Pictures: 1958 Cadillac Extreme Makeover- Original Single Stage Paint!

Pictures: 1958 Cadillac Extreme Makeover- Original Single Stage Paint!


I want to re-thank everyone who has expressed an interest in working on my car and especially all the guys (and Beth) who helped with this makeover.

Like I said earlier, I had over 200+ photos to choose from to show what an amazing transformation this car had. The paint will never be perfect again, but it is absolutely a head-turner at this point.

I’ll do my best to show the documentation from start to finish and reveal the transformation.

Here we are with the original condition of the vehicle as it had been for 20+ years sitting in a storage shed. This is the day we opened the door to reveal this beast.

http://i.imgur.com/7LdsKdm.jpg


As you can see from the following photos, she was pink, but covered in a ton of dust, and her paint was very dry. So dry that it had cracks in some areas. I had my doubts about whether this was even remotely salvageable.

http://i.imgur.com/pjdtYZ5.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/T0MxeLX.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/dM1YUy6.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ItfSAVe.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/uNvODbB.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/7XVTogA.jpg



The paint was also very thin in several places such that the bare metal was beginning to show through.

http://i.imgur.com/R5c8ih9.jpg

The chrome bumpers weren’t in much better shape too. They had some pitting, early stages of rust, oxidation, etc. The wheels weren’t much to look at either.

http://i.imgur.com/F46EEHi.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/VaKIODz.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/SQpF0jL.jpg



The white top of the car was in some of the best shape, but as you can hopefully see in this picture, it still left a lot to be desired.

http://i.imgur.com/twCoSa9.jpg


So, the day arrives and it is time to take the car to Clarity Auto Detailing in Houston who graciously agreed to host this event. Curtis and Beth at Clarity are great folks and have a wonderful facility.

Before taking it in, I decided to get a few more of those “money shots” of just how bad/oxidized/dirty/etc this was. My pictures did not disappoint.

http://i.imgur.com/qhAtFa2.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/UU2cBH8.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/XgPLLtg.jpg


As you can see, there is no reflection this paint right now.

http://i.imgur.com/TaGWoXQ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/fXN8s6M.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/OVsDh0k.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/GazlT7v.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ACkJ8ot.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/AzcOMbP.jpg


Here’s some more of the condition of the bumpers:

http://i.imgur.com/X6u7pLH.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/284zxZf.jpg


I arrived at Clarity and am happy to report this monster did actually fit into their white detail room. This room brought out every imperfection you could imagine, and it did not take much imagination to see all the flaws.

http://i.imgur.com/h8AeVgo.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/j3GamPl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/7sdIOn1.jpg


Here’s an unfortunately blurry shot of Curtis beginning the waterless wash on the top of the car as a test spot to see how it clean up. Surprisingly, it cleaned up nice from the start. Beth was documenting everything as well and the amount of dirt removed was pretty great.

http://i.imgur.com/PB0l12H.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/sv4LQC6.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/CYZQzCH.jpg

OK, so the time came to begin the rub down process with the Meguiars 7 show car glaze. Of course, here is the obligatory product photo (on a towel for all you purists out there).

http://i.imgur.com/Har73N5.jpg


Right after the first coat went on, a fellow AG member Harris showed up to help with the task of rubbing on a THICK coat of the #7.

http://i.imgur.com/SEl1iAG.jpg


You can see it here hazing up a bit and soaking in the good stuff it so desperately needed. Not having done this before, I was amazed at how fast it improved the look and feel of the paint. This old/dry paint absolutely drank this stuff up.

http://i.imgur.com/LAyKNgc.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/jSDK0TV.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ie5M7RD.jpg

Since this was Friday afternoon and we needed to let that soak in all night, Harris and I decided to try and have some fun with the 8 miles of chrome the car has on it. With a little bit of rubbing on some compound on the bumpers, they shined up nicely.

