2004 Cadillac CTS-V - 88K Mile Correction by Oakes

[Oakes]

Black is always the most revealing color, and its proven once again with this significantly defected Cadillac CTS-V. This 2004 model came from a performance shop local to me (2 buildings over) County Corvette, after having some work done. The goal was to get the car looking new again, refreshed, and not like it's been through 88k miles of car washes. The pictures are worth more than a thousand words in this case, so I will certainly let them do the talking!

The car as it arrived:



The wheels were by no means terrible, but certainly needed some treatment. Before:





After:

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After the full prep process, which entailed full citrus degreasing, citrus wash, clay/decontamination, rewash and alcohol wipe down, the paint was inspected. You can see for yourself what I was against:





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Being a straight non metallic black, meant anything and everything was sticking out like a sore thumb on this car. The paint also comes from the same time as the notorious rock hard paint shared on the later model C5 Corvettes, as it was taking a lot of effort to fully correct this V. Here are some 50/50 shots of the progress as well as some before/afters:




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Before/After:




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Some finished paint shots out in the sun and under the halogens:






After 2 applications of Menzerna Powerlock after Paint cleansing, here are the finished reflection photos and profile photos of the vehicle after 30 hours:

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[Oakes]

Full shots:





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Hope you enjoyed the write up, thanks for looking! Feedback always appreciated!

-Oakes

[Nick McKees37]

Excellent work! In my opinion this is the best looking CTS model, much much MUCH better looking than the current CTS-V.

Sure to be a classic in 20 years.

[Ron Atchison]

Amazing turn around.

[Capa1970]

Wow! Would you mind sharing sone of the products that you used to reach perfection???

[Marc08EX]

Excellent Work Oakes!!! The paint looks like NEW!!! The reflections are really deep and wet

[EdmundGTP]

Having done a correction and loads of finish maintenance on my own black V, I'm also curious what you used on this one.

[panthercz]

Great turnaround!

[Jons6.7]

Great work! Tell them to stop washing it with the green scrub pads from the kitchen!

[fancyfootwork]

Awesome job.. that was trashed. Never detailed a V, but Corvettes are a solid pain with that diamond hard paint.

I spy with my little eye an STI in the background.