JerryRig

So I've found a great deal on an '06 IS 350 which may replace the CTS-V as my daily commuter car. My ideal configuration would probably be Sport (maybe Lux) with Nav + ML on a SGM with black interior... however, the car I'm looking at is a Lux + Pioneer Nav in Obsidian with the Cashmere interior.

I've spent countless hours on here searching topics up/down, but it's always nice to get opinions straight from the source...

• Is Obsidian any easier/harder to work with on the IS over other cars? IE: curves in bodywork, paint and clearcoat thickness, orangepeel (if any), dust/fallout? My last two vehicles were black and the Porter-Cable is conveniently hung in the garage, ready for work... I'm just wondering if the Lexus paint is any better than the previous cars I've worked on (Caddy and Jeep)
  
  
• How does the Cashmere interior look in person? The pictures I've seen look normal, but I stopped by a Lexus dealer yesterday and saw a new '07 Obsidian/Cashmere IS 250 on the lot. To my surprise, the interior had a distinct yellowish tinge to it. It could be due to differences in dyes used through production, or possibly because the car is so new, that the Cashmere color will begin to dull down as it ages. At any rate, do '06 models have a yellowish look to the Cashmere color?
  
  
• From what I've read, the front coil springs are the only difference between the Sport package and Premium/Lux. These springs are a bit stiffer and give the car a 1/2" lower stance. Are the shocks different also? I'd likely want to buy someone's Sport springs/shocks for this car or just get the Eibach Pro-Kit springs. Maybe by then someone will have bigger sway bars available for us also.
  
  
• Is anyone using the VAIS SLS now? I desperately want Sirius, and I'd hope all their little issues have been worked out by now. I realize Sewell offers a kit (probably from the ES), but I think it only displays 10 characters of text to the VAIS' 16 characters.
  
  
• Power gains are probably hard to come by with this car, but I've seen some pick up as much as 16-20 HP from a full cat-back and intake pipe. I suppose these are the two best power mods available for the car right now?
  
  
• Oh, and the VDIM-defeat-pedal-dance can eat a @#$%, especially in a car that doesn't have a true LSD. I will try to produce a couple of the VDIM-defeat modules from the guy who posted his schematic on the board and his website earlier.

Thanks for your help, it's nice to see such an open community built here for the 2nd-gen IS owners.

IS_Mine

This may not help you anyway..

But the majority of all the Lexus IS from what we have seen reguardless of the color have signs of orange peel. Its not as bad as a GM product but it is still there. I have TP and the only time I can really notice it is when I have the car SUPER clean.

There is a VSC off traction module you can buy from Lexus for like $1400. You can not turn off VDIM that part of the car is always on. I believe people do the pedal dance in the 06 models to turn of VSC or.. traction control. Good luck on making that module! I'm sure quite a few members would be interested.

JamRWS6

Honestly....saying a GM product has worse orange peel is ridiculous. I've seen Porsches and 100K Benzes with more orange peel than Chevy trucks.

If your car has orange peel have it color sanded if it bothers you. Our GS and IS are pretty good as far as orange peel but it is there.

The only way to eliminate orange peel from a panel painted on a machine assembly line is to sand it and polish it by hand. Sometimes you get lucky in these cases and don't have much orange peel...and sometimes you get stuck with a lot of it.

Paint durability wise.....plan on getting a clear bra if you don't want the front of your car looking like it has been sandblasted. All of the newer paints are now a water base and not nearly as durable as a laquer based paint.

IS_Mine

Why would it be more ridiculous? I'm basing this off what I have seen.

Out of all the cars that were in my friend's drive way at any given time GM had the worst orange peel out of the following manufacturers.

Toyota, Honda, Subaru, Dodge, and Ford. (Yeah we all drive something different. LOL)

What the GM products were was a 2003 Cavalier, and 2002 Camaro SS, also a BRAND new Colorado Z71. Its orange peel was much worse than the above vehicles. = /

I park next to a Caddy STS which is a pearl white and its orange peel is clear in the reflection it gives. = / So perhaps I should have been MORE direct.. With what I have seen GM seems to have the worst.

IS_Mine

And BTW I am in no way picking on GM products .. their paint jobs IMO just seem to be the worst. I take it since the poster had WS6 in his name maybe me bringin up GM hit a nerve. :P

bygtimaish

The Obsidian IMO is the sexiest color that the IS comes it. It defines the lines and the curves so well, and is very classy. But, its also def the hardest to keep clean. From my expierence, no matter how well you take care of your car, you will always see swirl marks and scratches all over the car with Obsidian.

It will be difficult to get 20 horsepower from just intake/exhaust, but there are people on here who claim to have done so. You can always just go all the way and supercharge it...

The Trac control switch allows you more room to screw around in the 07 models, so maybe you should consider an 07 instead of 06. This way you might not have to deal with first year kinks like sweaking.

I dont know about cashmere because i have black on black, but i know that it looks pretty classy, especially on SGM.

