Need help on products to use on a 2008 Cadillac CTS (Black)

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Danster

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Hi Everyone,

Hopefully you guys can give me your opinions/suggestions on what to use for correcting and polishing a Black Caddy CTS.

Current condition consists of many swirls and light scratches all over.

My arsenal consists of a Flex 3401 with just about all of the pads of the LC CCS pads. I have the Meguires M105/205, WG swirl remover, Sealant other fine polishes along with Pinnacle/WG waxes.

I am a newbie at detailing, howver, been doing a lot of reading, researching on this site. By the way, which is very helpful/knowledable.

I understand the Cadillac have a very hard Clear coat and makes it difficult to polish out. I tried using the M105 with a Yellow Pad and although it did remove the swirls there was still some light scratches left behind. I tried it only on the hood. I followed it up with the M205 with a white pad.

Question when using the M105 what should the setting be on the Flex, between 4-6? What about when using the M205?

I have also read that the Merenza products would be a good choice for this car/color combo. Also, would flat Pads be better?

I am ready to place an order but would like to hear from you guys on what I should purchase to help me polish this car out. Hopefully there is something better than the M105 as this is one dries very quickly and hard to wipe off and also can be dusty.

Thanks guys, look forward to your suggestions!

Dannyo
 
If you can post some pictures that would be helpful. M105 is an aggressive product and with the 3401 you should have no problem removing the swirls. Try a slower arm speed and speed 5. Cut your working area down so the product does not dry up as quickly.
 
I will take some pics and post them tomorrow so everyone can see what I will be working with.

thanks,

Dannyo
 
Try taping the hood off into 12 squares. Cut down your work area, and work a square at a time. I had the same issue as you with a friends' purple Monte Carlo. My Flex and some orange/yellow pads with 105/205 got it done.
 
I had GREAT luck with my 1301 and the Wolfgang Twins!!!
 
Guess I need to try it again in smaller sections.

What settings were used on the 3401 to get the results of the Monte and the other car?
 
Danster said:
Guess I need to try it again in smaller sections.

What settings were used on the 3401 to get the results of the Monte and the other car?
Click to expand...

The nice thing about the WG products is the dusting ia about 1/3rd of what you see with the 105. I used WGSR at 6 on my 1301 with an orange CCS pad and with moderate pressure for the first 2 passes on a 2X2 section, then eased off and used lighter pressure for the next 3 passes.

For the WGFG I dropped the speed down to 5 and did very light pressure for another 5 passes with a gold CCS jewling pad.

I was ammazed at the finnished product....It even got BETTER when I broke out the FUZION the next day as a toper over the WGDGPS!
 
Let me ask this nrsk4u, on a 2x2 you did 5 passes on just that area? I was thinking I only needed about two or so. Being I'm still new to this it may take 5-6 passes to get all the scratches out?

I will be trying it out again in about a week and see what type of results I get.

Thanks,

Dannyo
 
I actually work for a cad. dealership, and I deal with black a lot. What I can tell you is use a light cut pad and a fine cut compound and work the area for a longer time because it will be a huge pain in the ass to bring the shine back up if you don't. There is plenty of clear coat to work with, but it is SUPER HARD. I use 3M perfect it 3000, which is my go to system, but I've had luck with removing scratches using meg. diamond cut 2.0 (cheap stuff we have around the shop, $30 a gallon) I can tell you that I had to buff a very damaged brand new CTS-V hood and I used 3m super duty compound. I actually had to go back over the entire hood again with a finer cut compound for the polish to be able to do its job. Just keep using what ever took the swirls out to begin with and make more passes. Even if you think you've got it make another couple passes.
 
my father has the same ride .... Menzerna SIP and Menzerna 085rd and the Opti-coat
 
Went ahead and finished the Caddy.

Used a Yellow pad and M105 and followed it up with Merenza Sip and Merenza Super Polish.

The car had much swirls and Rids. I did not get all the Rids and possibly some very minor swirls outs as it is a DD but are way more not as noticeable. All swirls not removed was due to bad lighting and not seeing them which prevented going over the area again.

Being it was hot and humid, M05 is not the easiest to use. One needs to work this product one small section at a time with much lube/mist to keep it from drying out before completing 4-6 passes in the area one is working.

Also, I do need to invest in better lighting as I was working in my garage with poor lighting. I will also probably invest in a Porter Cable with 3.5 pads to work on Rids as it looks to be much lighter and easier to work then the Flex 3401 with 6 inch pads.

I still need to practice more but did learn a few things on the way. However, my future son in law was very happy on how the car turned out.

Steps taken:
washed/dryed car
Clayed using Pinnacle Ultra Poly Clay with Ultima Lube Gel
CCS LC Yellow Pad/M105
CCS LC White Pad/Merenza SIP
CCS LC Black Pad/Merenza SF
Wolfgang Deep Gloss Sealant
Pinnacle Souveran Paste Wax

Here are some pics of the car. Didn't take as much but one can see the difference. Need to work on removing the entire compunding left behind as you can see the white spots that were not cleaned up properly. Again, the lighting was not very good and that is one thing I will purchasing before I do the next car. I also think using a smaller pad might be more easier to me, maybe a 5 inch pad. I would also like to try some flat pads.

My next project will probably be a Nissan 350Z, light Blue Color.

Open to all opinion/suggestions for newbie.

TIA!

Dannyo
 
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