more) steps to really get rid of some of those deeper scratches. What I mean is that you would (probably) start with a more aggressive compound and a cutting or light cutting pad, this would get rid of the majority of the defects, however because your paint is so soft and the compound + pad is fairly aggressive, it would leave behind "micro-marring" or what can look like very tiny swirls. This is then cleaned up with a finishing polish, sometimes a medium polish and then a finishing polish.... it all depends on your particular car.

The general rule of thumb, as mentioned before, is to do a test spot starting with the least aggressive method first. So you would start with a finishing polish and a finishing pad (ie: black pad and M205) - then examine the results. Then, only if needed, you would step up to something like a polishing pad and some polish (ie: white pad and M205), then examine the results. If you are still not satisfied with the results, step up to a compound and light cutting pad (ie M105 + orange pad), examine the results....... I think you get the picture.

The logic here is that you do not want to remove any more of your clear coat than you have to, so beginning with the least aggressive approach allows you to determine how aggressive you need to get without being too aggressive. If you were to start with a compound and cutting pad right off the bat, you will never know if you could have just gotten away with a finishing pad and polish. makes sense, right?

Anyway, assuming you have to do 2 or more steps, I would recommend you be prepared to spend 15+ hours on this as it will be your first time. You can always break it up into a project over several days - do a few panels each day. Typically body shops that whip through this kind of work in "6 hours" use high powered rotary polishers that will actually harm your paint... DA machines are the way to go, especially for a novice.

**I would not qualify your paint as "jacked up". I would say with pretty high confidence that you can achieve 90%+ correction on your entire car with relative ease... once you get the hang of this whole polishing thing (which doesn't take too long)!

Here is some inspiration of what can be done with a DA polisher.

e46 m3 - Compounded with Menzerna FG400 + MF Pad and then Polished with Menzerna SF4500 + Crimson Pad



2010 335i - Compound: M105 + Orange Pad Polish: M205 + White Pad
Before:


After:


2000 z3 - Compound M105 Polish: M205
Before:


After:

*All photos belong to me and were taken by me - please do not reuse without permission*

So once again, anyone can learn to correct paint with a DA machine. Check out those videos that I posted, and do some research, and please - ask questions if you have them! There are a bunch of people on here who are very passionate about detailing and would love to help you out!

CUTigers

Ya, I have been reading the links you posted for like the last 3 hours haha. Havent watched any videos yet. I feel like I have learned so much about every step I didnt know, starting with prewash all the way through wax. Pretty crazy, its like a whole new world that I see lol

Those pictures are awesome.

zmcgovern4

iTrader: (2)

You hit the nail right on the head - once you learn all of the correct methods and techniques, it is like a whole new world! Hopefully this means you have been bitten by the detailing bug!

Check out the videos when you have time, it is always useful to get a visual idea of the correct polishing process and technique, as that is the most important part.

Let me tell you, the initial investment of products may be a bit overwhelming if you are used to buying the over the counter stuff from Auto Zone (or wherever), but profesional grade products are totally worth it. If you purchase things in larger quantities, they will last you a very, very long time... especially if you are only maintaining your vehicles (and maybe a couple of friends' as well). You will have the best looking car on the block

CUTigers

lol ya, It seems I need to spend more time here and less time in the F section of the forum