Before:
http://i.imgur.com/IYze8gN.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/raXgWhY.jpg


After:
http://i.imgur.com/dDvTW3l.jpg


Saturday morning arrived and these 5 brave souls (Harris, Vargas, AJ, Christian, and Brian) in addition to Curtis and Beth who worked in/out since they actually had other work to attend to outside this room got ready to get to work with the elbow grease.

However, they first had to admire the size of the beast they were about to get to work on.

http://i.imgur.com/KLI7Bg5.jpg

With even just one application/removal of #7, you could absolutely see the since coming back into this paint.

http://i.imgur.com/uvYkbFu.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/RBUAyGH.jpg


You could even start to see a reflection coming back into the picture here.

http://i.imgur.com/pbitIbH.jpg


Again, while waiting to let the #7 soak in some more, the team decided to hit the wheels with some 0000 steel wool and some of the compound to try and polish them up. They turned out great and shined right up. Here’s some before/after:

http://i.imgur.com/KtCA12o.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/mIIbGFg.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/9FaisBZ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/LxlEivW.jpg

:xyxthumbs:

Continuation:

So, break time was over, and it was back to rubbing on/off more #7:

http://i.imgur.com/kLDDYNu.jpg


At this point, the paint was really starting to pop. You could begin to see reflections of the junk in the room off the paint at this point.

http://i.imgur.com/WGuSV68.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/hYw7bk4.jpg


So, the age old question came up of whether to Machine polish or not came up. Vargas was the fist to step up to the task and grabbed some of the Pinnacle Finishing Polish to try out.

http://i.imgur.com/2S2TjOB.jpg


After properly priming the pad (or whatever that was called), we tried a test spot on the hood. Of course, it was not without a little bit of ribbing from me and everyone else about how Vargas was getting ready to mess it up.

http://i.imgur.com/tMRRLvZ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/rhRQjW6.jpg


None of us thought the machine polisher did any better on the paint than hand-rubbing, so Harris was brave enough to step up to the plate with a different DA polisher to see if the brand of the polisher made any difference. Again, with some more ribbing about he would be the second person to “mess it up” he stepped up to the plate to give it a shot in a different test spot.

http://i.imgur.com/8Q7D9zi.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/TxLgAxd.jpg



At that point, we all unanimously agreed that our hand rubbing seemed to bring out a deeper and more vibrant color than the machine polishing. So, it was time to rub on some more #7 and buff out by hand. However, Curtis at Clarity had this amazing little compressed air-powered micro-polisher (I’m sure there is some brand specific name that I am missing), but this little thing was awesome.

We hooked it up to the air hose and went to town on all of the little strips of metal/chrome all over the car for a great polish. Here’s AJ hooking it up to the air hose and getting started:

http://i.imgur.com/knDvnBQ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/zm7PW2A.jpg


Our 16-year-old phenom Christian was next up on it:

http://i.imgur.com/yySmC9n.jpg


Brian couldn’t resist either, so he took to polishing out some of the metal on the fins:

http://i.imgur.com/eeseC3P.jpg

While not pictured, I got in on the action with the little polisher and hit some of the trim in the front. The right side was done, and the left was not. I think you can really see the difference this little thing did.

http://i.imgur.com/YS328ji.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ZnEk529.jpg


The tires were new whitewalls from Diamondback tires (I’m a big fan) and we had to remove the protective blue coating on them and get them all cleaned up and shiny too.

http://i.imgur.com/j1DlvEm.jpg


The before/after of the wheels is as amazing of a transformation as the paint too:

Before:
http://i.imgur.com/VaKIODz.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/SQpF0jL.jpg


After:
http://i.imgur.com/r9Qy4F4.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/jCokahB.jpg


We were finally nearing the end, and after 5-6 applications of the #7, it was time to apply some of the Souveran wax.

Another few gratuitous product shots here:

http://i.imgur.com/cfa155Z.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/oDdnEMk.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ZAbk4al.jpg


Again, I’m not a pro, enthusiast, etc. I am a novice, but can say this stuff rocks. It was the finishing touch that this car needed.

