1976 Cadiallac Eldorado Convertible

A

Anosmiac

New member
It's been a busy season so far...mostly winter washes and waxes. I was fortunate to have this detail to break up the monotony. I previously detailed this client's 1979 Lincoln Continental, and he had called me up to do his Caddy since he was putting it away for the winter. I had heard stories about this car. He purchased it about 5 years ago from a collector in Tennessee. From what I understand, that collector bought several cars in the 70s, and never even drove them. They sat in a warehouse until he decided to sell them. Believe it or not, this Eldorado has less than 10k miles on it! However, years of wiping off the dust with nothing more than an old towel took its toll. The car was covered in micromarring, and needed a tender hand. My client didn't want to spend a ton of money on paint correction as he is thinking about selling this vehicle, so I did the following:



Process

-Wash with CG Citrus Wash using an AG foaming gun (lambswool mitt)

-Wheels cleaned with CG Blue Wheel cleaner/tires and wheel wells using DK Degreaser

-Clay

-Buffed using Menz 106ff/Blue 6" Edge pad/1400 RPM

-Sealed using DK STS 3000 using a Cyclo and white pads

-Waxed using Megs Gold Class Paste Wax, applied by hand



I would say 95% of the marring came out. However, as you will see from the after photos, some deeper "scars" remained in the single stage paint.



Before





Before













After

Trunk lid (area to the right is unbuffed)

















 
that is pretty nice for just using Menz 106ff . Can beleieve only 10k on that car . The white wall tires look great .



Cheers , Jean Paul
 
Anosmiac- Nice job, thanks for sharing it with us. Yeah, that ss lacquer is nice to work....this Eldo reminds me of my '78 :D



Was the rubber bumper trim oxidized very badly?
 
you can find these eldos in hemmings with a few HUNDRED miles in them. if you are old enough to remember this was the LAST convertible that GM was ever going to make. alot of them were put away and never driven.
 
Accumulator said:
Anosmiac- Nice job, thanks for sharing it with us. Yeah, that ss lacquer is nice to work....this Eldo reminds me of my '78 :D



Was the rubber bumper trim oxidized very badly?
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Both the front and rear rubber trim was oxidized horribly. Both front pieces were so dried that they cracked in places. Honestly, these were the only bad parts of this car. I had the opportunity to drive it around the block, and this car drove better than any car I have ever been in...it was like riding on a cloud!!!
 
jimmie jam said:
you can find these eldos in hemmings with a few HUNDRED miles in them. if you are old enough to remember this was the LAST convertible that GM was ever going to make. alot of them were put away and never driven.
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I was actually born the year before this car was made, so this was a fact I was not aware of. From my understanding, the former owner purchased 5 of these Eldorados, all were black with the red interior. This could have been part of the reason he did this, but from what I understand he also bought other makes and models in the 70s and never drove them.
 
That came out great. I did a white one with a red leather interior like this one you did and it had 300 miles on it. Still had the sales sticker in the window.
 
Anosmiac said:
Both the front and rear rubber trim was oxidized horribly. Both front pieces were so dried that they cracked in places. Honestly, these were the only bad parts of this car. ..
Click to expand...



I'd sorta suspected it'd be like that.



And yeah, those cars are actually pretty nice to drive. People did put them away (often without knowing how to do long-term storage properly), but I'm hoping that they start getting driven, now that people are realizing that they aren't gonna bring the big bucks after all.
 
TH0001 said:
That looks awesome!!! What a huge car. How long did the whole thing take???
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Since the owner didn't want to invest in any significant paint correction, the job was really not that bad in terms of effort. However, when I work in this garage, I work as slowly as possible considering the beautiful scenery ('49 Merc, '61-'63 Impala, Bentley Continental GT...list goes on!). From beginning to end, I would say about 5 hours. That included time for lunch.
 
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