CU2MIKE

Hi all, this Lexus LS belongs to a long time friend of mine. I used to be on the same car team as him during my show car days with my old RX8. Anyhow, he messaged me on FB this past Friday afternoon wanting to know if I could detail his car before Wekfest in Long Beach (Which would be June 2nd). I told him I could do it the following day as it was my only day open.

The paintwork has many, many sanding marks, which destroyed the shine of this otherwise beautiful paint. The clear coat was fairly hard so instead of a 1 step to remove swirls and brighten things up, this was a 2 step process. My good friend Tuan was able to stop by for an hour to lend a hand on some trouble spots.

What you are about to see in the following is a custom blended House of Kolor deep purple on a tastefully done Lexus LS400. I started at around 9am and wrapped everything up at roughly 7pm. The car still isn't perfect but it saw very drastic improvement during this short time frame. My buddy was ecstatic about the way it'd turned out when he saw the finished product.

Products used:
Meguiar's Hyper Wash for the foam cannon
Auto Finesse Lather auto bath for two bucket method and foam cannon
Auto Finesse Citrus Power to loosen dirt on the lower panels prior to foaming the car
CarPro IronX was used to clean the wheels
Auto Finesse Mercury was used to polish the exhaust tips
Meguiar's Last Touch was used as clay lube
Poly's QD was used as a drying aid
Meguiar's M105
Meguiar's D300
Scholl Concepts S40
LSP was Auto Finesse Spirit
Tire dressing used was 303 Aerospace Protectant

Tools used:
Karcher 5.85M pressure washer
AutoGlos foam cannon
Swissvax wheel brush
EZ detailing brush for wheels
Swissvax detail brush
2 bucket method with grit guards
Microfiber chenille wash mitt
Toro variable speed leaf blower
Waffle weave towels
Meguiar's MF cutting pads for initial compounding
Buff n Shine green pads for finishing
White edgeless towels for polish/wax removal

Here are some shots of the car during the washing stage:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/detailmaniac/7282760490/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detailmaniac/7282760210/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detailmaniac/7282759848/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detailmaniac/7282759478/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detailmaniac/7282759232/
Condition of the paint:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/detailmaniac/7282758752/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detailmaniac/7282758452/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detailmaniac/7282758196/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detailmaniac/7282757956/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detailmaniac/7282756974/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detailmaniac/7282756260/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detailmaniac/7282755930/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detailmaniac/7282755618/
As you can see from the above pictures, the damage inflicted by the bodyshop (Car was repainted a little over a month ago) is quite extensive. But I was still able to get some pretty decent results in the 10 hours time frame.

Here are the few shots of the car and pictures of the entire car after I finished:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/detailmaniac/7282753086/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detailmaniac/7282752862/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detailmaniac/7282752618/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detailmaniac/7282752390/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detailmaniac/7282966288/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detailmaniac/7282751996/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detailmaniac/7282751736/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detailmaniac/7282751400/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detailmaniac/7282751054/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detailmaniac/7282750648/