My 1971 Lincoln always looked very nice and shiny when you looked at it from a distance, but I had a really hard time keeping the black paint in good shape. I applied a lot of coats of wax to hide swirl marks, fine scratches and other paint imperfections.
I even had the car at a professional detailer to have some of the paint corrected - but he gave up and said that there is nothing he could do for me as the paint would be too soft...
The paint really is very soft, and you could even make swirl marks with a soft microfiber towel...
The detailer left some wet sanding marks behind on the trunk lid, which were a big sore in my eyes.
So I decided to correct the paint by myself.

I bought the best dual action polisher on the market - the Rupes BigFoot 21. This is a professional machine which can correct all serious paint defects and bring the paint back to perfect condition. It takes some practice to do it correctly, but its not very difficult to do. I can't recommend this polishing machine enough!
See my previous post to check out the correct technique.
I also bought the complete Rupes foam pads, compound and polishes system, and the results are amazing.
The swirled and scratched paint came out like a mirror!
I´m very happy with the outcome.
I also did some touchups on some small stone chips and wet sanded some areas.

You can see the before and after pictures below.

I finally bought a professional polishing machine. The Rupes BigFoot 21. It's a great and very effective tool!


I removed the CONTINENTAL letters to be able to polish the hood better

Look at all the fine swirls and scratches

I will also restore the letters, as some of the black paint has polished off over the years...

Repainting the letters

The paint before and after polishing - as you can see all the imperfections are gone.

You can see all these fine scratches and haze and some wet sanding marks that were left behind from the professional detailer.

All scratches and imperfections are gone after polishing!

The Mark III looks spectacular after the paint correction. I have to reinstall the restored letters now.

The restored letters are back on the car. As you can see I´m very happy with the result.

The polished car

Tags:1971, Lincoln, Continental Mark III, Paint correction, Rupes, Bigfoot, Lincoln Mark III Repair Tip

I continued to work on the 78 Biarritz during the last few weeks.
My goal is to make this mint car as good as it can get, while keeping everything as original as possible.
I´m really obsessed with cleanliness when it comes to cars... Everything has to be completely detailed and shining like new.
I completely cleaned the entire engine and gave it a good wash and afterwards applied some engine dressing.
I then removed some screws and small parts which were left unpainted by the factory, like some screws, the hood latch, some brackets and some other smaller parts. Of course these parts developed some slight surface rust during the last 36 years...
As I had no real rust dissolver at hand, I soaked the rusty parts in vinegar over night, which completely removed all the surface rust. I then gave these parts a coat of primer and painted them with Eastwood paint, which looks like bare metal.
With this method I can keep the rust away, while the parts still look original. Only if you look very closely you might see that these few parts are now painted...

I then started to bring the original single stage paint back to like new condition.
I used a couple of Meguiars compounds and polishes to make the paint as smooth as possible. I had to carefully wet sand some of the deeper scratches with 2000 grit paper. Be very careful when doing this as the single stage paint was applied in only VERY thin layers during the 70s.
The car now shows almost no more paint imperfections and the swirl marks are gone. The original paint looks like on a new car now and is extremely shiny. When the car is out in the sun its almost blinding.
I sealed the paint with Meguairs #16 wax.

I used a Meguiars DA polisher (G125) for the paint correction work - which is not really that good, but I would like to have a more powerful machine for the future like the Flex 3401 or the Rupes Bigfoot .

I used the procedure explained in the following video for my paint correction:


Download his description as PDF file here

This gentleman, Larry Kosilla, has a lot more awesome video tutorials for people who love detailing their cars. Check him out!

I also started detailing the interior of the car. I treated the leather with Gliptone Leather Conditioner - which is the best conditioner I have tried so far. It really makes the leather very soft.
I´ll have to steam clean the carpet once its really warm outside so that it can dry fast afterwards.

I also cleaned the undercarriage a little and removed some of the factory applied undercoating from components where it does not belong to, on which they sprayed it on very carelessly at the factory. Looks much better now.

The car really looks spectacular already - I´ll continue with the chrome and stainless steel trim now. It should be shining in fully glory for the 2014 season beginning in May and also be ready for various car shows, especially the Cadillac BIG Meet in August.

My weapons of choice came from the Meguiars dealer...

before and after cleaning

rusty bolts before and after cleaning

Soaking rusty parts in vinegar

Cleaning more rusty parts

with the rust removed

The Hood latch cleaned and painted with Eastwood Silver Cad Paint

The cleaned engine bay


The car after polishing the paint


the polished paint

very shiny

Besides the carpet - the interior is already perfectly clean. The original floor mat is under the aftermarket mats.

Cleaning the Vogue tires.

Clean paint and tires

Clean tires and perfect hubcaps

Before waxing

I really like this Meguiars wax. Its one of their cheapest but best waxes. A gentleman from Meguiars once told me that it is one of their oldest waxes, but contains a lot of carnauba wax, which makes it so good! Its also offering the best protection of their product range.

Here are some links to Meguiars products I like to use (link to german Amazon Shop):

Tags:1978, Biarritz, 1978 Cadillac Repair Tip, Cadillac BIG Meet, 1978 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz, Eldorado, Paint , detailing, Swirl Mark removal, Meguiras, Wax, Compound, Paint correction, Cadillac, Rust removal, Vinegar