JerryRig

The orange-peel with GM issue is hit-and-miss with some models. Cars like my '99 TransAm Firehawk had almost no orangepeel, but only because it was painted in Navy Blue Metallic. The 'base' non-metallic paints had a horrible issue with orangepeel--black and red notably. This carried over to the C5, which also exhibited a lot of orangepeel. I have a fair amount in my CTS-V, but that doesn't bother me as much as the softer clearcoat and paint found in newer cars. Swirls and scratches drive me nuts!


Thanks for the info... I don't plan to mod this car up much, but it could use a few improvements. Compared to other cars, the CTS-V is a bit more fun when you really start to dump money into it.

golfproatl

I have an Obsidian and I can assure you that I do not have swirl marks and scratches all over my car. When the light hits it just right you might find a couple very faint marks at best. You do have to be careful when washing and drying but it is not real hard. As far as oragne peel goes, I have none except the clear bra.

JamRWS6

Honestly I don't find a comparison between a 12K dollar Cavalier and a 50K dollar Lexus acurate. Those cars are cheap for a reason. GM makes 50K dollar vehicles that I have seen that are comparable to the 3 Lexus vehicles we own.


You didn't strike a nerve....other than I don't like biased/ incorrect information. I have a 2002 WS6...yes. We also have 3 Lexus vehicles...(RX350, IS350, GS350)...factory paint wise the paint job on the Lexus vehicles is no better IMO than the factory job on the WS6. We've owned a lot of other GM vehicles and I haven't seen any excessive orange peel problem.

The worst orange peel I've ever seen has been on a particular Dodge and Ford pickup. Absolutely horrible.

You also have to understand the painting process......more curvacious pieces are MUCH more likely to have orange peel due to the nature of how the paint is shot on the panel.

I'm happy with our Lexus vehicles but they are just well built Toyotas...I don't carry any illusions of grandeur because they have a big L on the back of them. They're nice cars.

OC 335d

I can't answer most of the questions but the Cashmere interior is very nice. I too thought it was too yellow when I first saw it must've been the lighting. The color looks much more lighter now and the car still only has under 3000 miles. It does not seem yellow to me and it would really bother me if it did as I prefer Black interiors.

Few areas of concern if you haven't realized them already:
1. Not that much rear legroom/headroom (probably realized arleady)
2. Trunk isn't that large and the backseats don't fold down.

Other than that, a very nice car.

IS_Mine

Whoa whoa whoa. LOL I don't carry an illusions of grandeur about my Lexus either there pal. If you don't like my opinion then, well you don't like it. I will still stand by what I said GM products whether a 10k Cavalier or 70k STS-V have more orange peel than any other painted car out there. And remember you voiced your opinion up there too.

Like I said I park next to easily a 60k STS everyday at WORK and his paint is far worse. I understand the painting process -- and if thats the case why do C6 Vettes have the least amount of orange peel than any other GM product?; aren't they pretty curvy unless they are painted by hand? One by one? And if price was the case why is a 23k Civic's orange peel less than an almost 40k Z71 Silverado ( I said Colorado earlier but had the models wrong.) with metallic paint? I have surveyed far more than just the above cars; and why would price have anything to do with it? All metallic paints are somewhat expensive right? Come on -- don't think I'm some sort of Toyota Fan Girl because I'm not. I'm basing my information on what I have seen, and you are basing yours off what you have seen.

And now since this thread has gone totally off topic if JamRWS6 has any more issues with my opinion about GM paint he should bring them to PMs so the OP can actually get posts in relation to his questions. My apologies!

kilo6_one

iTrader: (2)

Nice CTS-v......... you trading it? hope not.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

all production cars that dont wetsand during the painting process will have some orange peel, some colors may make it less noticable than others. LS460 almost has none because it uses wet sanding, paint is extremely smooth

the the sport package all corners are lowered a little under .5" From other IS I see around I can tell who has sport package and who doesnt. I dont think different shocks are used over non sport, I dont think the spring rates are different either so they wouldnt really need to use stronger shocks

IS doesnt have a cat back system, the flanges are positioned after the resonator, there are none after the cat. To get those large gains they require cutting and welding in the exhaust system, its not bolt on. The only bolt ons available will be resonator back and they give about 6-7 whp

if you can get an 07 they have a VDIM kill switch, the 06 wont have it

Julez

The black for 06 is called Black Onyx Pearl, Obsidian is 07
Cashemere is wierd for the IS because there is still a lot of black like the dash. I have a cashmere GS which also is pretty yellowish, but if you put at least 50% tint or lower it will lose that yellow look from the outside.

JerryRig

So does the '06 Black Onyx Pearl actually have a pearl topcoat or is it still a straigh black finish?

And for clarification... VSC = stability control and VDIM = traction control? VDIM is defeated in '06 with the pedal dance, or switched off in '07s. Any other secrets to disabling the nannies, such as pulling a fuse or removing TPS?