My new car: 2002 Cadillac DTS

[Eldorado2k]

It’s been about a month since I bought this car, it has 124,000 miles and the color of the paint is Cashmere. I’ve been taking my time detailing it piece by piece and I’m happy to say that I’ve finally got every last bit of it dialed in.
Allow me to show you what it 1st looked like, and what it looks like now.

The very 1st thing I did was an iron decon with DUB Wheel Cleaner.



Lots of bleeding.





Gave it a good wash, and a good claying with a Med. Grade Nanoskin Claymitt.



Can’t forget the gas cap.



After.



Here’s a before shot of the wheels & tires. I ended up replacing that center cap with a proper 1, and also bought 2 brand new tires for the front to match the rear.



Baked on brake dust.





Megs Wheel Brightener cleaned it right off.



Tires all clean.



Time to coat them w/TW Endura Tire Coating.



Headlights were in need of restoration.



Sanded them down w/500/800/1000/3000 grit sandpaper.



After... They’ll be protected with McKee’s Headlight Coating.




Interior. This before shot was taken by the previous owner. The 1st thing I did was throw those rubber matts in the trash. Next, that steering wheel cover needed to go...



Here’s a before shot of the matts.



After.



Here’s what that steering wheel cover was hiding. Nasty.



The whole interior looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in forever. This is what my towel looked like after just a quik wipedown of the front seats & dash w/Megs D181 Leather Cleaner.



Before.



After.



After a good 2-3 thorough cleanings... The interior is fully detailed.





My cat’s looking at me as if this post is too long, so to be continued...

[LSNAutoDetailing]

Wow! What a turnaround. Do you still have your other caddy?


Please excuse the typos. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Hammer77]

Congrats on the new ride, very sharp. Those cars just scream comfort!

[Eldorado2k]

Ok so before the next bucket wash, I decided to try the DUB Wheel Cleaner on the paint again in order to see if there was any more iron particles in the paint, and also to see if the whole color changing deal was just for looks... As we can see it didn’t change colors the 2nd time around. No gimmicks. The DUB did a thorough job the 1st time around.





Now lets have a close look at this paint... After 2 washes, 2 iron decontaminations, and an intensive claying with a med. grade claymitt, this is what it looked like.



Pretty crazy huh?



So at this point I realized the claymitt was nowhere near as effective as I thought for all the time I spent with it on the paint... I decided to use the claybar for round 2.



After 4 times thoroughly going over it with the claybar... The paint was finally decontaminated. This was among the dirtiest paint I’ve ever seen.



The hood is now fully prepped for polishing. That’s not clay marring, that’s just plain oxidation.



Here’s a look at the roof, fully decontaminated. No reflections. I couldn’t see the reflection of sun or my super bright led flashlight on any of the horizontal panels. This is as bad as paint can get!



Can it be restored? Lets try some Megs D300 w/Lake Country HDO Microfiber Cutting Pad.



Here’s a 50/50 shot after 1 round of D300, followed by 1 round of Megs M205.



I did the other half of the hood with Griots Fast Correcting Cream and a Lake Country Blue HDO Foam Cutting Pad and followed it up with M205 and once I was done it went from this...



To this!



Before.



After.



I restored the shine all around..







Including the taillights.



Detailed every last bit, including the keyholes.



I detailed underneath the door handles, all the rubber trim, inside the trunk, door jambs, I bought new license plate trims, and applied new emblems..



I also got brand new window pillars.





All done. I’m happy.



Thanks for checking it out.

[Eldorado2k]

Wow! What a turnaround. Do you still have your other caddy?


Please excuse the typos. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks! And yes, I still have the other 1. It’s embarrassingly dirty right now. I should wash it tomorrow.

Congrats on the new ride, very sharp. Those cars just scream comfort!

Thanks Hammer, and yes this car rides so smooth, especially on the freeway.
I love it.

[SWETM]

Awesome work and write up and pictures Eldorado!

And man was that paint contaminant or what! Like how you did go over it again to control the how the first decon worked. It showed you what have been solved and not. You got it look awesome inside and out!

Congrats to your new car again.

/Tony

[oneheadlite]

Wow!

Be proud man, that was a major turnaround! That’s gotta feel really good to have done. And seriously, what a difference on the before and afters!

Was the steering wheel damaged at all after cleaning up after the cover was off? My wife bought a car that had one; under the cover there was a spot worn through the leather coating (not sure if from the cover, or just that’s why it had one).

What cutting process did you use for the rest of the car? You mention D300/M205 and FCC/M205 on the hood, which did you prefer? Are you able to share your LSP?

Do you do paint thickness measurements? Just curious.

Last - good call on replacing the emblems and pillar trims - really brought the car back to looking (better than) brand new!

Again - Awesome work! Thanks for sharing!

[hoyt66]

Really enjoyed this post. Great turn around and solid work!! Bet that car drives smooth as ever too!

[Setec Astronomy]

Wow, fantastic job! Did you actually replace those B-pillar covers? Or just polished them so they looked like new? What did you finally do with the steering wheel, as oneheadlight asked? Was it damaged under there or just dirty?

[WaxMaster1]

The "CaddyMaster" strikes again! What an awesome turnaround on her. Headlight restoration impressed me the most. Did you sand by hand or use a buffer?