GERALD´S CADILLACS - NEWSTHE 1966 UNDERCARRIAGE PROJECT - LONG POST!
VIDEO RECAP
I did not plan to do a video about the restoration, but here is a short collage of some footage I had: (on youtube you can watch it in 4k HDR
This is a short video showing what was done
BEFORE
Some "BEFORE" pictures showing how the car looked before I started working on it.
AFTER
This is how it looks now - after all the work I did. Click to see the full report.
READ MORE...
1966 UNDERCARRIAGE CLEAN UP PROJECT
To make the car perfect again I will also dry ice blast the undercarriage and totally clean it up like I did on my 74 and the Roadmaster to preserve it as good as possible.
Today I started to brush some of the surface rust away. After that I will apply some rust remover.
I took some "before" pictures and a video.
It will be a long and dirty job…
CLEANING THE UNDERCARRIAGE OF THE "NEW" 1996 BUICK ROADMASTER
This is how the car looked like after dry ice cleaning.
READ MORE...REMOVING RUST FROM THE UNDERCARRIAGE WITH RUST REMOVING LIQUID
I´m using a german product called "Rostio" - it's a concentrate used for de-rusting fuel tanks. You have to mix it with hot water. I have also heard great things about Evapo Rust.
I let my system run for days until all the surface rust was gone. The advantage is that the liquid can now get everywhere and should remove the last little piece of rust.
You will be surprised how well this works. This area now looks like a new car. There is not the slightest trace of rust to be found after 12 hours of spraying the car.
After spraying it with the rust remover you then have to flush it with water thoroughly and then dry it properly to avoid flash rust.
I also used various wire brushes and other abrasive materials to remove rust and strip bad paint.
I simply used a garden hose and shower to spray the rust remover on.
As you can see it only leaves rust free metal behind - I always let it run for 2 - 12 hours - depending on the amount of rust that had to be removed.
The liquid is collecting in the big bucket where I put the pump in to recirculate it.
You can spray the liquid everywhere
A "before" picture
You can also remove the rust from the brakes without disassembling them. A before picture
After cleaning - the brake cylinder developed flash rust immediately again.
As you can see - the rust is gone
The liquid also works great on brake drums - the original factory markings were still there.
Cleaned the fuel tank with the wire brush and painted it afterwards with tank paint from Eastwood
Cleaned the wheelhousings as well - stripped all the paint in there as well.
≈
Cleaned the fuel tank with the wire brush and painted it afterwards with tank paint from Eastwood
THE 1974 UNDERCARRIAGE PROJECT IS FINISHED
I had some really bad luck with non sticking paint, undercoating reacting with the paint and shops not doing their job right…
The goal of this project was to remove all the surface rust, clean everything up and paint it in the correct colors again. For the ultimate, invisible protection I applied transparent undercoating from "Timemax" and transparent stone guard to the wheel housings. It was very important for me that the car looks as original and as perfect from the underside as the rest of it.
You can read reports about what I had to do by clicking here. You can also see all the restoration pictures in this gallery.
The undercarriage restoration project involved the following things:
- Removed some of the surface rust with rust remover gel.
- Had the undercarriage dry ice blasted and cleaned
- Removed all the surface rust with rust remover gel and liquid
- Cleaned the undercarriage with wire brush to strip bad paint down to bare metal
- Fully detailed the drive shaft
- Repainted the brake drums and fully detailed them with original factory markings.
- Had the rust free undercarriage painted in a paint shop in original black and brown with epoxy paints.
- Had the edges of the lower body parts painted as well in Persian Lime
- Found out that the new paint on undercarriage did not stick…
- Removed all the paint again with sandblasting and dry ice cleaning
- Repainted the undercarriage in the correct colors once again in the paint shop
- Applied transparent undercoating
- Applied transparent stone guard to wheel-housings
- The stone guard coating reacted with paint underneath
- Had another shop remove the paint from the wheel-housings again, as I did not want to do it myself for another time.
- This shop repainted the wheel housings and coated them with transparent undercoating and stone guard once again.
- I was not satisfied with their work so they had to re-do it.
- They sandblasted the wheel housings once again to get everything off to bare metal to be able to start all over once again.
- The restoration shop repainted the wheel housings and coated them with transparent undercoating and stone guard for the third time.
- I finally was satisfied with their work and took over again to detail all the splash guards and put everything back together.
- De-rusted the inner sides of the fender skirts and repainted them.
