Final Touch
New member
I know you guys hate posts with few detailing 'details' as per technique but I couldn't resist a post about the vehicles that I had through in the last 10 days. It's been ages since I had such a varied week or so.
It started with one of my dream vehicles. The Stillen Ford GT. I'd been wanting to get it on our stand for a local motorshow Speedshow 24-25 July 2010, ASB Showgrounds, Auckand. NZ's premier event dedicated to the world of speed. but I'd been cut off at the pass by the organisers of the show who pulled rank and poped it at the entrance of the show beside the Stillen GTR.
Thankfully for me Steve Millen was still pretty keen for me to prep it for the show and I got to do it anyway. (Unfortunately he had to drive it to the show in the rain so it wasn't optimum on the weekend but still pretty good)
On the weekend
Steve let me put graphics on it cause he was so stoked with the result
I felt pretty honored (note the wheel wells and rocker panels etc... covered in muck after the wet trip)
Some Shots from on the day of the detail
So with the GT out of the picture for the show I was left looking for 2 other cars, and the cars of choice were a Detomaso Panterra and a Dodge Viper ACR. Both of which are pretty hard to come by in NZ.
We found a Panterra and it's owned by the coolest guy. (He asked me to drive it back to him after the show and it's about a 40min drive so that was more than I could have dreamed of)
The Panterra was our Detail for Saturday with the Viper on Sunday. They both came up stunning but as we watched the Viper leave I declared it the best detail we'd ever done. The reflections were fantastic (a buy-product of polishing all day under about 20 spotlights) Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to get any shots outside as all the cars left in a big hurry and security was pushing everyone along but we got a couple of average shots of it inside.
When I dropped off the Panterra the owner was pretty keen for me to take his 61 Porsche 356 convertible to our workshop for a few days to polish and touch up a fair collection of big stonechips across the front for him.
Here's the front with most of the stonechips airbrushed to fill them up.
And a shot after a couple of sprays with the excess paint removed, there was one really big one that you can see that had a raised edge where the paint had lifted slightly but the result was OK as he doesn't want to strip it back and paint at this time.
Then polished and a quick detail before delivery.
He's got a few other porsches and an Audi S4 Avant that he wants me too look at so he's one of my new best friends. He lets me drive his cars and seems to get a kick out of others enjoying them. I'd never driven a 356 previously and his smile was as big as mine when I delivered it back to him.
So that was all good but then in the aftermath of the show we had this to do. Which is only 3 months old and we got to hear the magic words "better than new" which are always so nice to hear.
2010 HSV GTS Special order Ltd edition with big brake kit etc... (one of 2 in NZ I believe)
The owner was pretty happy with this so he swapped it for his 4 year old GTS Coupe that's only done 3000Km and will be bringing in his Aston and his AMG Merc. He has the potential to be a pretty good customer.
Then there was this wee machine which I know isn't that exclusive but is a wicked little car to drive. It's like a Go Kart and it came up pretty nice
(only two more...)
We had this come in; a FJ Landcruiser, This is the only one in NZ and they don't get released here till next year so it was pretty cool to be asked to prep it for sale. The owner is asking 95K for it and he'll get it no trouble cause it's so different. (Us Kiwi's pay crazy money for American trucks - we love em' but they're hard to get)
Finally, I had this one to do. We don't usually do many bikes but the owner of this one treats it like her baby and likes to keep it polished and chip free,
It was an unusual week for me. We had all the usual dead ordinary cars in the mix as per normal but to get 4 of my dream cars in one week and one of the funnest wee cars you can drive get thrown in for good measure made for a pretty good week.
Now I'm just fingers crossed that Mr Millen will ask me to detail this one before Targa Rally NZ in October.
It started with one of my dream vehicles. The Stillen Ford GT. I'd been wanting to get it on our stand for a local motorshow Speedshow 24-25 July 2010, ASB Showgrounds, Auckand. NZ's premier event dedicated to the world of speed. but I'd been cut off at the pass by the organisers of the show who pulled rank and poped it at the entrance of the show beside the Stillen GTR.
Thankfully for me Steve Millen was still pretty keen for me to prep it for the show and I got to do it anyway. (Unfortunately he had to drive it to the show in the rain so it wasn't optimum on the weekend but still pretty good)
On the weekend
Steve let me put graphics on it cause he was so stoked with the result
I felt pretty honored (note the wheel wells and rocker panels etc... covered in muck after the wet trip)
Some Shots from on the day of the detail
So with the GT out of the picture for the show I was left looking for 2 other cars, and the cars of choice were a Detomaso Panterra and a Dodge Viper ACR. Both of which are pretty hard to come by in NZ.
We found a Panterra and it's owned by the coolest guy. (He asked me to drive it back to him after the show and it's about a 40min drive so that was more than I could have dreamed of)
The Panterra was our Detail for Saturday with the Viper on Sunday. They both came up stunning but as we watched the Viper leave I declared it the best detail we'd ever done. The reflections were fantastic (a buy-product of polishing all day under about 20 spotlights) Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to get any shots outside as all the cars left in a big hurry and security was pushing everyone along but we got a couple of average shots of it inside.
When I dropped off the Panterra the owner was pretty keen for me to take his 61 Porsche 356 convertible to our workshop for a few days to polish and touch up a fair collection of big stonechips across the front for him.
Here's the front with most of the stonechips airbrushed to fill them up.
And a shot after a couple of sprays with the excess paint removed, there was one really big one that you can see that had a raised edge where the paint had lifted slightly but the result was OK as he doesn't want to strip it back and paint at this time.
Then polished and a quick detail before delivery.
He's got a few other porsches and an Audi S4 Avant that he wants me too look at so he's one of my new best friends. He lets me drive his cars and seems to get a kick out of others enjoying them. I'd never driven a 356 previously and his smile was as big as mine when I delivered it back to him.
So that was all good but then in the aftermath of the show we had this to do. Which is only 3 months old and we got to hear the magic words "better than new" which are always so nice to hear.
2010 HSV GTS Special order Ltd edition with big brake kit etc... (one of 2 in NZ I believe)
The owner was pretty happy with this so he swapped it for his 4 year old GTS Coupe that's only done 3000Km and will be bringing in his Aston and his AMG Merc. He has the potential to be a pretty good customer.
Then there was this wee machine which I know isn't that exclusive but is a wicked little car to drive. It's like a Go Kart and it came up pretty nice
(only two more...)
We had this come in; a FJ Landcruiser, This is the only one in NZ and they don't get released here till next year so it was pretty cool to be asked to prep it for sale. The owner is asking 95K for it and he'll get it no trouble cause it's so different. (Us Kiwi's pay crazy money for American trucks - we love em' but they're hard to get)
Finally, I had this one to do. We don't usually do many bikes but the owner of this one treats it like her baby and likes to keep it polished and chip free,
It was an unusual week for me. We had all the usual dead ordinary cars in the mix as per normal but to get 4 of my dream cars in one week and one of the funnest wee cars you can drive get thrown in for good measure made for a pretty good week.
Now I'm just fingers crossed that Mr Millen will ask me to detail this one before Targa Rally NZ in October.