Paint Care and Window Seals

[Babyruthless]

Hey there. I was just washing my LX and realized I have a few small little chips on my hood. They aren’t terrible but I definitely don’t want them to get any worse. Should I just be diligent about hitting these areas with wax or something different?
Also my window seals are looking a little discolored. Any idea what I can put on these to keep them as fresh as possible?

 

[MongooseGA]

The chips can be touched up. Lexus will sell you a touch up pen or you can take your color code to a number of sites online to get a match.

The trim can be sanded down and painted with trim paint or replaced. I did the former a few years ago, they wouldn't hurt to have a freshening now.

 

[Babyruthless]

Thank you. Sand down the window trim? It seems very rubbery. Was thinking there was some forever chemical I could put into protect it.

 

[MongooseGA]

Thank you. Sand down the window trim? It seems very rubbery. Was thinking there was some forever chemical I could put into protect it.

I used a stainless steel wool to just flatten high spots, then masked and used a rubberized trim paint. I have some pictures of the before and after in my build thread a few years back.

It's not a particularly porous rubber so I wouldn't expect dressings to stick on very long.

 

[baltistyle]

Thank you. Sand down the window trim? It seems very rubbery. Was thinking there was some forever chemical I could put into protect it.

Just clean it as well as you can with whatever degreaser you have and if you’re not happy with the result buy the four window trim pieces for about 100 bucks. The doors are fast and easy to replace, but the rear window trims require a lot of effort.

 

[kevgentile]

Treat the chips before touching them up. The rust will poke thru in no time at all.
Naval jelly works well, and I'd follow that up with some 3M single step primer then touch up.

 

[dubdub20003]

However if you do decide to do rear as well, also replace the plastic on forward edge of rear window which often cracks, and new window seals, so you never have to open that all up again!