Other things I did on the 74 during this project:
- Repaired seat back release (3 times)
- Repaired the transmission shift dial indicator which was stuck in “L“ position.
- Replaced some of the plastic headlight adjusting parts which were broken.
- Fabricated license plate holders for Austrian plates.
- Repaired front ashtray mechanism which was stuck.
- Fixed loose left outer rear view mirror.
- Fixed a hole in the exhaust. (Temporary fix before I will replace the still original system which was installed in 1974)
- Replaced numerous burnt bulbs inside and outside of the car.
- Replaced AC compressor as bearing and clutch was shot.
- Repaired clock .
- Repaired radio.
- Replaced all speakers.
- Replaced heater core.
- Replaced front center bumper ends.
- Adjusted grill which was misaligned by the factory.
- Restored battery tray.
- Adjusted doors as they did not close well.
- Repaired door striker on passenger side.
- Replaced door bumper rubber.
- Installed new reproduction - correct heater hoses.
- Flushed cooling system.
- Changed oil.
- Changed shocks front and back.
- Changed stabilizer link and rubber.
- Replaced incorrect lug nuts.
- Changed lighting system to Austrian standards to get it road legal for the inspection.
- Replaced hood ornament.
- Replaced panel in dash.
- Sandblasted and repainted valve covers.
- Repaired washer fluid sensor.
- Replaced antenna.
- Fully detailed the paint and interior.
- Polished the windshield with glass polish.
- Painted oil pans.
- Painted fuel tank.
- Touched up some small stone chips
- Perfectly removed dents on the roof which happened during shipping of the car from the USA to Europe
- Tuned carburetor to factory specs
I´m sure that I have already forgotten some details - unfortunately I often forgot to take pictures, so I cant document everything with pictures…
The various stages of this project
The re-painted wheelhousings. There are a few coats of "Timemax transparent undercoating" and "Timemax Body transparent" - a stone guard applied to protect the paint underneath.This stuff is great and also almost invisible.
The re-painted wheelhousings. There are a few coats of "Timemax transparent undercoating" and "Timemax Body transparent" - a stone guard applied to protect the paint underneath.This stuff is great and also almost invisible. You can also see the detailed splash guards back in place.
The re-painted wheelhousings. There are a few coats of "Timemax transparent undercoating" and "Timemax Body transparent" - a stone guard applied to protect the paint underneath.This stuff is great and also almost invisible. You can also see the detailed splash guards back in place.
I removed all the rust inside the fender skirts as well and painted them afterwards to protect them. I also undercoated them with transparent undercoating as well.
I used tar remover to clean the inside of the fender skirts which still had some factory applied undercoating on them.
This is how the rest of the underside of my 74 is looking now. I painted everything in the correct colors and protected it with transparent undercoating afterwards.
RESTORING THE 1974 CADILLAC´S WHEEL HOUSINGS ONCE AGAIN
I have already been so close to the finish line...
😭
I have no idea how to finish this project now, I will most probably have the 4 wheel housings done again by a professional restoration shop eventually. The rest of the undercarriage is finished and looks fantastic. I used the correct colors and replicated the factory new look.
The finished undercarriage - I applied some transparent undercoating over the freshly painted underbody which is completely invisible. This is some great stuff!
The transparent stone guard reacted with the paint... Now it's peeling off...
The transparent stone guard reacted with the paint... Now its peeling off...
SANDBLASTING AND DRY ICE BLASTING/CLEANING THE UNDERCARRIAGE OF THE 74 CADILLAC
The paint shop wanted to have the undercarriage media blasted this time, to make sure that everything is 100% clean, and that the paint can stick to the metal much better due to a rough surface.
Personally I´m not a big fan of media blasting a non disassembled car, as so many things could go wrong and I do not recommend to do it to anybody else.
The paint shop really wanted to go this route though, and they said that they have a very experienced media blaster to perform the work.
They did tape the car for hours to make sure that the blasting media would not go close to any mechanical or fragile parts.
The blaster worked with very low pressure (1bar - 14psi) to get the old paint off and it really came off within minutes. He did not want to risk anything and so there were some areas with the old paint left after he was finished.
We then spent a whole day trying to get rid of the rest of the remaining paint, by hand. With 240 grit paper we worked on all the areas we could reach. After a whole day under the car it was clear that we could not reach all the areas and that the job would not be good enough.
I then contacted a dry ice blaster who took over to remove the rest of the remaining paint. Normally you cannot remove paint with dry ice blasting, but as the paint on my car´s undercarriage does not stick, it works. It took him a couple of hours to get everything off.
