Detailed: 2009 Cadillac CTS-V - Black Raven (Trashed)

[Marc08EX]

Wheels/Tires:
CG Citrus Wash And Gloss on wheels
Meguiar's APC on tires and wheel wells
Surf City Garage Tire Pro on tires
Swissvax Wheel brush for wheels, calipers and small crevices

Wash:
CG Citrus Wash and Gloss via Foam Gun and 2BM
Meguiar's Microfiber Wash Mitt
Meguiar's Water Magnet

Clay:
DP Clay
Meguiar's Last Touch

Paint Correction:
Meguair's G110v2 / W68DA / W67DA / 3" LC Backing Plate
Meguiar's M105
Meguiar's D300 / Meguiar's 5" Microfiber Cutting Discs
Meguiar's M205 / W8207 Pads
Pad Conditioning Brush / Air Compressor
Craftsman 500W Halogen Lights
Brinkmann Dual Xenon Lights

LSP:
Carpro Eraser
Optimum Opti-coat 2.0

Interior:
Meguiar's Quik Interior Detailer
Vacuum

The owner of this car had the recommendation of the 2013 BMW M5 I did recently (Thanks James!!!) They are buddies from the same car club. I love getting clients that are from word of mouth. It means you're doing something right.

This beautiful and powerful vehicle has low miles. Only 26k miles on the clock. However, the owner purchased the vehicle from Connecticut so you know it has gone through hell during the winter months. Salt, rock chips, debris, you name it and this has it. The owner was so sick of looking at how much swirls the paint had and wanted it perfected as much as possible. He said that he knows it might not come out 100% perfect but he wants me to do what I can. It's an honor and privilege to be able to work on his car. Thanks for the opportunity!

Upon the car's arrival, the heavy swirl marks were visible from a mile away. Not only did it have heavy swirl marks from the snow conditions of the north east but it also had buffer trails every where!!! I couldn't believe that a car this nice was left in such condition especially from the dealership. I guess the buffer trails could have come from the dealer :lol2. Anyway, I'll stop talking and show you the before condition of this car below:



The car doesn't really look that bad from a far but once you get close and in the right angle, you'll be horrified!!!



Buffer Trails:





























The front bumper was resprayed. I can't believe what I saw.... Unbelievable... Seriously, rotary buffer users are required to have a license to operate.



Interior Before:



I started by washing the wheels, tires an fender liner. I normally use my Sonax Full Effect wheel cleaner. I know it's safe but the wheels are plasti-dipped (I think) therefore I wanted to be as gentle as possible. I used CG Citrus Wash and Gloss to clean the wheels and brake calipers.





Tires being cleaned with Meguiar's APC and a generic brush:



Fender wells are cleaned with Meguiar's APC and a long handled brush:



Look at all the gunk that came out of the backside of the front fender. It hasn't even been rinsed yet.



Gas tank being cleaned as well:



Car being foamed before the 2 bucket wash:



The paint was originally beading while I did the first rinse. However, look at what happened after foaming and washing the car with CG citrus wash and gloss. The paint has no beading whatsoever and it literally looks dripping wet. LOL!!!



After, I clayed the entire vehicle. The picture below shows the clay after half the hood. It's still contaminated but it wasn't so bad...



However, things got a lot worse as I went lower into the vertical panels. This is just from the lower half of the driver side front door. This is uniform all over the car.



It's pretty safe to say that the car has a lot of bonded contaminants.

Here are the tools and products of choice for this detail. M105 isn't pictured because I brought it in in the middle of the detail.

[Marc08EX]

Onto the process pictures. I was first using D300 exclusively with the microfiber cutting discs. But it got really frustrating half way down the car because this had so much RIDS!!!! There were sections where I had to do 2-3 section passes in order to clear it up. I guess that's just the OCD in me. So at some point, I brought out my M105 and mixed it with my D300 (1 drop M105 and 2 drops of D300) while buffing. It definitely cut the paint faster but I didn't like it because it was drying up the fibers of the cutting pad a lot quicker. I ended up going back to using D300 exclusively.

Driver Side Rear Quarter Before:


Driver Side Rear Quarter 50/50:


Driver Side Rear Quarter After:


Driver Side Rear Door Before:


Driver Side Rear Door 50/50:


Driver Side Rear Door After:


Driver Side Front Door Before:


Driver Side Front Door 50/50:


Driver Side Front Door After:


Driver Side Front Door Underneath The Handle Before:


Driver Side Front Door Underneath The Handle After:


Driver Side Front Fender Before:


Driver Side Front Fender 50/50:


Driver Side Front Fender After:


Driver Side Front Fender Front Part Before:


Driver Side Front Fender Front Part After:


Trunk Before:


Trunk 50/50:


Trunk After:


Passenger Side Rear Quarter Before:


Passenger Side Rear Quarter 50/50:


Passenger Side Rear Quarter Under The Sun Before:


Passenger Side Rear Quarter Under The Sun After:


Passenger Side Rear Door Before:


Passenger Side Rear Door 50/50:


Passenger Side Rear Door After:


Passenger Side Front Door Before:


Passenger Side Front Door 50/50:


Passenger Side Front Door After:

[Marc08EX]

Passenger Side Front Fender Before:


Passenger Side Front Fender 50/50:


Passenger Side Front Fender After:


Passenger Side Front Fender Front Part Before:


Passenger Side Front Fender Front Part After:


Hood Passenger Side Before:


Hood Passenger Side 50/50:


Hood Passenger Side After:


Hood Center Before:


Hood Center 50/50:


Hood Center After:


Hood Driver Side Before:


Hood Driver Side After:


Driver Side Door Pillar Before:


Driver Side Door Pillar After:


The side skirts couldn't be forgotten of course.

Side Skirts Before:


Side Skirts During:


Side Skirts After:


Front Bumper Before: Looks like a disco in there right?!?!?!


Front Bumper After:


Taillights 50/50


What you can't see is that the D300 and microfiber cutting discs left behind some hazing in the paint. M205 with a W9207 Softbuff 2.0 Black Finishing pad took care of that and left the paint looking very glossy. I didn't take pictures after this step because the camera wasn't really picking it up.

LSP of choice:


Opti-coat 2.0 Dripping To The Applicator Pad:


Opti-coat 2.0 Being Applied To The Paint:

[Marc08EX]

Here are some after shots indoor:

[Marc08EX]

Photoshoot:

[Marc08EX]

Interior After:


Approximate time: 19-20 Hours.
Location: Phoenix, AZ

What do you guys think? Opinions, comments and criticisms are welcome!

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Incredible work Marc. Looks stunning.

I have been thinking of doing the same process to my wifes wagon just to eliminate the worry of normal everyday wear and tear even though I have so many seleants and waxes to use.

[Marc08EX]

Thank you for the compliments, Mike!!!

I also want to do it to my car but I haven't done it with the same reasons as yours. All those waxes/sealants LOL!

[TheCougarGuy]

Great recovery! Nice write-up too.

[Caleb@ImpeccableImage]

WOW! My jaw just hit the floor lol. Beautiful work man