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I use the buffer to apply the wax and buff it off by hand w/ a clean 100% cotton towel.
Like sevenfeet0 said, be SURE the buffing pad and towels are clean!!!
The only thing I disagree with him about is the No7 polishing compound. It works great and I've had to use it on several occasions (once when a friends car was absolutely trashed by an automated car wash). I wouldn't classify it as "gentle" though. If you're a novice you could eat right through your paint with that stuff...definitely apply No7 by hand and not orbital buffer and expect to have to follow it up with several coats of less abrasive polish.
The Corsa exhaust looks pretty good to me . I'm not to crazy about having to cut the rear valance to accommodate the tips . I question if even after cutting carefully it will have a finished look .
I also had them paint the hardwear black so that only the chrome tips would show. The fit and finish is pretty nice. And again, I believe it was money well spent.
thebug...
Only 900 CTSs were built this week which is a very low number. It might have something to do with the SRX production finally ramping up.
SRX show on Speed Channel was good but not great.
They didn't seem to want to gush over the car.
It is beautiful though. Better looking than the CTS IMHO.
http://www.caddyforum.com/cts_turbo.wmv
Finally, you can use ScratchX on the entire surface of the car's painted areas if you need to (the Meguiar's web site talks aboout this).
For those who don't know what these products do, they use a mild abbrasive to literally grind down the top level of clearcoat paint that contains the scratch to reveal an undamaged layer (assuming the scratch doesn't go all the way to the paint level). Clearcoat paint is the top level of the paint job for all modern cars and is literally paint without pigment. It's used as a shield and protectant for the real colored paint beneath it. But clearcoats tend to show scratches very easily, which is why the need for these scratch repair products exist.
If you ask most detailers, they usually like either Mother's or Mequiar's products for waxing and detailing your car. I've been using Mequiar's with good results but I'm sure Mother's is excellent too. Both companies have web sites which explain their products in detail including video clips.
If I were you, I'd gather the following items at your local auto parts store:
16-20 foam applicator pads (you can never have enough of them, and you should go to new ones often. Never use a pad to apply two different products. Don't bother washing them off to keep...they are disposable.
A good car wash soap. The key here is to use anything but dishwashing liquid since they are degreasers and it will strip the wax coating off a car. That might not be bad for now, but later when you want to keep your wax job, it's not what you want to use.
A clean bucket.
Lambswool washing mitts (2).
A collection of car wash towels especially for drying and wiping wax products off your car. I went to Bed Bath and Beyond and bought several white medium sized and small towels that were plain without patterns. Cut the tags off the towels so they won't scratch the car. Forget the cheap terry cloth towels in the auto parts store...they won't last one wash.
Optional: some people like chamois cloths to dry their car. I don't. "Chammys" are a tanned animal skin product that has its own residue and you must wash and prepare them before you ever use them on your car for the first time. It's too much trouble IMHO when a large terry cloth towel will do fine. They are also very expensive ($25 and up for one towel).
Optional: some places sell foam tipped wooden sticks and other small detailing instruments. I find that these are good to get applied wax out of tight places and cracks that your wipe towel might miss. Wax generally dries with a white color, and you can see it in the cracks of your car if you miss wipe spots or can't get to them. This is especially a problem trying to wax and remove wax around the area of the CTS logo.
Optional: Microfiber cloths. These new cloths are the only man-made cloths that are dood on a vehicle since they don't scratch. They have the added benefit of having much small nits in their fabric which really does a superior job of wiping wax products, cleaners and polishers off a car. I highly recommend them since it makes the job of wax removal faster with shinier results. I even use them to dust the piano-black tops of my expensive home theatre speakers in my house (to my wife's amusement). I've recommended the 3M version of these cloths here previously, but I've used the Mequiar's branded ones and liked them (available from their web site). I hear Turtle Wax also makes one that is widely available in stores. I'd buy at least three. They aren't cheap, but they are machine washable and reusable.
Select a wax system. Either Mother's or Mequiars have two different methods. One is their "all-in-one" product that cleans the old finish, polishes and waxes in one step. This is much better than what most people will ever take the time to do with their vehicle. Usually this product comes in liquid form for easy application.
The other method is more tedious but gets best results. Buy the individual products and spend three times as long with your car. First, use the "cleaner" product to strip the old wax off the car (and yes, your new car will likely have some). Second, use the polish to bring out the shine of your finish. You'll really like the result of this step since the first step leaves your car very dull (as it should). Finally, use the waxing step to protect the finish of the polish you just used. I use Mequiar's Gold Class for the last step, which is their best non-professional wax product. Mother's has a similar product. You can buy them either in liquid or paste form. I prefer liquid since it's easier to use, but "old-schoolers" still use paste.