The undercarriage is now completely clean and back to bare metal once again. He even was able to remove some of the old undercoating in the rear wheel wells which the other dry ice blaster could not get off.
We will now degrease everything multiple times and then scuff all the metal. Then its time to mask all the necessary parts and repaint everything once again with 2k paint. I will keep you updated here on my website about the progress.
The media blaster at work
Media blasting the undercarriage.
The bare metal wheel housing after blasting. The rest of the paint was removed later by hand and by dry ice cleaning.
After blasting
Ready for dry ice cleaning.
The dry ice cleaner managed to get the last undercoating out of the rear wheel housings.
Dry ice cleaning
Everything is perfectly clean now.
All the suspension parts were perfectly cleaned as well.
THE 1974 UNDERCARRIAGE RESTORATION PROJECT - I HAVE TO START ALL OVER AGAIN
As I had put so much effort in totally de-rusting the underbody of this low mileage car, I decided to let a professional body shop re-paint the bare metal frame, suspension parts and floor pans this time. My goal was to have the ultimate quality paint job in the factory correct colors underneath the car. I´m not very good in painting and my attempts often result in runnings, which I have to sand out and other imperfections I wanted to avoid.
So I handed the de-rusted car over to the paint shop.
BACK FROM THE PAINT SHOP
When I got the car back, everything looked o.k. as you can see on the pictures below. I was not too impressed by the work they did, as there were quite a few imperfections and some sloppy paint work visible, if you looked very closely. At this point I was already worried that they maybe did some shortcuts before painting, when they should have properly cleaned the bare metal, before they sprayed the primer.
They used some high quality epoxy primer and 2k paint for the job though.
THE MESSED UP ENGINE BAY - OVERSPRAY HELL
There was a terrible mishap at the shop, as they did not mask off the engine bay properly, so all the paint dust and overspray collected inside of the engine bay, and the entire engine bay looked like somebody emptied a spray can into the engine compartment from about 5 feet away. Everything was covered with paint overspray.
I was so shocked when I opened the hood that I almost passed out. The once perfectly clean, all original engine bay was a total mess. It looked so terrible that I could not even snap a picture. Last year I had spent weeks to clean it to my standards…
I had no idea how I could remove the overspray without damaging the original finish of the engine, rubber hoses, cables, wires, accessories and engine parts. This was a terrible situation for me.
REMOVING OVERSPRAY WITH CLAY
I then remembered that detailing clay can be used to remove overspray from paint, but I was not sure if it would work with this heavy amount of overspray. The paint shop gave me a special clay towel to clean up the engine bay, which works like detailing clay, but can be cleaned more often and is easier to use and more aggressive. This thing really works well, but I had to do so much scrubbing on some parts, that some painted areas, like the wheel wells or the air filter housing, turned a little dull after this tiring work. To get them shiny again, I had to hand polish each and every part after claying it. It took me about 25 hours to remove all the accessible overspray from inside the engine bay. I had to thoroughly scrub each and every part, wires and hoses with the clay towel and all purpose cleaner as a lubricant. The areas which I could not clean good enough by hand will be cleaned with dry ice soon. I´m 100% confident that it will look as good again as it did before this happened - I have already achieved 90%, the rest will get perfect again with some dry ice cleaning…
TIME FOR UNDERCOATING
My plan is to protect the undercarriage with a transparent undercoating, which is as good as invisible if properly applied. It will provide a perfect protective shield against road debris, stones and is rust prohibitive. This high-tech material is far superior than the original tar based undercoating which is normally used, and as an additional bonus you can always see what is going on underneath the undercoating. I decided to use a product from a german company called "Timemax USB Clear". Timemax is one of the leading specialists for rust protection, and their products have won some independent tests, done by classic car magazines.
THE PAINT DOES NOT STICK!
Before spraying on the undercoating, I had to mask off the areas like the frame, drive shaft, axle, suspension parts, fuel tank, brake lines, hoses and brakes. After a day of masking off all the areas, I discovered a small paint chip on the frame. When I inspected it with my fingernail, a bigger chunk of paint flaked off the frame. I then used a scraper to scrape the paint, to see if it was just a small area where the paint would not stick properly. The area where the paint came off got bigger and bigger, and soon it became clear that the paint does not stick properly anywhere…
Of course this was another big shock for me, as this meant that 3 months of work were completely destroyed… When I inspected the areas underneath the removed paint, it quickly became clear that the paint shop did not treat and clean the bare metal before painting, as they should have done. They just did a quick wipe with silicone remover.