I love these photos. I rotated the second one upside down to show the success shot of reflection in the paint that was so good, you could see teeth at this point.

I think we were all super happy to really be seeing the finishing results of nearly a whole day of work.

http://i.imgur.com/BZpd1OG.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/k1GqfqD.jpg


It was finally time to remove the final coat of Souveran. We broke out the very nice Gold Plus Jr. Microfiber Towels and Microfiber Gloves for the final removal.

http://i.imgur.com/k5m3KhO.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/buWJx1L.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/7VJ83sg.jpg


And just to prove I was actually there and worked and didn’t just take pictures, I had Vargas snap a few shots of me taking off the final coat of wax.

http://i.imgur.com/ZWHMSiH.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/90v1Eea.jpg


I don’t need to say much more (I’ve said enough), but the final photos will do all the talking.

What a transformation!

http://i.imgur.com/KQPVCwP.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/EdrnieI.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/3ZVHc2Q.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ZDI0PwB.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/9f18olo.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/TiVN98Q.jpg



Here’s a big group photo of everyone involved in the extreme makeover.

http://i.imgur.com/q2nALR7.jpg


Lastly, I need to give a big shout out to Mike for helping put this all together and assembling such a great group of guys to help out with this project.

As he said, there is now one less classic car in the world that needs its paint restored.


:dblthumb2:

A big WOW. You guys did a fantastic job. That was just an incredible transformation. The paint looks new again. What a great opportunity to make a difference in a classic car. I envy you all. Thanks for sharing.:dblthumb2:

Chip, like i said in the email, thank you for including me in the project. This might be a once in a lifetime experience. You also took care of all the food and drinks and that is much appreciated.

I also want to thank Curtis and Beth from Clarity. Their shop was awesome and it was very generous for them to let us work in their air conditioned shop, which is much appreciated even ay this time of year in Houston.

It was also nice working with everyone and putting some faces to forum names. Vargas, Harris and AJ were happy to answer my questions. They have a lot of information and were willing to share.


Just a slight edit to the above, Brian is the 16 year old phenom and I was the one polishing out this fins. That Rupes TA50 was a very sweet tool.

Chip thank you again for contacting Mike and getting this project put together.

Curtis and Beth at Clarity thank you as well for welcoming use to your facility, we were all in awe over the setup you guys have.

I had a great time working on this Cadi. We had a good group of guys working together bringing this paint back to life.

As you can see in the pictures the transformation was unbelievable. Pictures do not do this justice.

If any of you ever need some help give me a shout. I'll glady help you out in anyway i can.

What a grand transformation...to such a Grand Ol' Lady:
She does look "Pretty In Pink" :props:


Bob

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FUNX650

What a grand transformation...to such a Grand Ol' Lady:
She does look "Pretty In Pink" :props:


Bob

---

:iagree:

Absolutely Bob!

What a privilege to have the opportunity to preserve the paint on an original classic Caddy. I would've loved to had been a part of this & being there to see the transformation with every wipe in person.

Clarity Auto Detailing - awesome generosity for hosting the team for this project! Bravo! :dblthumb2:

Super work team, bet you all had a great time & I must say - a very rewarding way to spend your Saturday. Definitely one to lock in the memory, not alot of people will ever have the chance to do this kind of work. Well done guys - you done us all proud! :props:

Enjoyable story - Thank you chipintexas for bring this to Autogeek Online!

Aaryn NZ. :dblthumb2:

I had a lot of fun working with you guys on this beautiful classic. It's nice hanging out with people who all share the same passion. Hope you're enjoying the new look, Chip!

WOW!

Great story, documentation, pictures and WORK!

Bill

You guys did an amazing work, it's always good to see joined efforts towards a single result,

A pleasure to watch. Thanks for sharing,

Kind Regards.