Hi, does anyone know how I can restore shine back into this panel? It looks dull and hazy. Picture taken after car wash. I don't have any rotary tools so everything will be done by hand.

 

I'd be more concerned if it was just that panel that was poorly repainted. To have just one parts of a car start fading is not normal, especially on the sides which are not exposed to that much UV damage. Sometimes poor paintjobs where the clearcoat was not mixed and applied properly never look shiny afterwards regardless if you use the best polisher, polish, and wax afterwards. You could possibly shine it up temporarily, but it will look dull again very soon. I have seen this on several cars that I have worked on.

 

That was my concern as well but since the car was CPO half a year ago, I didn't think paint would be an issue? Not sure if Lexus CPO checks that though.

 

That looks like a painted (poorly) panel. Any other shots of it?

 

gasoline does tend to do that though, id be more careful with the gas nozzle

 

I'll take a few better shots on Sunday.

I don't think it's gasoline, since the gas tank cover is dull as well.

Thanks for all the help. After reading 97-SC300's response, I spoke with Lexus service dept and asked what was done to the exterior while the car was going through the CPO process. They told me it had "paint reconditioning" done. I asked them what that includes they said repainting of certain parts. Gotta call them on Monday to check exactly which part had been repainted and see if it includes that panel.

 

You should consider yourself lucky that they even know of any paintwork on the car. Lots of times a car's title and carfax will be perfect and never reveal any paintwork outside of a reported accident. If the repaint was done by a skilled shop and color matched perfectly, you'd never know anything about it as it wouldn't raise concerns on its own. If there are any detailers in your area with a paint thickness gauge, it's a very good tool to test which parts of a car may have been painted as the readings will differ alot from the non-painted parts.

Sometimes, you look over a car quickly, and there are no obvious signs of a repaint (no obvious overspray, no obvious mismatch in color, etc.), but once you clean the car, and really start looking for it, especially under different lighting, you can quickly see which panels were painted as most of the time it will have stuff like inconsistent orange peel from the rest of the car, light sanding marks left behind if it was wetsanded and buffed afterwards (I have seen $100k+ cars consistently with FACTORY sanding marks and holograms), things like pigtails if it was DA sanded and not finished down properly, fisheyes, etc.

A CPO car should not look like that, I would definitely ask them to redo the work.

 

Thanks for the info. Yeah absolutely, if they did do it, I'm going to ask them to redo the work. I'll keep this post updated as I find out more. I guess I made the mistake of trusting dealer CPO.

 

Took some new pictures. You guys were right, definitely repainted and a horrible job too. Even the bondo marks are visible, the outer tail lights were poorly installed as well.







My concern now is what if the dealer I got it from (Lexus of Serramonte) denies it or blames me for making the repair on it. There's no way I can proof this was done by the previous owner or this was their mistake in the CPO process.

 

yeah honestly man that looks like a bad repaint job. the last car I had I got in a fender bender. took it to this shop where ive never gotten work done before and the one panel came out just like that. you have to take it to a professional to have that fixed. it looks like it needs to be wet sanded better then maybe cleared again.

 

You need a wetsand

 

Going off of the pics you took, you can clearly see the sanding marks in picture one. From the looks of it, the rear door may have been repainted also, you can see how shiny the door handle is compared to the rest of the door. At the very least, that rear door was blended with the same crappy clear that they used to paint the quarter panel.

Honestly, that's an awful job, one of the worst I've seen so far. Definitely bring it to their attention, don't bother trying to "detail it" as you may cause more damage wetsanding it or compounding what looks like a very thin layer of clear. Good luck.

 

Went to the dealership today and spoke with the GM Steve and Keith, they denied any wrong doing even though it was their responsibility to check for things like this before taking in a car and insists there's no problem. The managers tried to play good cop/bad cop and offered me a "courtesy price" of $250 to fix the panel (a whopping $100 off $350 original price they quoted me). I declined and asked if they would repair the whole thing. After some more waiting around, they came back and offered to fix the panel for free.

While speaking with the assistant service manager, even he said "Yeah it looks like ****"

I then brought it to an independent shop (515 auto body) to get the body assessed and was told that panel was bondo-ed and it would cost $1000-$2000 to repair nicely (depending on how much i want the paint to blend in).

I'll probably bring it in and have them repair it for free and see how that turns out.

 

I went through the same thing on a CPO, Santa Monica Lexus. I wont go back or recommend them.
They took it back to repair and had it for around three weeks and ended not doing a thing. Maybe a little polish. Even though they gave me a rental for the time they had it, I wish they just repainted it correctly. I end up having it repainted myself at a independent and they found out there was a lot of other bad repairs as if it was in a bad accident (sandwich type). I'm still pissed after over a year just thinking about it.

 

To save yourself some money, I would just wetsand it out first with 1500 to try and smooth out the bondo marks in the clear coat. If they are actually under the clear, it will need to be repainted. I would try this first, before I spent any money at the dealership. Its isn't going to hurt it, if done correctly. If Lexus was indeed supposed to look at the car first, being preowned certified, then they missed it and should fix it for free.

My Dad actually bought a new Mazda truck, and it was found to have been wrecked from the manufacture tot he dealer. The dealer knew nothing about it, until I found it one day looking at the overspray in the engine compartment. Needless to say, my Dad traded the truck back in and got something else. I was going to tell you if you feel any rough edges along the door frame when the gas door or rear door is opened, usually overspray..