Of course the bare metal underneath a 41 year old car is full of oil and grease and needs a lot of cleaning with strong chemicals before paint will adhere to it. Unfortunately they skipped this most important step. Although I brushed away all the rust and everything looked shiny, the oil and grease is in all the pores of the metal.
I HAVE TO START ALL OVER AGAIN - REMOVING THE FRESH PAINT AGAIN
This now means that ALL the paint they sprayed on has to come off once again. Also the brown paint on the floor pans has to be stripped again as well.
I asked a dry ice cleaner to try if it can be removed with his method, and it soon became clear that it is possible, but will take at least one full working day, and this will cost a small fortune.
There will probably be some areas left which I will have to rework by hand.
As you can imagine, this is a huge step back for me. I worked so hard and so many hours, often till late into the night, to finish this project for nothing …
The paint shop knows that they did a lousy job and is very supportive to resolve this issue.
This video shows how badly the paint sticks to some of the frame parts. It can be blown off with the pressurized air on some areas…
WHAT´S NEXT?
Before dry ice blasting the undercarriage once again, we will try to get the paint off with a powerful high pressure washer. Once the paint is gone again, we will clean the bare metal multiple times with acetone, marine clean, a special metal cleaner and metal prep. We will also sand everything with some coarse sandpaper to get a little rougher surface to make sure that the paint adheres much better next time.
I also want to go for a black with less gloss, as it was too glossy and did not look correct.
I hope that the weather will be good enough in January 2016, so that I can start all over again. At the moment I do not have the motivation to do anything on the car, and I do not even want to look at it, as it hurts too much. I still have to recover from the things that have happened. This is so frustrating. I hope that it will look like it should after the second attempt.
The 3 stages of the project so far.
Everything looked o.k. after painting, but the paint does not stick to the metal due to poor cleaning by the paint shop.
This is the transparent undercoating I wanted to apply when I found out that the entire paint on the undercarriage does not stick…
Unfortunately the paint does not stick to the bare metal… I could scrape it of with a simple scraper. You can see all the flaking paint on the floor…
The paint is peeling off in big chunks…
So ALL the new paint has to come off again. Here the dry ice blaster is trying if it can be removed with dry ice cleaning.
BE CAREFUL WITH ZINC PLATED PARTS AND RUST REMOVAL SOLUTIONS
Due to all the problems I had, I completely forgot about some fasteners from the rubber splash guards, which I had soaked in the rust remover solution for more than a week. This long time in the liquid removed all the surface rust, but the acid also ate away the zinc plating. So whenever you try to remove the rust from anodized fasteners and screws, make sure not to soak them for too long.
As I can´t get the fasteners and screws very easily here in Austria, I had to brush away the remnants of the zinc coating with a wire brush, and then painted everything with Eastwoods Silver Cad paint. This does not look 100% correct of course, but will have to do until I find some original replacement hardware. Besides a few washers, these fasteners won´t be visible anyway.
I forgot some of the fasteners for the rubber splash guards in the rust dissolver solution. It ate away the zinc plating. So I had to remove the remains of the zinc plating with a wire brush.
The cleaned fasteners. I spray painted them afterwards with Eastwood zinc paint.
THE 1974 ´S UNDERCARRIAGE GETS REPAINTED
Now that I had removed ALL the rust over the last few weeks the underbody needed a fresh coat of paint.
After dry ice cleaning some light surface rust also showed up under the rear quarter panel ends, the fender skirt area and the lower front fender. All these areas were attacked by water, road debris and other stuff coming from the wheels. These areas suffer the most. Also moisture got trapped underneath the body moldings in this area.
When we removed the moldings fortunately nothing really serious showed up, but only some small spots needed a little attention, more as a preventive and cosmetic measure to make sure that rust can´t spread underneath and show up when its too late to fix it.
The downside of this repair is that I had to sacrifice a small percentage (maybe 5%) of the original paint on the rear quarter panel up to the belt line molding. I do not like this fact very much, as I prefer original paint over repaints, but the other option would only have been to wait for rust damage to happen eventually, but therefore have 100% original paint on the car… As I intend to drive the car I wanted to have everything fixed as good as possible.
A friend of mine is a professional body man, and I asked him to take over from me and do the painting and body work, as I do not have the expertise and skills to do this myself.
The floor pans are now repainted in the correct shade of satin brown, which he had to custom mix, based on "Chocolate Brown" which is a little too bright and contains too much red.
