Easily Scratched Paint

[DataDude]

I love my ES350 but have found the Ruby Red Metallic paint is very easily scratched. The car doesn't appear to have a clear coat applied over top of the red paint. After 1 year of ownership, it has minute scratches all over it, most you cannot even feel if you run your finger over them. Under the red paint is a white base coat. The car has only been through a drive-thru car wash once, all other washes done by hand. The dealer can't explain it and the only way to remove the scratches was to have their bodyshop sand them out at a cost of $200. Has anybody else observed the same with their 350?

[SW03ES]

It has a clearcoat.

Different paint colors show marring more easily than others, the ruby red is a color that will show marring easily. The marring is caused by improper wash technique/materials. It can be corrected, and avoided in the future. For tips on how check out the detailing forum.

The dealer's wrong, the paint just needs a good two step polish. Although a good polish from a professional detaler is going to run you $150-$200 unless you want to purchase the tools and learn to do it yourself. Whatever you do, do not have the dealer do it and once you get it polished out and master better washing techniques stop letting the dealer wash it when it goes in for service.

[detaildoc]

Those fine scratches are called swirls, and they happen when people used low quality products (e.g. towels) to wash the car. STAY AWAY FROM CAR WASHES AND DON'T LET THE DEALER WASH YOUR CAR. I suggest you invest in some high quality products to do all the car washing and detailing yourself. You can get all you need from www.autopia.org. I also have an es350 that had lots of swirls inflicted by the idiots at the car wash. Now, after I detailed my car myself, it is swirl free. Check out my list of products, which I got from autopia, and consider getting some of those, you can view those at my posting http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...showtopic=41195

[SW03ES]

Even with good products you can still scratch the paint with improper technique, learning the technique and using the right products go hand in hand. Both can be done on Autopia.

[GMoney749]

I have the Ruby Red as well, but i gotta tell ya - I would've thrown a party if my old Infiniti G35 had nothing but swirls. THAT was paint prone to chipping/scratching, even after I'd had the front end repainted (and not by the dealer) TWICE. Can't quite figure it out because I own an FX35 with the same paint (obsidian black) and it is infinitely more durable than on the G.

Count your lucky stars that it just swirls and not big chips out of the front end.

And it's only been since May, but the Ruby on my wife's ES had held up remarkably well. Still sparkles like new and I haven't noticed a bit of swirl.

[tonytahoe]

We have the Ruby Red Metallic ES350 as well. I spent about 8 hours polishing and waxing it to perfection only to have it ruined by the "detailers" at the dealership. I have instructed my wife to no longer allow them to wash the car, even if it is complementary. Who knows what they use in their shop.

[SW03ES]

Do not let them wash the car, the dealers have terrible "detailers". I've seen dealers wash cars with brooms before, seriously.

Wash it yourself or pay a good detailer. Not all private detailers are good either, in fact I haven't ever had anyone wash my car that didn't mar the paint somehow. Nobody's as careful as me. Just today I had a ding taken out of the roof by PDR at a very respected local detail shop I've used many times for dings. They washed it as a complementary service...swirled the hell out of it. Professional detailers! I had to polish it when I got home.

[peterpan]

Anyone try one of these

[SW03ES]

Those are hand-rub products that will work for individual scratches, they're not designed to be used over the whole car.