Category Archives: STS-V

DIY Spray Detailer Test 2

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Today I had a good opportunity to retest the DIY Spray Detailer.

STS-V hood with offending debris

STS-V hood with offending debris

On the hood (bonnet) of my Cadillac STS-V I found a patch of bird debris that needed to be removed.   Bird poop can be quite harmful to paint.  The hood was also covered in a light dusting of, well, dust.  I live in Plano, Texas which intended to be a prairie and not a suburb, so we get dust.  The hood needed a good spritz rinse, bird poop removal, and clean-up.

STS-V hood after DIY Spray Detailer spritz, microfiber cloth wipe

STS-V hood after DIY Spray Detailer spritz, microfiber cloth wipe

I adjusted the nozzle on the spray bottle to allow a good stream first, to rinse and break up the debris field.  Then I adjusted to a spray pattern to fog the entire hood. Finally, I used a microfiber towel to wipe and dry the hood.  Spray on, wipe off, easy, done.

My impression is most spray bottles have this sort of adjust-ability for pattern of spray, but the specific bottles I got were from Sam’s Club in the auto parts or industrial supplies area.

The results is a clean, good looking hood free of bird poop and ready for action.

DIY Remove Dealer Emblems from Your Car

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My 2008 Cadillac STS-V came with a Dealer emblem on the trunk lid.  Today’s project was to get that off and enjoy the clean rear that Cadillac intended.

I want to keep the V logo, and the STS.

IMG_0356

Our targets are the “TAYLOR” and subtext “Houston” emblems.

Tools / Materials:

  • Dental floss
  • adhesive removal chemicals or (alternate) car shampoo solution
  • water
  • More dental floss

How to remove dealer emblems

  • Take photos for Before
  • Wrap a long strand of dental floss around your fingers, as if you planned to floss.  Perhaps more than you normally would use.
  • Slide the middle of the floss under one edge of the lettering or emblem to be removed.

    Using dental floss to saw through the adhesive pad attaching the dealer emblem

    Using dental floss to saw through the adhesive pad attaching the dealer emblem

  • Saw with the floss in a back and forth motion, applying slight pressure downward on the floss.  We are trying to saw through the rubber-like adhesive holding the lettering or emblem to the car.
  • Use a new strand of floss once the floss breaks.  Floss is pretty cheap, so use a new piece whenever needed.

    Lots of broken dental floss and discarded Dealer Emblem

    Lots of broken dental floss and discarded Dealer Emblem

  • Once you have the lettering/emblems off, there is probably going to be some adhesive still left on the car where the lettering or emblems were.

    With the emblems removed, there is residual adhesive ready to be scrubbed off

    With the emblems removed, there is residual adhesive ready to be scrubbed off

  • Using the car wash solution and water on a microfiber towel, wash and scrub the adhesive until it washes off the car.  3M actually makes an adhesive removal product that probably makes this easier.  I found that using my DIY Spray Detailer (car wash and water) the adhesive scrubbed off with some effort.
  • Clean up
  • Take photos for After
After successful Dealer emblem removal

After successful Dealer emblem removal

Bruce: How do you know the DIY Remove Dealer Emblems Works?

You can see in the pictures this is the process I used to remove the emblems.  Your paint, car, emblems may present some issues I didn’t have.  But if I were doing this project again I would follow the same process.

Problems you might run in to:

When I asked the Cadillac Dealer to handle this for me, the Service Writer suggested that sometimes the paint underneath the emblem/logo has aged differently than the surrounding paint, which effects the appearance.  I don’t see that issue on my STS-V.

 Speak Up!

Have you successfully removed emblems other ways, or had an emblem removal not go well?  Speak up and share in the comments below!

 

Breakfast, Cadillac CTS-V pickup on Saturday, and He’s off

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I met Jim this morning for breakfast at The Egg & I.  We had a nice visit and a good repast.

We arrived at Boardwalk Porsche in good time and the car was ready to roll, tags on and keys in hand.  Jim pulled it out into the sun for photos.

Click on a photo to zoom in and start slide show mode.  Click the X to return to the blog post.

Next we took a quick confirmation test drive — all systems go.

There was a minor issue from the pre-purchase inspection at Crest Cadillac that one or more plastic push-pin rivets was missing from the underside air deflector.  I brought a few with me and pushed one back into the only place we found open.  I gave Jim some extras.

Jim and I paraded up the road to his hotel where he plans to pack-up, checkout, and put the navigation system on New Jersey and head East.

Hopefully we’ll get updates along the way as he progresses.  I asked him to remember to mention which state he is in if we need to send bail.