Black Lexus + Scotch-Brite + Full paint correction = much better!

A forum member referred his friend to me after she used a Scotch-Brite pad to wash her car a few weeks back. The result of the wash was some very extensive damage to the paint and it needed an equally extensive correction to fix it and bring it back to the beautiful Lexus black it used to be. As the last month has been extremely busy and I had several other cars coming in for correction, I brought my friend Marlon in to give me a hand. He has the "eye" for detailing and was putting out great work.

Process for correction:
-Spot wetsanding with 3M Trizact 1500 and 3000
-Surbuf with Meguiars 101 (multiple hits)
-Meguiars MF cutting disc with M105 & D300
-Lake Country orange flat pad with D300
-Lake Country black pad with Menzerna 106FA

LSP was Meguiars 301

Total time: 52 hours





Upon arrival, you can see how dull and gray the paint looks.















The offending Scotch-Brite marks...









The clear film was in very poor shape as well. The damage was too extensive to repair as the Scotch-Brite left scratches near the equivalent of 800 grit sandpaper. Clear film would be removed later in the detail.









Even in indirect light you could see how bad the marks are...





















After washing and claying, the true extent of the damage is revealed. Much time would be required to repair this.




















50/50 shot on the hood.......there is hope!








Oddly enough the bumper did not have clear film on it and even though the car only had 40k miles, the rock chip damage was quite bad. Plenty of Scotch-Brite marks here as well.






Closeup...






50/50 shot....





Looking much better






50/50 shot










Some of the really bad areas would require wetsanding

I call this shot: The rings of Saturn















Careful use of a 4" Surbuf pad on the Griot's 3" DA helped clear this narrow section up well.







Greatly improved. Final polishing to be carried out later.








Driver's fender looking pretty rough





Heavy scratches removed







Marlon working the C-pillar













Passenger fender











After several rounds of compounding








Rockers needed some attention. Some kind of tar or sticky residue covering the majority of the lower rocker and covered with a layer of dirt.










Marlon working the lower rockers











Many hours of compounding on the hood was required to remove the scratches. Multiple rounds of polishing would be required to restore the gloss.







Hood polished up and the fender still needing additional compounding.








The clear film that Lexus installed to protect the top edge of the bumper for loading/unloading cargo was in bad shape.






Restored!




































Checking the results in the sun after medium polishing was completed.











Finished pics!



































Thanks for viewing!

 

Awesome work Jeff! Wicked turnaround is an understatement.

How many microns removed overall?

And what was she thinking when washing with the scrub pad? Did she not see the damage she was causing?

At least a better solution than a repaint.

 

Thanks!

About 5-6 microns removed on the wetsanded sections, all had healthy readings (140+) to start with. The rest of the paint was around 2-3 microns removed, with the average readings 130 microns. One spot was initially 112 and after correction was 111 as there was minimal scratches in that spot.

As for what she was thinking...this is what I was told..... She had seen a friend use a wash mitt that had netting on one side to scrub bugs off and figured the Scotch-Brite pad would clean even better. When she started drying it she saw the damage wasn't wiping away.

 

Scary Condition! Awesome job!

 

amazing work dude

 

Top job for 2012 so far. That was some f*&^ed up! Great work guys.

 

yikes. great work!

 

Holy $h!t.......

Now that's what I call a MASSIVE turnaround!

Outstanding work guys.

:agree: with Ken's post above

 

She should be caned for that. Great job!!!

 

Ouch that hurt my eyes! :yikes: Awesome cleanup to bring her back to life :applause:

 

I watched my neighbor proudly do the same thing about 6 months ago............what are people thinking?

 

Incredible!

 

detail of the month right here

 

totally agree with the above posts, what an EPIC transformation! simply top notch work guys

 

great job!

 

WOW. Excellent job :applause2:

 

Amazing work some of the pics were horrible to even see. :yikes:

 

Poor Lexus.

Nice work! You guys really saved that one! Epic 50/50's!

 

What was she doing taking Scotch Brite out of the Kitchen? :crasy: Hahaha someone had to say it.

Fantastic recovery! Mad props!

 

Thanks!

Thank you

Much appreciated. Thank you.

Thanks!

Haha thank you

Thanks!