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2004 Cadillac CTS-V (Pic Heavy)


egott_91

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As mentioned last weekend, I was detailing a car and gave a little teaser. I was hoping to get the car finished sooner then I did, but in the end, it's finished and I'm happy with the results. Here's a rundown of my process and products used.

 

 

Car is also for sale if anyone is interested!

 

 

Adam's Products:

APC

Detail Spray

Glass Cleaner

Invisible Undercarriage Spray

SVRT

Car Shampoo

Severe Swirl and Haze

Swirl and Haze

Fine Machine

Revive

Super Sealant

Quick Sealant

Metal Polish Twins

Glass Sealant

In and Out

Clay Bar

Glaze

Americana

11X11 and 9X9 Wash Pads

3 Buckets with Grit Guards

Trim and Lug Brush

Fender and Tire Brush

Boar's Hair Wheel Brush

Large and Medium Wheel Woolies

 

Non-Adam's Products:

Dawn Soap

WD-40 and Steel Wool

Megs 105

 

Process:

 

On Saturday (Day 1) I started out with cleaning the wheels and fender wells.

 

Front wheel before:

FF312021-2041-4135-8F4E-E448B4743383-2270-00000261695D97FD.jpg

9D3A622C-A1C8-4F7C-A152-69EC4929855B-2270-0000026172AC0253.jpg

051F8DD1-DC05-438C-ACAE-F4F9221D10E4-2270-000002617B603948.jpg

 

Rear wheel before:

DD1C0AEB-4643-443B-86B9-2A7CE2165F97-2270-0000026185372905.jpg

B4AF0F68-D3BB-4030-A9DC-84381F5B4E74-2270-00000261902A8367.jpg

F417A115-323B-4649-AA0E-D82632D1E691-2270-000002619E4D26E7.jpg

 

Front wheel after wash:

345724C7-756B-42AA-AA15-8B19B9338AF4-2270-00000261AA13FF56.jpg

0F9CA799-77D9-45D2-85BD-E95F3DFDB32E-2270-00000261B98610B5.jpg

A579983C-894E-4E83-A10A-A5EA763AAE14-2270-00000261C84911C6.jpg

 

Rear wheel after wash:

616E3601-9ED1-4A00-9D7B-AF439174B569-2270-00000261D071F2FB.jpg

E457A42E-6F21-4C48-89EE-64E09ECBDD17-2270-00000261DFD425D1.jpg

8CD4E8D9-D7F4-4665-A1EE-638453B8A583-2270-00000261EA0371E0.jpg

 

After I had the car completely washed I moved it into the pole building and went to work with the clay. Car did not need clayed as bad as I thought it was going to. It pulled tons of crap off of the rear bumper, but the rest of the car was pretty good. Next, I took some steel wool (0000) grit and WD-40 to clean up the exhaust tips (sorry, no before and after pics). Once that was finished I brought the car back out and gave it another wash to remove the clay residue. In addition, I took revive to the wheels and hit them with a good coat of quick sealant.

 

Sunday (Day 2):

 

Got up in the morning and took the metal polish twins to the exhaust tips and mufflers.

 

Paint Before:

A083A561-74A4-4986-BA5D-1490A57AE366-2270-000002620E9F4CCA.jpg

2B10842A-3C64-4A34-8D13-AF19344C96F5-2270-0000026204C7D52E.jpg

6A7020CB-EAA5-4B28-B51F-2B1939C52465-2270-00000261FB76CA25.jpg

87E52B54-DB3D-4635-947F-2E3B85408D5E-2270-00000261F3B21C67.jpg

 

Next, I pulled the car inside, taped off all of the trim pieces and a test section on the hood. It took me 3 passes of severe and 3 passes of swirl and haze and 3 passes of fine machine to be satisfied with that section.

 

Before (test section):

F1F0454E-1D88-4C55-8532-5209DAC86206-943-000001190FC8F6C4.jpg

 

After Swirl and Haze:

E45F0543-0DEE-4496-A7CA-440D3395F669-943-000001191A322490.jpg

 

After Fine Machine:

C775E002-AA41-4131-B9F3-FEC82E8D4F8F-943-00000119251D98B4.jpg

 

50/50 of Test Section:

69C68B81-FFE8-4954-B2DE-90ADA502DD10-449-00000023C3E60E89.jpg

 

At this time I was thinking that this was going to be a VERY long detail. I finished the hood with that process then made a call to a friend to give me some help.

 

Monday (Day 3):

 

My friend and I decided that Adam's just wasn't cutting fast enough on the PC to get timely results, so we pulled out a heavier cutting polish. The Megs made quick work of the swirls and allowed us to cut our work load in half.

 

Here are some before and then after the 105:

 

773DCD19-37EB-4329-BD67-EF6D961B8179-943-00000118DBD88951.jpg

29C1542F-33A3-40D7-AAF8-2E01463BAD08-943-00000118E4DC3D0F.jpg

B3E3E940-4981-4405-8A46-3A9618BBE4F0-943-00000118EEF6C30D.jpg

20411F75-7E1A-4CBA-A29C-9CF5475584C0-943-00000118FA71110A.jpg

 

Tuesday (Day 4):

 

We finished up the entire polishing process, 105 followed by Fine Machine, then hit the entire car with Revive. After we removed the Revive it was time to call it a night.

