New paint.

[Vetter]

Hi everyone! Decided to give my XLR a new paint job, just wanted to replace both front and rear bumper covers and get rid of a few imperfections. Also want to change the color a little, keep it silver but add a little more metallic.
incidentally I ordered two new bumper covers because they are still available, so figured now would be the time to get them before they are all sold out and not available anymore.
Currently just started sanding the body down and block sanded all the body lines to accentuate them more, will next fix a few flaws then finish sand.
I figured everyone may like to see one of these beauties in rough form!

 

[long Tall Sally]

are you going back with stock 04 bumpers? these cars are pretty easy to take apart for paint .Sort of like the saturns used to be. There area couple of waves in the fenders at the rear about half way up. I usually block those out and it does not require any filler jus ta coat of primer. Also I noticed some 04 have a wide gap at the door to 1/4 panel above the handle and at the 1/4 glass. Its not an adjustment just a mold issue. some don't but those that do I fill that and make a little tighter gap. when I reach my hand in to open the door, I am looking right down at the gap that seems to V out and get wide at the glass. What paint are you going to use? that will cost you about the value of the car/ haha

 

[Vetter]

Yes, I assume they are the stock 04 bumper covers, I ordered them and supplied the VIN #, is there a difference between bumpers?
I haven't noticed the waves in the fenders, or the door gaps, I will check these areas out better. But I did notice the passenger door doesn't line up perfectly with the front fender, when I remove the mirrors I'm going to try and align this better. The driver side aligns perfectly.
I priced Dupont paint and the base coat alone is about $600 for a gallon. I usually never stick with stock if I don't have to, I painted another Cadillac with Eastwood silver a few years ago and I really liked the way it looked. So I will probably be going with Eastwood Top Chop Silver Metallic, it's a very close match but with more metallic, I really like this color and I think it will look good on my XLR.

 

[long Tall Sally]

wet you a rag and wipe the fenders in that area. Not all had that wave as they are molded plastic but some did Eastwood makes a good paint .The base is much less important with an overall paint job. I might cut corners on base when doing an all over and not worried about a match ( be sure to keep some sealed for later) but not on the clear. buy good clear and you will be happy. I was at sema and talked to a china paint company and bought enough base and clear for a car in sunburst orange ( BMW color) it took a bout 6 weeks as it cam freight but cost me less than 200 for all the material. The same color and amount in PPG was almost 2500 . I had never heard of the company but did research and they sell more paint than Dupont and ppg combined .In china their paint is in almost every major collision shop. We pay a lot for advertising to dupont and others.

 

[Vetter]

.Sort of like the saturns used to be.

That's interesting you compare the Saturn to these cars, about 2002 I worked for a company that made the Saturn L-series doors, and I was responsible for them. GM was doing a FE build on these cars, but no one could understand why because we knew they were fazing the car out of production. GM required me to make a weekly trip to their tech center to discuss any issues with the assemblies, they had these Saturns and the prototype Cadillacs they called the Evoq in the same room. That was the first time I saw the now XLR in grey body, and it makes sense they were looking at any production issues with the Saturn because they had the same polymer panels.
Anyway, what clear coat would you recommend using on these polymer paneled cars?

 

[long Tall Sally]

I use ppg as I get a good deal. People do not realize that he doors being smc grow the same in all directions when it gets warm. the fenders and 1/4 panels grow front to rear . that's why a door gap may get bigger or smaller in the heat. That's also why the fender and 1/4 bolts even thought tiny and self tapping have a very specific torque value to allow the panels to move, If you like dupont I pmd you about some clear I have you might like.

 

[Vetter]

I use ppg as I get a good deal. People do not realize that he doors being smc grow the same in all directions when it gets warm. the fenders and 1/4 panels grow front to rear . that's why a door gap may get bigger or smaller in the heat. That's also why the fender and 1/4 bolts even thought tiny and self tapping have a very specific torque value to allow the panels to move, If you like dupont I pmd you about some clear I have you might like.

Absolutely, we were always told the polymer panels could move +- 3mm, so that was why there was so much variation in the panels that attached to our doors. This was always a issue for the assembly plant, they were constantly chasing this issue.

 

[Vetter]

Hood vent

I was browsing some Corvette hood vents, and found this one for a C6, I thought it fit the hood design of the XLR very well. So while I was doing the repaint I decided I would add a little more detail to the hood. I just like a little customization, I also opened up the grill so it flows air now, so I figured this would help with airflow too. Plus I like you can look through the louvers and see the Cadillac emblem on the engine cover.

 

[long Tall Sally]

I like it, I t will be interesting to see if your engine temps also drop down a bit. are you going tp paint it car color/ I saw a photo of an xlr with two small ones almost just like 1/2 of that mounted on either rear side of the hood.. I bet it was that vent split in two.

 

[Vetter]

Yes it will be interesting to see if the engine temps drop, I know that Northstar in that confined space sure seemed like it ran warm. I think I am going to paint the grill black, so I planned on keeping this vent black too just to keep them matching and kinda give it a "road rally" type look.

 

[David_B]

Since you can't get headlights anymore, the call for bumper covers will probably never exceed the number of bumper covers in stock.

 

[long Tall Sally]

the recondition company (keystone) has a ton of bumpers and don't sell any

 

[Vetter]

Since you can't get headlights anymore, the call for bumper covers will probably never exceed the number of bumper covers in stock.

I don't know, there are always options and I think someone will come up with a alternative. I thought about welding up some inserts and painting them body color just to be different. I think these cars are starting to come way down on price, so the customizers may start doing some interesting stuff?

 

[Vetter]

the recondition company (keystone) has a ton of bumpers and don't sell any

Maybe I was looking in the wrong places, but all the reconditioned bumper covers I found for these cars were the same or cost more than new? So I figured it was a better option to go new.