cantsleepnk

I got the detailing bug a couple of years ago and have been doing my own detailing since then.
I was doing some reading on Autopia and read with interest your comments in this thread.
http://autopia.org/forum/showthread....polish+residue

I know that one shouldn't overpolish a car and one should always start with the least aggressive polish and pads to remove swirls and scratches, but this thread has really opened my eyes to the problems someone could end up with if they wetsanded or overpolished single stage paint.

Since I own a black SS 2004 RX and have a many compounds and polishes in my arsenal ,what would be least aggressive polish/compound/pad you recommend to remove scratches and at the same time keep that .5mil of UV and gloss you're talking about ?
Also why doesn't Lexus use clearcoat on their black? Is it harder to maintain a clearcoated black paint than SS black paint?

BTW I only polish my car twice a year and the most aggressive compounds I've ever used are PB SSR2.5 and Menzerna Intensive polish with an Edge Yellow (meduim cut pad) . I stopped trying to achieve perfection a while back ,after all it's a daily driver and not a show car.

Thanks in Advance for your reply.

MongooseGA

iTrader: (6)

Hm... I thought Lexus began clear coating their black a while ago. I knew they were mostly SS in the early 90's, but certainly, they've gotta be clearing everything by now.

How can you tell it's SS? I assume you'd know from the paint transfer onto the pad.

picus

IS black is definitely single stage. Not sure about other Lexus's.

cantsleepnk

I called Lexus customer service a couple of years ago when we got the car and they assured me that Lexus black is still single stage.

Guitarman

Here is the database taken at CL last year on the clearcoat issue;

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...lack+clearcoat

I would always use something like Menzerna Final Polish, or a swirl remover first. Of course they aren't going to remove every scratch, so, you have to go to a medium cut. 3M Machine Glaze (not really a glaze) or Menzerna Intensive polish are in that category. Something like Kit Scratch Out is another, and very cheap, but you WILL have to follow that (and usually with the other 2 aforementioned polishes as well) with a fine swirl remover polish, on black. On white, silver etc. you could stop with a medium cut, but on black, you will almost always have to finish with that very fine polish if you're fussy, as most of us here are.


As far as worrying about the UV in the upper layer ( .5 MIL) of clear OR single stage, well, I wouldn't even come close to worrying if you're occasionally using a medium cut or finer polish. Unless you're going to keep the car 20 years, it's not going to be an issue. Now...if you wetsand or use a rubbing compound frequently, that's another matter. The former can reduce your paint's longevity by a LOT. The latter isn't swell, but you'd have to compound quite a bit to lose sleep over it.

Gosh, I remember that thread at Autopia now, i had forgotten it. At least one person didn't agree with me, but I can tell you that I didn't make up the technical side of the UV migration to the surface of the paint, it's a fact.. Too bad those links are dead now, because professional painters far more experienced at painting than I echoed my claims, and they live it every day. I found out on a car I painted many years ago, that I wetsanded too much. It IS a matter of degree. Cheers.

cantsleepnk

Thanks for clearing that up.

picus

Good info in this thread. A customer of mine (and me by relation) learned the hard way on his red S2000. He brought it to me and it looked oxidized, which is nutty for a 3 year old car - turns out he had someone color sand it 6 months prior and the exact phenomenon Guitarman mentioned was occurring on his paint. Not knowing this I did polish it for him and it looked fine for a couple weeks, then it started to fade again. The only permanent cure was a repaint. Big time bummer for him.

cantsleepnk

That's exactly the kind of info I would never have known until I started reading the detailing forums here and on Autopia. It's better to learn from people who have done this and made mistakes than to screw up my own cars.Until I read this thread I honestly thought that SS paint would more forgiving than clearcoat to wetsand. Now I know better.

Picus are you a professional detailer?

picus

Wetsanding clear coats is mostly to blend touchups - you can't colorsand a clearcoated car. You can colorsand a single stage car, but as we've seen here you need to be incredibly careful. A paint thickness gauge is almost mandatory.

I do have a mobile detailing business that I started here in Toronto recently (we just moved here ~7 months ago) that I run in the non-winter months. In the winter I'm a lowly computer engineer. I'm one of those guys that started detailing as a hobby and it somehow became a business.

Cheers.