tuscarora dave
Active member
- Aug 21, 2009
- 5,408
- 12
I had a very nice day working for this particular client. There is a story behind this Cadillac and the client (Don Jr.) told me all about it.
This car had belonged to the client's mother. Sadly she passed away a little over a month ago. The car then became Don Senior's car. Don Sr. will be 90 years old in a month and they wanted to have this car cleaned up for him so that he can take pride in his late wife's car. Don Sr. Doesn't drive much anymore but will be a passenger in the car on Sunday mornings on the way to church.
Don Sr. stayed with me most of the day while I worked on his car. He told me stories of World War 2 and his experience as a crewman on a B-17. Don Sr. was very pleased with how his wife's car turned out and I was very pleased to have his company while I worked.
The car is a 1990 Cadillac Sedan Deville that has been living unprotected under some large shady trees for more than a decade. The acidic nature of the tree dirt had killed the paint, drying out the clear and as a result the clear is all cracked up and all the cracks in the clear were filled with black dirt. The door, trunk jams and under hood areas were filled with leaves, small twigs and pine needles. All the trim pieces were packed full of black tree dirt too.
This was a basic clean up job as you can only do so much with total clear coat failure.
My process was as follows.
1. Soak the entire car with Citra-Plus all purpose Citrus de-greaser.
2. While the de-greaser did it's work, I used a tire brush and a soft bristled parts cleaning brush to clean up the tires and wire spoke hub caps. During this time as the citrus de-greaser began to dry I applied additional coats in order to keep it wet to allow sufficient dwell time.
3. Using my pressure washer I pressure washed every square inch of the car at close range to blast the now softened tree dirt out of all the cracks in the clear and out from under all of the trim pieces and door jams before doing a complete wash with a wash brush and Meg's Gold Class soap. This process took just over 3 hours.
4. Using my Makita rotary and a 3M SuperBuff 2+2 wool pad I compounded all the horizontal panels with M-105. On this color of paint with the right technique, the SuperBuff + M-105 combo finishes very nice with no visible holograms. The 3M SuperBuff 2+2 is a very dense, very fine, very flexible 8 inch double sided wool pad that finishes like no other wool pad and it sheds not at all. Well worth the $30.
5. On all the vertical panels I used my Flex 3401 with a 6 inch Lake Country Cyan Hydro-Tech pad and M-105.
6. Re wash the car to remove all the dust and compound residue.
7. The car was then treated to a heavy coat of Ultima Paint Guard Plus to ensure that the UPGP penetrated down into all the cracks in the clear to aid in future washing as the car still lives under the trees. After applying the UPGP I want back and wiped the excess off with a Poorboy's World DMT Microfiber towel.
8. The tires were treated to a generous coating of Ultima Tire and Trim Guard Plus.
The car's interior vinyl was cleaned using Poorboy's World Natural Look. The carpets and microfiber seat's fabric were cleaned using Folex. The emphasis of this job was on the exterior so I didn't go too crazy on the interior but it still turned out very nice.
Total time invested was 10 hours. Don Sr. was very happy with the car and impressed with the amount of time I took to care for his wife's car. Don Jr. threw a $60 tip on this job and scheduled his Cadillac Eldorado to be detailed.
Here are a few before pics of the condition of the car.
And here are a few pics of the finished job.
Thanks for looking, TD
This car had belonged to the client's mother. Sadly she passed away a little over a month ago. The car then became Don Senior's car. Don Sr. will be 90 years old in a month and they wanted to have this car cleaned up for him so that he can take pride in his late wife's car. Don Sr. Doesn't drive much anymore but will be a passenger in the car on Sunday mornings on the way to church.
Don Sr. stayed with me most of the day while I worked on his car. He told me stories of World War 2 and his experience as a crewman on a B-17. Don Sr. was very pleased with how his wife's car turned out and I was very pleased to have his company while I worked.
The car is a 1990 Cadillac Sedan Deville that has been living unprotected under some large shady trees for more than a decade. The acidic nature of the tree dirt had killed the paint, drying out the clear and as a result the clear is all cracked up and all the cracks in the clear were filled with black dirt. The door, trunk jams and under hood areas were filled with leaves, small twigs and pine needles. All the trim pieces were packed full of black tree dirt too.
This was a basic clean up job as you can only do so much with total clear coat failure.
My process was as follows.
1. Soak the entire car with Citra-Plus all purpose Citrus de-greaser.
2. While the de-greaser did it's work, I used a tire brush and a soft bristled parts cleaning brush to clean up the tires and wire spoke hub caps. During this time as the citrus de-greaser began to dry I applied additional coats in order to keep it wet to allow sufficient dwell time.
3. Using my pressure washer I pressure washed every square inch of the car at close range to blast the now softened tree dirt out of all the cracks in the clear and out from under all of the trim pieces and door jams before doing a complete wash with a wash brush and Meg's Gold Class soap. This process took just over 3 hours.
4. Using my Makita rotary and a 3M SuperBuff 2+2 wool pad I compounded all the horizontal panels with M-105. On this color of paint with the right technique, the SuperBuff + M-105 combo finishes very nice with no visible holograms. The 3M SuperBuff 2+2 is a very dense, very fine, very flexible 8 inch double sided wool pad that finishes like no other wool pad and it sheds not at all. Well worth the $30.
5. On all the vertical panels I used my Flex 3401 with a 6 inch Lake Country Cyan Hydro-Tech pad and M-105.
6. Re wash the car to remove all the dust and compound residue.
7. The car was then treated to a heavy coat of Ultima Paint Guard Plus to ensure that the UPGP penetrated down into all the cracks in the clear to aid in future washing as the car still lives under the trees. After applying the UPGP I want back and wiped the excess off with a Poorboy's World DMT Microfiber towel.
8. The tires were treated to a generous coating of Ultima Tire and Trim Guard Plus.
The car's interior vinyl was cleaned using Poorboy's World Natural Look. The carpets and microfiber seat's fabric were cleaned using Folex. The emphasis of this job was on the exterior so I didn't go too crazy on the interior but it still turned out very nice.
Total time invested was 10 hours. Don Sr. was very happy with the car and impressed with the amount of time I took to care for his wife's car. Don Jr. threw a $60 tip on this job and scheduled his Cadillac Eldorado to be detailed.
Here are a few before pics of the condition of the car.
And here are a few pics of the finished job.
Thanks for looking, TD
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