Then the floor had to get taped off again to paint the frame and suspension parts in satin black.
We will even go so far to replicate the factory flaws like green overspray in the rear wheel housings for the authentic look and to remember how these cars were built in 1974…
Next up was the repaint of the repaired areas of the sheet metal in “Persian Lime“. He found the formula for this special green in his computer database and he sprayed a test sheet which was an almost perfect match. He then had to find the perfect match by himself. He succeeded and found the perfect color and the repairs are now invisible. It was my biggest concern that he would have trouble to get the color right and gave me some sleepless nights…
Once the car will be back home, I will re-paint the brake parts in a bare metal look and rebuild the brakes while everything is apart. I also already have new shocks waiting for installation, I will put in new brake hoses, repair the radio and heater core and do a good general tune up and change all fluids. So next spring I should have a car which looks and drives like new :-) You can find all the pictures of this project in a gallery here.
The Cadillac in the paint shop.
This are the areas on the sheet metal that needed some attention. Nothing serious - but better to fix it now before a problem arises eventually in the future. Here the lower trim is removed to see what is going on.
The lower edge behind the rear wheels had suffered a bit over the last 41 years... I decided to have it fixed properly and sacrifice a little of the original paint for this. Also the area around the fender skirts needed a little attention to look like new again. No real severe rust issue, but more of a preventive and cosmetic measure... Fender skirts will be repainted as well... On this picture you can see the primer and a very small amount of filler for a perfect surface.
The floor pans are now repainted in the correct shade of brown. It will get a little less glossy once the 3 coats of transparent undercoating are applied.
The wheel housing after the first coat of satin black.
The rear axle is back in black. I will paint the rear brake drums in a bare metal look later once the car is back home.
I will also install new shocks and paint the tank with Eastwood Tank Tone paint.
Finding the right shade of Persian Lime for a perfect match. The computer had the color in the system and it already was a very good match.
The paint shop found a perfect match for the Persian Lime paint. Great job Jürgen!
You can find all the pictures of this project in a gallery here.
DETAILING THE 1974 CADILLAC DRIVESHAFT
When the car was built, Cadillac and all other car companies did not bother to protect the bare metal driveshafts in any way, so they already had surface rust on them when they were delivered new…
My initial plan was to use a wire brush to knock of the rust and just paint it black like most people would do.
But I then decided that I wanted to go the extra mile, do it properly and put it back into the condition it was when it was built.
I wanted to remove the rust chemically in a rust dissolving fluid that is normally used for de-rusting fuel tanks, but I had no idea how I could soak such a long piece in this fluid.
I came up with the idea to just use a big tarp and put some wood to the sides, put the driveshaft in it and fill it with rust removing liquid. This worked out really well.
It took about 48 hours until all the rust was gone.
After a little of the rust was gone I discovered the remains of the 3 factory markings on the drive shaft. There were three rings painted onto the shaft - two in blue and one in black. I found some small traces of the paint during rust removal. I wanted to re-apply them once the shaft was finished.
When the shaft was fully de-rusted I found out that flash rust would come back literally after only a few minutes. Thats why I decided to paint the shaft to replicate the factory appearance.
I used Eastwood Detail Gray to mimic the original look of bare metal. Before applying the paint, I used self etching primer on the bare metal.
When all the paint was dry, I added the finishing touches with the three color rings.
I´m very happy how it turned out - it looks great. You can see more pictures of this project here.
The driveshaft before…
The location of the first two factory markings. I measured them to make sure that I could replicate them when I painted the driveshaft. The first two markings were (light) blue. 
The location of the third factory marking. I measured it to make sure that I could replicate it once I painted the driveshaft. This marking seemed to be black once.
I soaked the driveshaft for 48 hours in rust removing liquid and used these two brushes to agitate it into the rust.
This is how it looked after soaking for 48 hours. All the rust was completely gone and only bare metal was left.
The finished drive shaft.
The replicated factory markings on the drive shaft. The correct shade of blue color was only a good guess - I think it comes pretty close to the traces of paint I had found.
Back in the car to be able to move it around.
DRY ICE BLASTING THE UNDERCARRIAGE OF THE 1974 CADILLAC
As I want to do it as perfectly as possible, I wanted to remove all the undercoating which was applied when the car was new.
I do not like rubberized undercoating, as you cannot see whats going on underneath. It can trap moisture and once it flakes off due to corrosion, there is already some major damage in the metal underneath.
There are different methods for removing the undercoating and most of the methods are a pain in the a**.
