I was smoking a cigarette between classes the othe day, and I noticed that my car (gold) shines and looks a lot better than most brand-new cars!

I bought the car used 3 years ago. As soon as I got it, I did a 4 day detail job on it. The paint is so deep and the metalic flakes shine so bright. I wash it every week and put a new coat of wax every few months.

I've seen 1st Gen GSs with a nice detail job and the paint looks almost like new.

How are your cars doing?

 

i hate mine. i wish i had at least factory paint. i bought my car used about this time last year from a guy that lives in a pretty warm area. summers are around 90-100F. well he told me that the paint was fading pretty bad on the roof and hood so he had the whole car repaint. well since he was repainting the car to sell it it didn't seem like he put out more than 2000 for the paint. its black and i can see orange peel over most of the car. there is no overspray or anything but just a crap load of orange peel. also they put on such a thin layer of paint and clear that i can't color sand it because it goes right through the pain. GRRR>

 

Jmai, that is terrible! Too bad it costs $6k or more for a decent paint job. Orange peel sucks. I had my first car repainted and it was full of orange peel. Fortunately there was enough paint on it for me to color sand it.

See, that is the good thing about Lexus paint...very little if any orange peel. I see new cars (mostly domestic) with tons of orange peel. I guess you get what you pay for.

 

and have had it for about a yr now. I purchased it from a couple that garaged it and put a cover over it not to mention maintained it very well kept records and such. But yes, the paint is still immaculate on it. Since my brother works for an auto body and paint shop here in SD, hr brought home some off his detailing equipment, waxes, polishes etc.. so I went at it, clayed and waxed it and now I think my car's finish looks better than what it did coming off the showroom floor. I'll post pics when I get the chance!

 

paint of my car seems to be of good quality too...
( gold ) it's a '96 model.

yezzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

dam nice sig man. you need to post up more often. lol. anyone know what kit that is in his sig

 

in dk. green. the finish is still excellent with the exception of light swirls and scratches that i'm slowly getting rid off. i've had the car for over four years now and still appreciate it. i agree that everything about our car is first class...fit and finish.

geees.

 

I own a 93 GS 300 which I have had for about a year now, and the paint is getting worse and worse. The previous owner lived in Florida so the sun and salt from the ocean has been hard on the paint. There is a kind of white/gray ( which I think is the primer) on the hood, top of the trunk, and on the sides of the roof has been showing through the paint for a while now. I have tried to get the maroon color back, waxing it does help a little, the maroon color comes back, until it rains and then the primer shows through again, I haven't tried buffing yet because I don't have access to one and I am afraid of the cost to get it done. I dont have enough money to get it repainted ,(I'm in college) and it is really not worth it cause it has about 223,000 miles on it and as you probably know repairs are expensive and with so many miles, the repairs are not minor. I love my lexus and want it to look nice without spending alot. I did repaint the rims black myself with help from friends using spraypaint, they look great, they look professionally done. I really would like the paint to look good to match the rims. Does anyone have any suggestions about what to do about my paint? Please help!!

Jessi

 

You may want to post a few pics to see exactly what the paint looks like..And also may want to post in the Detail forums..

 

Try this product....SCRATCH-OUT. It is excellent....used it myself for years. I give it way sometimes as a gift to people who buy cars to keep the paint nice.
It's available at CVS drug stores and some auto parts stores and dealer parts departments....$3-5 a bottle. It is not a wax...it takes the imperfections, stains, minor scratches, and haze /weathering out of paint jobs and will NOT leave swirl marks...in fact, it takes minor swirl marks OUT.

http://www.kitwax.com/html/kitProducts.htm

 

well, unfortunately i do not have a scanner, but if i get hold of one, i will post some pics...thaks for the advice

 

thanks for the product suggestion...i appreciate it...i'm going to pick some up today, hopefully it will work for me

 

That white stuff on your paint is not primer, it's oxidized paint. What happens is that paint oxidizes if it's not protected against the elements. You need to remove the oxidized paint before you can do anything else to the paint. To do this you need a polish to remove it. Try a light scratch/swirl remover made by 3M or Meguiars, they have these at the local auto store. Just follow the instructions on the bottle and when you polish the paint it will remove the oxidized paint. You'll probably see the rag you are using will probably turn maroon in color. This is just all the bad paint coming off. If this stuff doesn't remove the oxidation use a heavier polish (more aggressive, kind of like coarser sand paper). A heavier polish would be a rubbing compound. If you use this you have to go over the area with a light scratch/swirl remover to bring back the shine removed by the heavier polish.

When you're done there should be a good layer of paint exposed. You need to protect it with a wax so it doesn't oxidize too.

Here's some information on the difference between a "light scratch/swirl remover" and a "compound":

 

The paint on my 93 GS3 is in pretty good shape for the age of the car. I wasn't too happy when the clearcoat started chipping off the mirrors earlier this year. However, it was a great reason to finally get a set of JDM's and paint them

 

My paint is gorgeous on both my Lexus vehicles,especially after a good wax
here's the only pics I have of my babies,and to think the paint is 13years oldon the SC and 11 years on the GS