Sinster

Got my mercury metallic GS3 a few days ago. When I took delivery of the car, it was washed and cleaned, but the paint was a bit rough (felt like overspray). Anyway I thought no big deal since I was gonna detail it once I get a home. So over the weekend, I spent a good 4 hours washing, claying, polishing, and topping with a couple layers of wax (by the way the P21S carnuba wax is an amazing topper!). After I was done with it, the car was absolutely sparkling (and smooooth to the touch!).

Anyway, as I'm polishing and waxing, I come to realize that the paint finish on this car has a very "orange peel" like effect. Much more so than the '00 Mercedes E class that I traded to get the GS (BTW, I also detailed the E-class much the same way after I brought that car home). This is my first Lexus and I never really paid attention to this before - is this common on the Lexus finish?

Sinster

Rockville

You seem to know a lot about detailing your cars so I think that's to be admired. Orange peel is a paint condition that happens when the distance from the paint nozzle is far enough that the paint dries prematurely when spraying it on. If you have orange peel then there is a serious problem. Since the Mercury Metallic has a clear coat on top then the chance of orange peel is almost nil. Now if you are talking about Black and the finish has a wavering effect instead of a mirror image that is normal. The paint should not feel rough to the touch in any case. Where on the car did you feel the "overspray"? Clay would be the right approach to negate overspray. My only concern is that you should not have overspray to deal with on a new car. Please tell us more...

osx-addict

Hmm.. My GS came out of the lot with a smooth finish on it.. No orange peel effect..

Sinster

Rockville,

I drove my car straight from the dealer to Aeroshield in El Monte California to get a clear bra installed right away. Prior to the installation, Aeroshield also noticed the rough feel of the paint and after careful examination, neither one of us could determine exactly why the paint felt rough to the touch. Aeroshield clayed the front end and got the finish buttery smooth prior to installation of the clear bra.

The roughness I felt was mainly on the hood, roof, and trunk (basically the tops of the car).

So you are right, it isn't overspray but I (and Aeroshield) have no idea what caused the finish to be so rough (though it was fairly glossy). My guess is that it had something to do with the car sitting in the Long Beach harbor for a month or so prior to delivery to the dealer (but even if this is the case, shouldn't the car have been wrapped)?

After the detailing, I can totally see the "orange peel" effect from the reflections (especially looking at the side panels in a 3/4 angle view). I expected the finish to be close to mirror-like but it's just not so. I'll take pictures of it tonight to show what I'm seeing. But from what your explanation, it sounds like I have a bad paint job?!

Sinster

Rockville

Another possibility is that the Mylar plastic that they put on the horizontal surfaces left some glue residue. The fix for that is to take a heat gun and it will smooth out and disappear. This may be what you are seeing and it can look like the paint needs buffing and feel rough but is not serious. Take it back to the dealership and tell them your concerns. Talk to the detailer if possible. Are there any surfaces left that are rough?

b1gredek

it could have been the rail dust, on the orange peel subject, it could be normal, if you look at the bmw's closely, they have orange peel off the lot also...... think it all depends on the color of your car if you can notice it or not,

Sinster

Premier Mobile - what you guys did with that Murcielago is amazing. Thanks so much for your explanation. I will totally look into wet-sanding my car. I guess this involves some kind of sanding eh?

Sinster

LB Lex

If you're still a novice at wetsanding, don't even think about doing it to your new Lex. You will probably end up ruining the paint unless you have experience doing it. Take it back to your dealer and tell them the paint is defective (excessive orange-peel and roughness). You paid a lot of money for your car so you should get a good paint finish. It's unacceptable to get a crappy finish that is on par with economy cars. They should pay for a professional detailer to wetsand and polish it for you. This way, if they mess up, they pay to fix it.

