Massachusetts man who bought a dead $80,000 Cadillac at 96% off reveals how sandpaper has played a key role in fixing it

Usually, a dead electric car is a pretty telling tale, ending in a deconstruction and a heap of crushed aluminum. But apparently, a small piece of sandpaper can be all it takes to revive a conked-out Cadillac ELR.

Worth $80,000, the Cadillac ELR was one of the manufacturer’s first attempts at an electric vehicle.

And, while 10 years later the brand has some magnificent cars in its lineup, the Cadillac ELR is still quite a stellar beauty.

As is the case with all decade-old cars, though, some need a decent amount of care, and others need to be completely revived. Good job, sandpaper is all it takes.

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YouTuber rebuilds dead 10-year-old Cadillac ELR EV

Cadillac has always been ahead of its time, and that’s no different when we consider EVs, too.

Even now, its futuristic concepts are light-years ahead of their era.

But back in 2014, the Cadillac ELR followed in the tire tracks of the popular Escalade model as the second of many electric cars from the company, boasting a lithium-ion battery pack with 39 miles of range.

Despite just 3,000 being made, popular engineer and YouTube personality Rich Rebuilds has found one in need of some love, as the engine and battery had both packed in.

Having displayed prowess at reviving dead EVs before, this car was right up his alley.

Bought for four percent of its $80,000 value ($3,500), the engineer quickly went about deconstructing the car and finding its cause of ‘death’.

With the battery out, it was tested to be in ‘good’ condition, meaning that the issues were with the connection to the car’s brain.

So, upon diving into the central control unit, coffee stains, grime, and pet hair had all woven in and covered the switches, killing the electrics.

Well, lets use ‘killing’ loosely, as there was a way to drag it back up the ramp from its grave.

How sandpaper fixed an $80K EV

In the upload to his channel, the man revealed that he used sandpaper and alcohol to clean up parts of the electronics, and this restored the connection without scratching through the thin metal.

“Can you see how it made an imprint on that? There’s no reason we can’t just sand like a little bit of light sandpaper,” he said.

“Let’s try alcohol. Science. We’ll just wipe that off with alcohol. Contacts are nice and clean. Again, not a very well-made switch, but hey, it works.

“This means we could actually hold the state of charge and force the engine on. This is great.”

The refined part was then loaded back into the Cadillac ELR and, lo and behold, there was power.

After a few other tweaks and optimizations, the hybrid electric car was wrapped in satin black and finally driven around in style.

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