1976 Cadillac Eldorado..Big Daddy Caddy

Pats300zx · 04-26-08, 01:15

Several months ago I was contacted by one of my client's who wanted to give a Christmas gift to one of his friends. The gift would be a complete detail of three of the friends cars. The cars to be detailed are:

2007 Bentley Continental GT
1971 Cadillac Eldorado
2006 Cadillac Escalade

This is the first of the three details. This car is by far the largest vehicle (other than an SUV) that I have detailed. The view from the interior looking over the hood is that of being on an aircraft carrier. The car is a luxuary car in every sense of the word with every bell and whislte you could think of in a car from 1971. 500 cubic inches of engine wasn't bad either.

The paint was in so so condition with sevearl issues including cracks and flaking of the paint in various areas. Since my PTG is still on order and not to do potential damage to the paint, I decided to go with a light polish to remove some of the surface marring and scratches. My fear was that going more aggressive would cause more harm that good. The owner was extremely pleased with the result. This was my first full detail outside and I hate it....

I had to deal with landscapers cutting grass around me, wind blowing materials from trees next to the car, and a 30% rake on the driveway which caused my bucket to roll to the end of the driveway everytime I turned around. Yes..I am garage detail spoiled. The car was so large that it wouldn't fit into the client's garage.

The weather was ugly today with it looking like rain at any minute. I did the best I could with pics in dodging landscapers and the ugly skies.

Detail Time: 7 hours

Foam with CG CWG and EO Wash Soap in Foam Gun
Wash with 2 Bucket Method and Ultima Wash Soap
Clay with Megs white clay
Interior cleaned with Woolite 6:1 and Optimum Power Clean on soiled areas.
Interior leather dressed with Four Star Leather Conditioner
Interior vinyl dressed with Sonus Total Eclipse
Polish with Optimum Polish via Makita 9227 with Sonus white pad at 1500 rpm
LSP=NXT Tech Wax V2
Glass Cleaned with Zep Glass Cleaner
All exterior metal polished with NXT metal polish
Engine wiped down with P21S Total Wash and dressed with CD2
Tires dressed with Meguiars Hot Shine Tire Spray

Afinn4 · 04-26-08, 01:32

nice car, that is a huge motor.

Bigpoppa3346 · 04-26-08, 01:37

Man that thing is P.I.M.P.

How did you deal with that rear wheel/tire?

SonicBlue05GT · 04-26-08, 02:03

nice.

my dad had a 76 Fleetwood Brougham with the 500cui in it when I was growing up. what a battleship that was.

zoomzoom mazda5 · 04-26-08, 02:48

Great job Pats!!!!!!! Truly a boat load of work

countrysquire · 04-26-08, 05:21

Beautiful work, as always, but I believe that's a '74.

Oops, I stand corrected. It's a '71.

Aurora40 · 04-27-08, 05:51

Wow, did you have to buy a longer extension cord to work on that thing? You mentioned it doesn't fit in the owners garage. Does he just leave that car sitting outside? If so, that seems like a shame. Though also if so, I'm surprised you got it looking so nice! It looks great!

The engine bay to me looks a lot like it was dressed with Engine Kote! I had to scroll back up to see what you'd used on it.

Pats300zx · 04-27-08, 05:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aurora40

Wow, did you have to buy a longer extension cord to work on that thing? You mentioned it doesn't fit in the owners garage. Does he just leave that car sitting outside? If so, that seems like a shame. Though also if so, I'm surprised you got it looking so nice! It looks great!

The engine bay to me looks a lot like it was dressed with Engine Kote! I had to scroll back up to see what you'd used on it.

Yeah the car sits outside 24/7 under a car cover. I actually could have used 2 extension cords on this thing lol. Yeah the engine was kind of a pain. I didn't want to risk power washing it since it was such an old car. I just wiped it down with a mix of some P21S TW and then dressed with some CD2. It wasn't perfect but a huge improvement.

Dirty-Sanchez · 04-27-08, 06:40

Man, that interior looks larger than my college apartment (LOL).

Great work on a fine looking classic.

Accumulator · 04-27-08, 09:15

Pats300zx- Great job on a well-preserved Eldo

The rubber trim on the bumper looks to be in great shape.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane (I did my black '77 *by hand*); I'd fogotten how much cooler the early ones of that series were...not to mention that 500 engine.

Denzil · 04-27-08, 09:47

Dang, that is one sweet Eldorado! Great work Pat!

weekendwarrior · 04-27-08, 11:40

Great job Pat!!! You detailed an entire city block on htat one. Hopefully the pictures of this detail won't pop up on any "other websites".