This stuff can be removed with a scraper and chemicals, or with heat and a scraper. Both methods will damage the metal underneath and scratch the paint on the underbody, and it takes forever…
As I did not want to use any of the methods mentioned above, I decided that I wanted to try dry ice blasting.
Dry ice-blasting is a form of carbon dioxide cleaning, where dry ice, the solid form of carbon dioxide, is accelerated in a pressurized air stream and directed at a surface in order to clean it. An alternative media for non-abrasive blasting is water-ice, known as ice blasting.
The method is similar to other forms of abrasive blasting such as sand blasting, plastic bead blasting, or soda blasting but substitutes dry ice as the blasting medium. Dry-ice blasting leaves no chemical residue as dry ice sublimates at room temperature.
Dry-ice blasting involves propelling pellets at extremely high speeds. The actual dry-ice pellets are quite soft, and much less dense than other media used in blast-cleaning (i.e. sand or plastic pellets). Upon impact, the pellet sublimates almost immediately, transferring minimal kinetic energy to the surface on impact and producing minimal abrasion. The sublimation process absorbs a large volume of heat from the surface, producing shear stresses due to thermal shock. This is assumed to improve cleaning as the top layer of dirt or contaminant is expected to transfer more heat than the underlying substrate and flake off more easily. The efficiency and effectiveness of this process depends on the thermal conductivity of the substrate and contaminant. The rapid change in state from solid to gas also causes microscopic shock waves, which are also thought to assist in removing the contaminant.
Unlike abrasive media blasting you cannot remove rust with dry ice blasting.
I found a company through the website of a classic car club, which is only a little over an hour away. I wanted to have it done before the first snow and as soon as possible, so that I could continue working on my car during the winter. The owner of the company did a great job. He is a very friendly and competent gentleman and it was a pleasure working with him.
Here is a short video how it was done: (make sure to watch in HD for proper image quality)
You can find all the pictures I took today in my restoration album.
The car was lifted with a forklift and then covered in plastic.
One of the rear wheel-housings before blasting - you can see the undercoating everywhere. 
The same wheel housing after blasting - all the original paint was still very well preserved under the undercoating. As you can see originally the wheel housing was brown. During painting a lot of overspray from the body landed in the wheel housing. Then Cadillac added rubberized undercoating to protect the metal from stone chips and to keep the car more quiet. Luckily there is no rust to be found anywhere.
During blasting.
The original brown paint showed up underneath the undercoating. The paint is still in perfect condition. 
The original paint showed up underneath the undercoating in the wheel housings as well.
After cleaning - it came out really nice! I will touch up some areas and conserve the others with a special transparent coating.
I´m very happy with the result of the cleaning and will now have to protect everything and paint some areas.
MY WINTER PROJECT FOR 2015/16 - I WILL FRESHEN UP THE 74s UNDERCARRIAGE!
Some other smaller things could happen as well…
The plan is to make the car to look and drive like new until next season. It's such a great car!
I think there are many different approaches for removing the rust from the bottom side of a car.
My personal method and plan so far, was to scrape any loose rust off with a wire brush.
I then steam cleaned the undercarriage.
Next step was to apply a rust removing gel, which I let on over night. Then I steam cleaned the car again to get rid of the gel. The gel is a quite a bit of pain to remove if it's getting dry, especially as I had to do the steam cleaning with the car on jack stands and limited access to the undercarriage. (I can't do this inside the garage over the pit)
So a lot of manual cleaning is necessary after the pressure wash to get rid of the gel on areas I cannot hit during the pressure wash... I then applied the gel once again and did the same routine all over again.
I will now mechanically remove the more stubborn rust with some pneumatic tools and wire brushes of various sizes I borrowed from my dear friend Richard.
Once the rust is completely removed, I will use the gel for a last time.
I will then use fine sandpaper to achieve a smooth surface of all metal parts.
If afterwards there is still some minor corrosion left I´m planning to use a rust converter and rust encapsulator to paint everything.
The oil pan and transmission oil pan will be painted in Bill Hirsch Cadillac blue again. I will completely clean up the fuel and brake lines as well.
The frame and chassis parts will most probably get painted with Eastwood Extreme Chassis Paint in satin black. As a last step I will cover everything in a transparent undercoating wax. This project will keep me busy until next spring as I want to do it very thoroughly and as perfectly as possible. The most common approach most people would do, is to knock off any loose rust, and then paint it with rust converter and rust encapsulator. Thats perfectly fine as well - but I want the underside of my car better than new and in perfect show quality like the rest of the car
You can find all the pictures of the “Restoration“ here.