Sinster

Thanks for the heads-up. I certainly wouldn't try wet sanding this baby myself. The surface of my car is not rough anymore (not since I clayed, polished and waxed it). I didn't tell the dealer about the roughness as I wanted to detail it myself anyway. But I may go back to talk to them about what I feel is excess orange peel on some parts of the car.

Sinster

nthach

yea, i did some colorsanding+buffing in my paint class yesterday, and let me tell you this - it takes a LOT of finesse and time to colorsand by hand, and you have to VERY careful not to bear down on a buffer, otherwise you'll burn through the paint in seconds.

700t

I personally work in the Lexus paint shop at TMMC and the paint smoothness and gloss is phenominal on the RX330. Every square inch is inspected for defects and appearance and if something went wrong while the car is painted and it is OPX (orange peel) and this rarely ever happens the whole car is sanded and repainted before going on to assembly. Also the horizontal panels are the smoother than the vertical panels which is the reverse on your car. I can't see the Lexus paint shop in Japan shipping a car with orange peel appearance.
Did your dealer offer you a paint protection package where they may have sprayed some kind of clearcoat on your car?

adale

My mother-in-laws LS430 had the same OPX issues. The local Lexus dealer said it was normal. My '03 GS300 is black and under bright lights you can see the OPX on it too. I clayed, polished, and waxed both of them over a couple of weekends and took care of the issue. It is amazing how much OPX is normal today. I have a friend who runs a higher end body shop and he told me it was because the robots that paint todays cars, such as Toyota, Lexus, Nissan, etc, most Japan models have this OPX because of the rate they paint the cars. ie.. very quickly. Most consumers don't see it / don't care and let somebody else wax their cars. He told me his shop does a very brisk business in the claying/polishing area. I will also echo the color sanding issues is for the experienced as you can burn through the paint/clearcoat in nothing flat. I had to colorsand my '00 GS after a slight sideswipe and talk about being scared!!!!

my06GS300

Well, I am just amazed guys that you are taking care yourself of the “orange peal” problem. Orange peal is a paint defect and all the polishing should be done by the dealer or the factory. A 50k car should be free of this. Especially Lexus.

SGT

I've always wondered about the orange peel effect on my paint as well. I don't have too much of it, but it's there and visible under sunlight from certain angles. Anyone else experiencing this?

lexuslover

the new Audi i just got has terrible orange peel. instead of talking to the dealer (who probably knows just about as much as i do), i went straight to my detailing pro and asked him if he thought it was "acceptable" or normal. the answer is that many many car makes come with some level of orange peel these days b/c of the type of paint used and the process in which they are applied. it is extremely noticeable on some colors. my car is called Brilliant Black which is non-metallic black. the orange peel on it is disgusting for a 40k car. i don't recall my lexuses ever looking that bad, but the last few lexuses i've had are light colors. but i have looked at both the GS and RX and there is certainly a little bit of orange peel, but the light metallic color hides it well.

anyway, i posted the same question on an audi forum and most thought it was maybe a little worse than average, but fixable after a few waxes. i haven't had it detailed yet, but i am hoping for some stellar results after its first real detail. i wouldn't necessarily leave this to the hands of the dealer either. sure they have to take responsibility if it goes wrong, but at the same time i don't want sanding done improperly by some minimum wage car wash guys to begin with...

but yes, to eradicate it completely takes wetsanding and claying apparently. i don't know if i'll go that far since mine is a 2 year lease, but i do want to get it a little better than what it "came with". BTW, the dealer did "detail" it upon delivery. i could tell it had a fresh coat of hand wax, but that was it. maybe that actually made it worse? (p.s. the car i bought i had seen twice over the course of 1 month, baking in the hot sun each day - it certainly was no Longo Lexus or Glendale Lexus!!)

here are some photos - you can see up close at the right angle how bad the OPX is. the straight lines in my concrete are totally jagged in the reflection. the good news is that "Normal", non-knowing people just see a nice black car. but to me, it's hard to miss (i mean what fun is having a black car if it can't get that beautiful mirror image)