New to the Club and Lexus

[Stuno1]

Top work. That's a lot of swirl marks! It's true you don't know a car until you have waxed/polished etc it. You get so close during the process.

 

stu

[MrW]

Are you going to get the paint sorted, those swirls are really bad. A full correction will be pricey given the damage but with that colour it will look epic when its done. 

[DT_Racing]

I will do it myself, a full enhancement will take me 2 days from this point but when I have a weekend with good weather I'll get it done. Today was just stage one, and I'm sure she's a lot happier for it. I managed to kill off about 60% of the swirls with the one pass DA today, obviously not happy with that, just time i need to find to do it.

[gazza5]

Always sad to see a lovely car not given the treatment it is needed - but even so looks 100x better already!

[MrW]

23 minutes ago, DT_Racing said:

I will do it myself, a full enhancement will take me 2 days from this point but when I have a weekend with good weather I'll get it done. Today was just stage one, and I'm sure she's a lot happier for it. I managed to kill off about 60% of the swirls with the one pass DA today, obviously not happy with that, just time i need to find to do it.

Great stuff.

[stevet]

Good work. Black look great when its in good condition.

[GibletPH]

The before shots look pretty bad but like you say a quick hit with the DA has removed a good amount of the swirls. I used to enjoy detailing but stopped a few years back. Still have a G220 V1 which has had very little use. Having some 1 to 1 tuition on Sunday with a local pro so will be interesting to see what my black 08 ISF looks like under the lights! How did you find the paint hardness in comparison to your S3?

[DT_Racing]

Very very soft, it cut very easily in comparison. The S3 was really hard, had to work the panel hard to get some heat in it otherwise you barely touched it. The Lex will be pretty easy I think, relatively. 

The pro-tuition is great, did it a few years ago with Prestige detailing in Luton it was worth it's weight. I've probably saved myself £1k or so in detailing costs since then so well worth it. 

I find it quite therapeutic and certainly rewarding.

[GibletPH]

I got into it back in 2008 and made the mistake of buying a lot of gear including the G220, a paint thickness gauge etc and then never correcting a car fully. I used to stick to the routine of foam, wash, clay, rewash, srp by hand and then wax with routine washes once a week to keep it looking good. 

Hopefully the pro tuition will help me get back in the groove. Plan is to correct it fully and then get a proper sealant applied so it stays protected and is easier to maintain. 

What machine did you use and what pad and polish combo? 

[DT_Racing]

At the moment I'm favouring Sonus products, work very well I find. I have 3 grades of pad and use Sonus sfx-1,2 and final cut/glaze in different combos depending. I have a suite of waxes but for black I favour either my swissvax onyx or Victoria concourse. In winter I use Collinite 476s. It's mega stuff, not easy to work but lasts forever. Doesn't have to lustre or depth of he others but love the stuff. I should mention I tried the Victoria wax on this after just the 1 pass polish and it looked terrible mainly as it can only deal with a perfect paint finish. That's why the SRP worked well in this instance.

edit: I use a pretty basic DAS-6 pro Dual action polisher

[DT_Racing]

Does anyone know of Lexus have just dropped their servicing costs? I am sure last week and intermediate service was up at £365 (or something in that region) but this week the intermediate service is down at £295. Quite possible I just read it wrong previously.

Anyway I have the Lex booked in for a health check and intermediate service on the 1st March at Leicester with the 15% club discount (which is nice), also going to have the Software and Nav updated as I noticed its still on a 2010 version. Car was actually serviced on sale by Ford but I asked them not to stamp the book and reduce the price by an additional £500 to cover it and I would get it serviced by Lexus.

[GibletPH]

I'm fairly sure the intermediate has always been £295. I got a quote for a service pack from my local dealer before I bought my car. Worked out be around £500 cheaper. I need to go back and see if they will drop it by 15% if I am a paid member on here, would be amazing if they do! 

[DT_Racing]

GibletPH, the very nice lady on the phone asked if I wanted to sign up to the service plan and is sending me a quote across via mail. She did mention that it would include a 15% discount for club membership so looks like you may be able to drop it some...