The 74 has some light surface rust on the undercarriage as most areas were left bare metal at the factory. The original owner did not have the car undercoated. Its nothing major - it is more a cosmetic thing than anything else. I want the car to look as good on the underside as it looks from the in and outside. I will remove as much rust as possible with a wire brush and then use rust removal gel to get rid of all the rust. It´s a messy job - but I want to do it as thoroughly as possible. After everything is clean I will paint the frame with rust preventive paint in semi gloss black paint.
The pit in my garage - this is how I will see my car most of the time for the next months… You can see that I applied some rust removal gel to some areas already. I steam-cleaned the undercarriage before.
A small test spot after only one application of the gel - 2-3 more are recommended.
Thats the gel I´m using - it seems to be a great product. I got it through www.rostio.de . 
After the first coat of rust remover gel. It looks very promising.
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- 1967 Cadillac Eldorado Repair Tip
- 1967 Cadillac Repair Tip
- 1967 Eldorado
- 1968
- 1970 Cadillac Eldorado
- 1971
- 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III
- 1974
- 1974 Cadillac Coupe DeVille
- 1974 Cadillac Repair Tip
- 1976
- 1977
- 1978
- 1978 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz
- 1978 Cadillac Repair Tip
- 1980 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz
- 1996
- 2012
- 2014
- 2017
- 2018
- 2019
- 2022
- 2023
- 3063206
- 7027235
- 7800483
- 7805675
- 7805676
- 12355706
- 17058531
- 17059968
- 17059969
- 22010515
- 22010661
- A.I.R
- A6
- AC
- AC Compressor
- AC Electrical Diagram
- ACC
- Accelerator Pump
- Accelorator pump
- Actuators
- Adriatic Blue Metallic
- Ads
- Aftermovie
- Air Pump
- Aircondition
- AIRPUMP
- ALC
- Alternator
- AM
- AM-Transmitter
- Antenna
- Anti Rattle Clips
- Antique Gold
- Arizona Vintage Parts
- Arrival
- Article
- ASC
- Ash Tray removal
- ATC
- Atlantis Blue Firemist
- Austria
- Austro Classic
- Autolite SP-459
- Automatic Seat Back Release
- Award
- Banner
- Barn Find
- Battery
- Battery Tray
- Beach Race
- Bearing
- Bendix
- Biarritz
- Bigfoot
- Bill Hirsch Engine Enamel
- Bleeder Screws
- Blower
- Bolts
- Borg
- Brake Booster
- Brake Fluid
- Brake Gray
- Brakes
- Broken Bolt
- Brougham
- Bucket seats
- Buick
- Bumper End
- Bushings
- Cadillac
- Cadillac BIG Meet
- Cadillac BIG Meet
- Cadillac birthday cake
- Cadillac Blue
- Cadillac Color Selections Dealer Book
- Cadillac Coupe deVille
- Cadillac Dealer
- Cadillac Meeting
- Cadillac Mini Meeting
- Camaro RS
- Caorle
- Car Show
- Carburetor
- Card
- Carpet
- Carter AFB
- Cavalry Twill Vinyl
- CB
- CBM
- CCCD
- Choke
- Christmas
- Citizens Band
- Classic Cadillac Club Deutschland
- Clay Towel
- Cleaning
- Clock
- Clockwork
- Clutch
- Clutch Coil
- Collector
- Colonial Yellow
- Color Coded Springs
- Commercial
- Compound
- Compressor
- Condenser
- Continental Mark III
- Control Head
- Conversion
- Convertible top
- Coolant
- Corona
- Cowl
- Cruise Control
- Cruising
- CV Boots
- CV JOINTS
- D6230
- Dash Trim
- Decal Removal
- Decals
- Decoration
- Dehumidifier
- Delco Moraine
- Der Standard
- detailing
- Deville
- Diagnosis Chart
- Diagram
- Dial
- Digital Rotary Drum Clock
- Diner
- Disc Brakes
- Distributor
- Diverter Valve
- Door Jamb Switch
- Door Rubber Conduit
- Dornbirn
- Dot3
- Drive Shaft
- Driving tour
- Drum brakes
