Need some professional opinions :)

L

louie586

New member
Hey there, I recently purchased (I should say stole) a 1995 Cadillac Seville SLS. She's got 76k miles and dark green metallic paint ("Dark Calypso Green Metallic").



When I picked the car up, I noticed the hood, roof, and trunk lid were all pretty faded. The paint wasn't gone, but the luster from the clearcoat wasn't there. The trunk lid also has some very light scratching going on. I believe it's from sitting in the sun for extended periods of time and going through one too many automatic car washes. At a distance, the hood, roof, and trunk lid look like they have a layer of dust on them... or a layer of frost (people in colder climates know what I'm talking about).



I've provided some pictures for you guys to look at and maybe you could tell me if the car is able to be buffed out or not. I'd really like to have the shininess put back into the paint.



As you can see in one of the pictures (on the corner of the roof), there is a chip of paint missing. Instead of seeing the normal gray of the primer or whatever, you see a somewhat shiny green metallic speck. I'm not sure if this is normal or not. Thanks in advance, guys.



Flickr: louie586's Photostream
 
Decided to give this a bump since it recently got approved (took like an entire day!).



As you can tell from the pictures, there are some swirl and streak marks from what I gather is wax residue. Any recommendations for getting those streaks out?
 
I'm in Michigan. More specifically Southeast MI/Metro Detroit. I already contacted a member here from my area (MotorCity from Deep-Gloss) via PM but haven't received a PM back yet.
 
Here are some pics from a distance. These were taken a day or two after I picked the car up and gave it a wash.
 

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You guys don't think the clear is going on those horizontal surfaces? The written description sure sounded that way...from the pics I'm on the fence.
 
We are making best guesses. I've stood in FRONT of cars and not been able to tell for sure. No sure way to tell until you give it a try.
 
Looks like the paint is highly oxidized, some of it even looks to be close to pealing away....



I'd think most of this paint could be restored, but a big question I would have is how thin will it be once it's polished out correctly? It looks like it's on it's last leg already.



I do think it can be restored though but you're going to have to find someone who is highly skilled with a rotary to restore it fully without going through it. If it were me taking on this job it would be very expensive and with no guaranty that the paint will make a full recovery....



Josh
 
Two more pictures that caught my attention. The reveal molding on the back window near the roof has receded a bit (probably from many hot Michigan summers and many cold Michigan winters) and it left behind an area of nice, shiny paint. The supposedly oxidized part seems to just be like a layer of bad clear sitting top, I don't know. I've never seen anything like it before so I can't say if it's normal or not. To me, it looks like that top layer could just be polished out, revealing a nice shiny paint underneath. Normally when paint is chipped away enough, you see a primer or undercoat, not more shiny paint.



Once I get my other lens back from my buddy, I'll take a better picture in the sun so you can see that the paint is indeed shiny. I'm not a paint expert or a detail expert, so I'm really not sure of anything at this point.
 

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Setec Astronomy said:
That looks like a repaint to me.
Click to expand...



That's what I said too. With some really bad paint apparently...



I noticed a few spots on the car that seemed out of place. I was told by the officer that he didn't have any history on the car prior to when they received it in 2002. I CarFaxed the VIN (you really can't trust CarFax for sh*t) and it told me it was never in an accident. The officer also said that he doubt it was ever in an accident, too.



On the rear bumper, there is a little scuff. Kind of like someone backed into something and it took a bit of paint off. That's no big deal, the car is nearly 15 years old and was a DD for a while. But... the paint underneath is red.



Now, I know that this car couldn't have been red before. The reason I know is because I have the original window sticker and it clearly says "Calypso Green clearcoat paint".



Maybe the car has been in a couple accidents and these areas were repainted to match?
 
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