 

Wednesday (Day 5):

 

This day consisted of laying down the Super Sealant and letting it cure.

 

Thursday (Day 6):

 

Started off with a wipe down to make sure all of the haze from the sealant was off and then hit the car with glaze.

EBFF5AD4-0A57-4848-A73B-8B10C7482EEB-2873-0000034B87D3E85C.jpg

 

Owner thought it was a little too hazy to be left like that. Haha. After the glaze had been removed, here came the topping on the cake.

 

4BC21E60-5FBA-4EBC-9E2B-14C7FADF92A0-2270-00000262336294EF.jpg

 

Once the Americana was removed the glass was cleaned to remove the rest of the polishing dust and then the car was finished. Here are some pictures:

 

988DE81A-55B9-4A0F-825F-CEBB58504675-2270-0000026256AC9650.jpgP1030908.jpg

P1030909.jpg

DBA8A948-7FEB-4F65-AA0D-78DBDE7E10DC-2270-000002623E332DEC.jpg

F67A53DB-7146-45B9-BAA1-589A84CC4406-2270-0000026238F5BA10.jpg

 

Reflection off the right rear quarter:

ABE1DACF-F5DC-4478-8E5F-D30115F151B9-2270-0000026251437460.jpg

 

P1030912.jpg

P1030913.jpg

 

Trunk:

P1030914.jpg

 

P1030916.jpg

Owner by the light post:

P1030924.jpg

 

P1030927.jpg

P1030932.jpg

P1030929.jpg

P1030925.jpg

P1030919.jpg

 

And of course, the famous shot:

P1030915.jpg

 

Hope you guys enjoy!:glasses:

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Very nice! The 1st gen CTS-V is very underappreciated (granted, the newer ones are amazing).

I think that one would look even better if the wheels were either shinier (chrome/polished) or darker (gunmetal or black).

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Thanks for the compliments guys.

 

BTW, car is for same if anyone is interested...

 

He said Megs... Gasp!

 

I know, I know. Severe just wasn't cutting fast enough. I love Adams, but I've found that with a PC there are limits to what the polishes can handle.

 

Oh snap. I didn't even see that.

 

You may need to consider stepping up to a Flex if you are running into trouble knocking down swirls like that with a PC.

 

The hood was done completely with Adams. It got them out, just took way longer than the 105.

 

Be assured that was the only NON-Adams product that touched the paint. Lol.

 

As for the flex, that is definitely a future investment. The PC just doesn't produce the results I want in a timely manner.

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You may need to consider stepping up to a Flex if you are running into trouble knocking down swirls like that with a PC.

 

Hmm...a Flex kit from Adam's cost about $400. You can buy five GALLONS of 105 for that price. So yeah, it's much more reasonable to buy a new polisher than to use a better cutting compound. What was he thinking! :willy:

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You used the 105 with the orange pad??

 

That would be correct.

 

This is Adam's forums though guys, so let's try to keep the 105 talk to a minimum. If you have questions, feel free to PM me.

 

I also find that the orange pad is more effective at removing defects then the green pad. Could be due to the composition of the pads.

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Hmm...a Flex kit from Adam's cost about $400. You can buy five GALLONS of 105 for that price. So yeah, it's much more reasonable to buy a new polisher than to use a better cutting compound. What was he thinking! :willy:

 

 

 

Considering that he is detailing (presumely) for money now, it would seem logical to step up to one for the sake of overall efficiency. I get what you are saying, albeit with ridiculous amounts of sarcasm, but if one if going to make money off of your detailing talents why not consider a machine that would save you time all around since turn around is usually a factor?

 

I guess I will just show myself the door.

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Randy, you are correct and I have figured that out. I need to step up to a better polisher to help with the time I need on a vehicle. The PC is a great machine for light correction and touch up correction and to learn on, but I will be getting a flex in the future.

 

This was my first "customer" as far as correction goes, and it was for my brother, so there wasn't really a need for a quick turnaround, but if I was doing it for anyone that wasn't family, I would want to have a more powerful machine to get their vehicle back to them as soon as possible.

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Considering that he is detailing (presumely) for money now, it would seem logical to step up to one for the sake of overall efficiency. I get what you are saying, albeit with ridiculous amounts of sarcasm, but if one if going to make money off of your detailing talents why not consider a machine that would save you time all around since turn around is usually a factor?

 

I guess I will just show myself the door.

 

I agree that the Flex is a great tool and definitely a good investment if you're detailing for money. I don't regret buying mine. I guess my point was that some people are quick to abandon the PC when it is a quite capable tool with the right compounds and pads. :pc:

 

(PS: Sorry if my sarcasm sounded a little harsh, but it was more just to help the point across. :cheers:)

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WOW great work on that Caddy! hope he keeps it looking that way

 

He better! He knows how to do a proper 2 bucket wash, so it should never get back to that condition. Its daily driven so it's almost a guarantee that it'll get fine swirls back in it, but nothing Fine Machine shouldn't be able to correct.

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