- Dry Ice Blasting
- Dry Ice Cleaning
- DVD
- Eastwood
- Eldorado
- Electric Choke Thermostat
- Electrical schematic
- Elvis
- Engine Bay
- Ep
- Epoxy floor
- Europe
- Evaporator
- Exide
- Factory Markings
- Fender Skirt
- Floor
- Flushing
- Foam
- For Sale
- Front AXLE
- Front brakes
- Front bumper filler
- Front Floor
- Front wheel bearing
- Fuel Filter
- Fuel Pump
- Fuel Sending Unit
- Fusible Link
- Garage
- Garage Cabinets
- Gasket
- GE
- Gear indicator
- General Time
- Glove box light
- Grand European
- H4
- Haus of Hot Rod
- Headlight Actuator
- Headlight doors
- Headlights
- Heater Core
- Heater Hose
- Heater Valve
- High Idle
- Holley
- Honest John
- Hood
- Hood Emblem
- Hood Ornament
- Hose Clamp
- Hot Choke
- Hot Water Valve
- HotRod
- How to
- Hödlmayr
- Ignition Diagram
- Illuminated Entry
- John D‘Agostino
- John Foust
- Klassikwelt Bodensee
- Kremsmünster
- LaSalle
- Leather seats
- Light Switch
- Limited
- Lincoln
- Lincoln Mark III Repair Tip
- Low Mileage
- Magazine
- Marilyn Monroe
- Mark III
- Master Cylinder
- Master Switch
- Master Vacuum Switch
- Media Blasting
- Meeting
- Meguiras
- MK II
- Mobile
- Model
- Moldings
- Mom
- Mopar Nationals
- Mostkost Kustom
- Movie
- Neon
- NOS
- Oberösterreicher des Tages
- oilchange
- ORF
- Overspray
- Pacer
- Paint
- Paint correction
- Paintjob
- Part Number
- Parts
- Patch Panel
- Perfect Circle
- Permabag
- Persian Lime
- Photo shooting
- Photoshooting
- Pictures
- PinUp
- POA Valve
- Power Antenna
- Power Servo
- Power Vent Windows
- Power Window
- Printed Circuit Board
- Programmer
- Pulley
- Quadrajet
- Quarter Panel
- Quartz Conversion
- R134
- Radiator
- Radio
- Rattle
- Rear brakes
- Rebuild
- Recalibrate
- RediRad
- Reed Switch
- Relais
- Relaunch
- Removing Overspray
- Repaint
- Repair
- Restoration
- RIP
- Roadhouse
- Roadmaster
- Rochester
- Rocker Arm Cover
- Rocker Panel Extension Clips
- Rostio
- Rotary Valve
- Rotterdam
- Rupes
- Rust removal
- Rust removal gel
- Sabre Wheels
- Sand Blasting
- Sandblasting
- Screed
- Season Greetings
- Seasons Greetings
- Seat Back Locks
- Seat Padding
- Seat Transmission
- See through ornament
- Self adjusters
- Sepp's Garage
- Seville
- Sheetmetal
- Shocks
- shop manual
- short
- Sign
- Solenoid
- Spark Plug Wire Routing
- Speakers
- Special Award
- Speed Bleeder Screws
- Splash Guard
- Starter Diagram
- Starter Motor
- Steering Column
- Storage
- suction throttling valve
- sunroof
- suspension
- Swirl Mark removal
- Switzerland
- T3
- Taillight Cover
- Texan´s Choice Award
- Thermostat
- Tilt and Telescope
- Time capsule
- Tomsclub
- Torque Specifications
- Tower Hose Clamp
- Towtruck
- Transducer
- Transmission
- transmission control selector
- transmission control selector indicator light
- transmission shift indicator
- Treadle Vac
- Treffen
- Tri-Band
- Troubleshooting
- Trunk Cardboard Kit
- Trunk lining
- Trunk to bumper cover
- Turn Signal Switch
- TV
- Typisierung
- Ultimate Garage
- Underbody
- Undercarriage
- Undercoating
- Undercoating Removal
- Vacuum Booster
- Vacuum diagram
- Vacuum hoses
- Vacuum Master Switch
- Vacuum Schematic
- Vacuum Valve
- Valve Cover
- Various
- Vent Window Switch
- Vibration
- Vibrator
- Vicodec roof
- Video
- Vinegar
- Vinyl Roof
- Visitor
- Washer Fluid Float
- Washer Fluid Low Level Indicator
- Water Pump
- Wax
- Weatherstripping
- Website News
- Westclox
- Wheel Bearings
- Wheel Housing
- Wiesbaden
- Windlace
- Winter
- Wiring
- Wiring Diagram
- Wonderbar
- Workbench
- Zurzach