Before you should clean/polish/wax your car, check the finish for any defects. If you see any microfine scratches (and all cars get them eventually), try a product like Mequiar's ScratchX to remove them. Use a foam applicator pad and towel to remove. Don't be afraid to put a little effort into it. Hopefully, you won't need to do this so soon with a new vehicle.
If you eventually run into situations where you need to get off tar or other road grime that doesn't easily come off, Mequiar's and Mother's both make specific products for this. You need to rewax the area you apply these products to. And sometimes you'll notice stuff that seems embedded in the finish of the car. Over time, particles that your car hits at high speed can literally bury themselves into the finish of a car. Also, you may be victim to paint oversprays (say if you pass a road painting crew) or other junk that sits on the finish of your car. When that happens, use a clay bar to remove these problems. I'm going to do this today with my own car. I'll probably do this after the wax cleaner step when I'm waxing my car.
Do not apply wax to the black stainless steel b-pillars between your doors. They don't need wax and will look horrible if you try. (You can use the "cleaner" wax products to get wax off of these surfaces if you have a boo-boo). You can apply wax to the plastic surfaces of the car, like the bumpers.
For the wheels, I use Mequiar's Hot Rims product. It's good because it's safe for all wheels and you pretty much spray it on, wash it off and wipe it dry. You'll want to use specific dry towels just for this step since they will pick up with nasty brake dust and grime you don't want anywhere near the rest of your car. If you like shiner black rubber, Mequiar's makes a product called Endurance which not only dresses your tires, but makes the shine last for days, not hours. It really makes a difference.
Always remember to never use a towel, washmitt or pad that has hit the ground. You don't want to pick up tiny bits of dirt or stone and then grind them into the car's finish. You can launder the towel or washmitt later, but throw any pads away that have hit the ground.
I've yet to find a safe glass cleaner I like for the windows, headlamps and tailights. The best glass cleaner is stilll Windex, but you have to be extra extra careful around it with a car. The ammonia will kill a wax job too. I generally will spray it into a paper towel and then use the paper towel to clean the window or lamp.
Well, time to wax my own car. I'm probably not going to get a better day to do it...
Sitting here in Las Vegas...Taking a break from gambling. Tried to crash the big GM convention at the Sands...NO luck!
Driving by the Caddy dealer I thought I spotted a CTS-V.........Locked em' up and wheeled in !
BUMMER....A regular CTS with the V air dam and a funky chrome grille insert, Goofy pimp roof and a set of bling-bling wheels...........UGH!
I would say 80% of the new Caddies on the lot had some ugly pimp roofs, diff. grille, bling-bling stuff. Even the 'Lades 2wd had "dubs", off road brush guards, etc etc............
Well I picked up some NIFTY chrome license plate surrounds that say Las Vegas Cadillac ! FREE!
They will look sharp on my Deville !
BTW: NOT a CTS to rent here! Got a town Car to ride in! Darn thing will only do 117mph ! AC stinks too....sweating ...won't cool car...
Won't get up and go for shucks either!
Miss that northstar power !
Stereo stinks...I miss my Bose !
At least a Deville will go 125 plus !
OK ..back to the 21 tables............Geo
Give me a phone call at Binions Horseshoe Hotel
Ask for George B.....Room 327
Gotta have a beer!
Today is my birthday so yesterday my daughter had a party, and my son, son in law and my grandson all drove the car, thought it was great.
My son took it up a steep hill and unfortunately took the rpm to 6000, it was so easy. After that said to keep it below 4000 rpm as it has only 400 miles.
Trying to get a friend to look at the CTS as he wants to buy a big Lexus. Cadillac has a $1500 rebate on the CTS if you have a non GM car, so sent it to him.
berrycherry
As for the glass cleaner, I've found a good one that's available at Costco. I can't remember the brand name (I think it might be sort-of generic...in a blue spray can that says non-amonia glass cleaner or something). Being Costco you have to buy a 4 pack of the cleaner but it works well and is non-amonia so it's safe for glass AND plastics; it's also relatively inexpensive.
This is also the reason why I like microfiber cloths. They make the polish part *far* easier, IMHO. What I typically do is remove the extra wax that I apply with a normal cotton towel, and then do a serious polish job with the microfiber towel in a second step. That keeps the microfiber towel fairly clean through the process since it doesn't pick up the excess wax you wipe off, allowing it to do its job for the entire car. I had a similar issue (wavy streaks) on the hood of my car when I was polishing and it was because I hadn't used enough effort with the microfiber cloth (I was getting tired). When I went back to polish a second time, I got the streaks out.
Since your wax job has dried and cured by now, I would probably start over and redo the places on the car that have the streaks (hopefully it's not the entire vehicle). The Quik Detailer product won't likely help since all it does is bring out whatever shine (or streaks) the wax job had in the first place.