For everyone's info they are also still doing the 24months for price of 12 on extended warrenty, asked for a quote for that also. If you can get a club discount on that to it would be incredible.

[Bluesman]

22 hours ago, DT_Racing said:

I did promise that a detail would be one of the first items on my to do list. You never really know a car until you've given it a proper clean up. Turns out the paint is in pretty bad fettle, not marked or damaged just neglected its been treated to an 'average joe' care car regime I suspect. There is only one area I suspect has had a patch/scratch repair and thats on the back drivers side corner, in bright light you can just see a haze under the lacquer where its been blanded in. I might have the bumper painted to get rid of this but no hurry. So the process begins... as the saying goes 'you cant conquer Rome in a day' so today was stage 1.

The paint was so dry it pained me and felt like very light sandpaper to the touch

It was going to be a long but enjoyable day

Quick pressure wash off the onto the Snowfoam, obligatory snowfoam shot...

Two bucket wash and dry, wheels treated to Pro valet Bilberry wheel cleaner

This is the paint after the wash before I started working on it, warning, explicit paint damage pics coming up, if you have a weak stomache look away now...

A not so quick Clay...damn these are big cars compared to an S3

Wash off, and out comes the DA for a once over. Medium pad, heavy cut compound just to kill off the big stuff as a temporary until I have more time.

Apply large amounts of polish full of fillers - Autoglym SRP

Top off will Collinite 476s and this is what you end up with. You just have to know which products work in which situations. If you have knackered paint a polish full of fillers will work wonders.

I will finish the detail at in the not so distant future I promise.

 

Great pictures great looking car you will have lots of fun in that especially with spring and summer just around the corner. Mike.

 

[DT_Racing]

I'd like to call on the collective knowledge or the LOC for query I have. I believe I have the HDD based NAV system and having checked this it appears to be running 2009/10 software which is of course somewhat out of date. I have her booked into Lexus for a service on the 1st March so called them to see how much it would be to update the system with the latest software and maps. I have been quoted £143.16 + VAT, does anyone know if this then allows for future free updates as per the later models in the range receive through the Lexus owners portal. I would hate to be paying out this cost year on year just for a Nav system.

Thanks

[Arqum]

Hi mate, to tell if its HDD based, you button the the far bottom left of the screen should say INFO TEL. if it does then its HDD hased. Either way only the IS MK3 has free updates not MK2 so you will have to pay each time, DVD or HDD based

[DT_Racing]

Arqum, Thanks very much this is why I love forums.

It appears I have an INFO TEL so I'm HDD based. Looks like I'm in for an update and associated cost this time then, guess I will re-evaluate the necessity year on year considering the price. Thanks again

[Arqum]

no worries mate. I am on the DVD base and i update every 2 years. But that said, i use my phone more than anything

[Cargav]

8 hours ago, Arqum said:

no worries mate. I am on the DVD base and i update every 2 years. But that said, i use my phone more than anything

I have had my car a year or so and have not had the update done yet - what kind of cost is it for the DVD based update ?

 

Cheers,

 

Gavan

[Arqum]

You are looking around the same price for the DVD update.

[stevet]

8 hours ago, Cargav said:

I have had my car a year or so and have not had the update done yet - what kind of cost is it for the DVD based update ?

 

Cheers,

 

Gavan

The DVD's can usually be found on eBay for about £60

[Toothy]

So, is there a way to get updates for the HDD version without going direct to Lexus?
I believe from some digging around these are installed from a USB memory stick?

[DT_Racing]

I read the same that the had is updated via memory stick but from what I was told by Lexus it has to be done by them, here is no way to get the file online. Maybe there are some hacked versions around but I personally couldn't risk turning my Nav into a brick. In this instance I'll take the pain...

[stevet]

I wouldn't worry too much. Certainly no new roads been built around here in the last 10 years

[Toothy]

I'd be more interested in the functionality updates and bug fixes. Although it's surprising how many junctions and roads change when you drive with maps a few years out of date.