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I'm not entirely sure if I posted this before or not if I did forgive me I'm just going through some project i did last season because people asked to see some of my work. This in my opinion is probably the ugliest car I've ever seen in this price range. It was a dealer trade in but I mean pastel purple??? Who custom orders that color (pretty sure it wasn't a stock option although with cadillac it might have been)
It wasn't in horrible shape for what it was I guess. But it was going to need some work.
Inspection of the interior show definat signs of use... Stained matts and such. again nothing off the wall here but defiantly in need of a nice touch..
The engine bay is mostly plastic clading. So it's dusty but not to bad for apperance.
So off to the bath it goes to get a nice soaking and decontamination.
Still beading well after a good rinse off.
I tend to usually start with the door jambs and engine bay before I do anything else. So after I washed off the bay I shined it up with trim protectant.
Next up I needed to tackle that Interior. The paint wasn't really in bad shape and since this afterall was a dealer car and I only had so much time to work on it I thought I would better serve the car by addressing the interior first. Some APC/Foaming cleaners on the carpet and a some good scrubbing followed by extracting it was what was in order for this caddy. I scrubbed down the dash with a MF towel and some 303 cleaner. Followed by 303 protectant. (again guys I realize I absoultly suck at taking in process pic. I promise this season i'll do better) And voila I get the interior shaping up nicely.
The exterior really only needed a light polish. ( I really don't think i could've made ugly purple look any better anyways LOL) topped it with a nice coat of MaxWax by DP and it was ready for sale.
And I pulled it a little to far forward LOL but it still looked good.
This was my only XLR to date which kind of sucks seeing as it was one of my projects when I worked as a design engineer for GM (windshield frame) i wish it was a different color but it was a very different car from the norm and I wouldn't mind doing another one anytime soon. They tend to clean up quite nicely.. Thanks for looking agian.
Sheesh, Jake, first you say it's the ugliest car in its price range, then you say you wish you did more of them and that you designed the windshield frame! I like that color it's close to a pretty unique color Maxda used on the RX-7 in the late '70's/early '80's. As far as the styling...what do you expect when you apply the "arts and science" styling to a Corvette chassis? I always thought that era Caddy styling (CTS) was a love/hate thing...you either love it or hate it.
It's a cool car because you don't see many of them, but that being said I wouldn't buy one. Now, an Allante...
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Grumpy like Ketch...
"Well, it certainly does!"
I only think it's ugly because of the color. I've seen a ruby red metal flake one that made me drool on myself. The black ones are nice too. I've never seen one this color and it definatly makes it unique.. Just not my flavor. Although it was pointed out to me that for a $90,000 car you'd think cadillac would've done a better job with the bodylines and fitment.
Well, it's dead anyway. I don't think they ever sold very many of them, I see one once in a while, although I did see one doing a roof fold at the dealer.
__________________
Grumpy like Ketch...
"Well, it certainly does!"
Well I know they really didn't hold well to what the car was supposed to be when they finally made it a production car. It was supposed to be called the "Evoq" and it wasn't supposed to have any door handles or mirrors on it at all. Everything was supposed to be a heads up display. There were a bunch of other options that got cut. The reason of course being $$ the final production cost the way they wanted it was coming in just over $120,000 and they didn't think people would pay that money for a cadillac.. Which to me if your able to spend $90,000 is there really that much more of a stretch to pay $120,000?? ehh. It's a shame I spent 3 years on the design of that.
I thought it was only $80K? Why is it a shame you worked on it? Were you working with the 'Vette guys or were you in the Cadillac group? I mean was everybody all together, or did the Caddy guys work separately on their version? I dunno...I would like the resume entry of working on a special purpose vehicle like that.
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Grumpy like Ketch...
"Well, it certainly does!"
You did a great job on that Cady. That color would not have been my 1st choice, but it is far from ugly. I can see stripes on the truck and floor carpets, but stripes on the side kick panels looks crappy. Of course it's only my opinion.
I thought faster than I typed.. I tend to do that alot. I meant it was a shame I put 3 years on that for it to be cancelled already. It was supposed to have a 10 year runlife. The vette guys were all down in bowling green and a few in Warren. We had full access to the vette's designs. and compared notes almost daily. The big difference between the vette and the XLR's frame was the vette was steel and the XLR was made out of hyrdoformed aluminum. In the end while they started out on the same build up they actually ended up sharing only a few parts between the two. Although they were made on the same assembly line.
And legacy99 I don't disagree with you on that but there's a reasoning behind my madness. In a car that neede reletively little work on it it lets the client know beyond any shadow of a doubt that no shortcuts were taken and every single sqaure inch of carpeting was indeed tackled whether it was "Dirty" or not. When surrounded by hack shops left and right you do what you need to to make sure you stand above the rest. Just normal "vacuum lines" would've threw off the entire look and feel of the detail. Remember it's an artform. Not all styles appeal to all people.
Hey, thanks for that info, I never realized that the chassis construction was so different. I think it's a shame that GM, thru poor management, won't ever recover the money and technology benefits they could have had from that "flagship" design, and I'm sorry that your experience there soured you on engineering, because we sure need more engineers in this country.
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Grumpy like Ketch...
"Well, it certainly does!"
I thought faster than I typed.. I tend to do that alot. I meant it was a shame I put 3 years on that for it to be cancelled already. It was supposed to have a 10 year runlife. The vette guys were all down in bowling green and a few in Warren. We had full access to the vette's designs. and compared notes almost daily. The big difference between the vette and the XLR's frame was the vette was steel and the XLR was made out of hyrdoformed aluminum. In the end while they started out on the same build up they actually ended up sharing only a few parts between the two. Although they were made on the same assembly line.
And legacy99 I don't disagree with you on that but there's a reasoning behind my madness. In a car that neede reletively little work on it it lets the client know beyond any shadow of a doubt that no shortcuts were taken and every single sqaure inch of carpeting was indeed tackled whether it was "Dirty" or not. When surrounded by hack shops left and right you do what you need to to make sure you stand above the rest. Just normal "vacuum lines" would've threw off the entire look and feel of the detail. Remember it's an artform. Not all styles appeal to all people.
I tend to agree with you, but I still think it's a little too much. It's like wearing a stripe shirt and the stripes don't match at the seams. You still did a great job.
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