I completed the wax job of my car on Sunday and got excellent results. I even had some swirl marks on my hood that looked like an animal had been sitting there. I had forgotten to take my ScratchX with me to the place I was doing the waxing, but Mequire's cleaner wax formula does remove some scratches as well, and it cleaned up much of the scratch damage without having to go to the other product.
Edit: By the way, a Swiffer cloth (dry, not the wet ones) did a pretty good job grabbing the dust up and off the diamond pattern dash. I was concerned that any sort of cleaning product would be hard to get out of the diamond pattern, so I went with this dry approach.
Can I get the oil changed anywhere other than a GM dealer, the selling dealer or any other, or can I go to Jiffy Lube, or even another non-GM dealer to get the oil changed and not void the warranty?
I was told by a friend that during the original warranty period the oil must be changed at a GM dealer or the warranty is voided. How true is this?
I did the first one myself (kinda messy since they use the oil bath filters). Wife will be picking the car up from my servicing Cadillac dealer tonight. Had them do the 2nd oil change and a tire rotation. Also had it in to have the cold engine knock/ping/tap/rattle checked. They're reply..it's a normal engine sound, goes away when the engine warms up (it does) and is caused by the sleeveless pistons. They call it piston rattle. Whatever. Doesn't seem to hurt performance any...and at least now it's on record if it were to develop into something serious.
I had the first oil change done by the dealer (a free 'courtesy' change) and just about passed out when I saw how expensive it would have been if I had to pay for it. I think they charge $25 for the oil (regular non-synthetic oil), $10 for disposal, $19 for labor, and $12 for the filter.
The second change was done by a local garage inexpensively but I supplied the Mobil1 synthetic and filter (at the time CTS filters were difficult to find exept at the Cadillac dealer).
I'm nearing my third change and am debating on whether to have it done or do it myself as I have traditionally done in the past. I just don't know if I want to 'mess' (pun intended) with the CTS's filter.
One thing I have noticed is that if I go by the DIC's oil change indicator I can drive a LOOOOOONG time between changes. Much more than the traditional 3 month, 3000 mile interval. I think I'm about due for a change now even though the computer says I have 35% oil life left.
I can't begrudge the filter too much and as far as disposal goes, I can only surmise there is some sort of over-the-top tax or something the dealer must pay to get rid of it. (My dealer on my current car--not CTS, unfortunately--charges something like $3 for disposal).
That probably would be enough for me to do it myself, messy or not.
As for the oil life indicator, it is extremely accurate if reset after every oil change. Still, as others have said here before, you can't go wrong if you change the oil at 3,000 mile intervals.
One of the reasons I go to the dealer for oil changes is that, like rsteph, I have them rotate the tires at every oil change. It's really increased the tire tread life on the last few cars I've owned. I wish I had rotated tires on all my cars. It would have saved me a lot of money on tire replacement.
Still not seeing a lot of CTS's around the Portland-Vancouver area, but have seen a few. Couple white ones, couple other silver, one cashmere, and probably 3-4 blacks. Saw a black one with the "blingy" wheels (sorry, couldn't resist..lol) on I-205 towards Orchards 3-4 weeks ago, male driver. Maybe it was Mole???
Having ANY work done elsewhere leaves you at the mercy at the capabilities of the worker . Thinking that the worker must be able to do the job..... or why would they be doing it quite often is a big mistake. Changing oil rotating tires .....installing wiper blades . I have supervised employees that didnt have a clue, and never caught on
Well I watched them incorrectly rotate the tires . I told the guy he was doing it wrong ....his answer " This is the way we do it . I said you should look at the owners manual in the glove box . Well I wasn't going to argue with him , he finished, I left and a wheel center cap fell off while driving thru their parking lot.
When I got home I got my floor jack , jack stands, started the compressor and swapped the rear tires . I did call the store manager he apologized and sent a $ 25 dollar gift certificate . That was nice of him but think about how many people never notice and do not achieve maximum tire wear . Bring my CTS there , never
I have not forgotten about our 0-60 pool for the new engine.
Also I think I am out of the running for a CTS this year.
My choices will be to either refinance the Impala
and have a $192 month payment.
Or buy a '95-97 Lexus LS 400. Saw a '97 Lexus Coach Edition today w 146K miles that was as solid as a rock and had an engine that was almost inaudible.
Very Impressive.
Hideous green color. Not worth the 13.9K the owner wanted.
Now if i can find one whose owner has taken care of both the paint and interior I will buy one.
I am a little uncomfortable buying a CTS that has a fairly small interior and comes with a $500 mo payment. I just can't justify it.
Until then I will be Impala man.
The only problem: He had drained both the transmission oil and the engine oil, but refilled only the engine oil. I had the car taken to a private mechanic who discovered not only the mistakes already made, but also that the plug for the transmission had been stripped...
Evidently no serious damage was done.