Ken Lingenfelter Car Collection---pretty amazing stuff here!

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Zeno01

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My '87 Mercedes 560 SL has polished stainless steel bumper covers. Instead of big chromed steel bumpers (which, from the outside, these look like), the steel is inside, hidden by these large covers which are probably something like 1/16" thick. They look like chrome, but are actually polished stainless.



These covers are damaged with lots of scratches, but no dents. None of the scratches are super-deep, but they're certainly more than swirl marks. Replacing these covers will run about $350. I'm curious how I'd go about polishing stainless steel. I've got a Dewalt rotary buffer, but I have no idea what type of abrasives to use.



Any suggestions?
 
You need to use a buffing wheel or high speed rotary buffer and jewelers rouge to get the best results. I have done this before. It's possible to make substantial improvements to the finish.



The rouge and other compounds come in solid blocks and can be gotten at Sears and most hardware stores in the buffing/grinding section.
 
He cant afford all those cars just from one successful tuning company.... anyone know if he has other business ventures, inheritance money etc?

I googles but could find much... except this

"What is your favorite car in the collection to take for a drive?
-My Ferrari F430 Spider. It?s an incredible car.

A big thanks to Mr. Ken Lingenfelter for taking the time to answer my questions amidst his busy show schedule!"


You have a Carerra GT, F40 and Ford GT... and a 430 spider is your favoirte to drive? On ya on crack?
 
I need to get around to posting my pictures from when I was invited to see this collection...

It is impressive to say the least, the paint on these vehicle is in not so great condition.

There are 3 warehouses, 1 for exotics one for Vette's and one for muscle cars. When you drive up to the location you would never expect to find this collection in the industrial park in which it is located.

A few teasers

I thought the scale model of the Reventon was pretty cool:

IMG_0120.jpg


This has some mean curves:
IMG_0105.jpg


I really dug the 1954 Corvette concept car:
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Total Drool factor:
IMG_0019.jpg


Straight Automotive History!:
IMG_0002.jpg

IMG_0001.jpg
 
Street Dreams said:
He cant afford all those cars just from one successful tuning company.... anyone know if he has other business ventures, inheritance money etc?
Click to expand...

Well he did get the business when John died so I would bet he got some sort of inheritance too. I also think you would be shocked at the kind of money that "tuning company" makes ;)
 
You guys can youtube "The Sultan of Michigan" for videos.

Jason - if we get to work on a couple of cars before you do - I'll certainly be giving you a call to come give us a hand along with Shaun. Would certainly be cool to have all of Michigan's best working at once!
 
Street Dreams said:
He cant afford all those cars just from one successful tuning company.... anyone know if he has other business ventures, inheritance money etc?

I googles but could find much... except this

"What is your favorite car in the collection to take for a drive?
-My Ferrari F430 Spider. It?s an incredible car.

A big thanks to Mr. Ken Lingenfelter for taking the time to answer my questions amidst his busy show schedule!"


You have a Carerra GT, F40 and Ford GT... and a 430 spider is your favoirte to drive? On ya on crack?
Click to expand...


If crack gets you to that level of success. Mr Lingenfelter, pass me tha pipe <:-P
 
Ken aquired his $$ when he owned Metro Title which he sold for around $500 million prior to the crash of the Michigan economy. I have 3 friends that have taken private (less than 5 people) tours of his collection in Brighton, MI. All the cars are in beutiful condition, but desparately are in need of polishing/cleaning to make 100% perfect. He has a gentleman(retiree) that works full time for him maintaining his vehicles, but that only consists of washing, driving and servicing. There are no detailers currently and from what I was told there isn't any plans for one. I guess Ken is a guy who doesn't view perfect paint as an attribute that collectors cars should inherit. He likes the natural patina that accumulates over time. His collection is very nice, but overall he probably isn't even ranked in the top 100 for collection value. The majority of his vehicles are worth less than $200K and are easily aquireable by collector's opinion. In retrospect, many classic Ferrari's like a 250 GTO alone are worth more than all of his cars combined.
 
The one Ferrari that really caught my attention was the 288 GTO! Talk about my dream car. Being the predecessor to the F40. It was the first production car to ever reach 186mph. So I better get to work now so I can afford one of the 272 288GTO's made :w00t: :(
 
muttgrunt said:
Jason - if we get to work on a couple of cars before you do - I'll certainly be giving you a call to come give us a hand along with Shaun. Would certainly be cool to have all of Michigan's best working at once!
Click to expand...

Hey Marc,

That would be great but from my discussion with Ken the impression was that he "has people for this" and when I highlighted the defects to the curator of the collection he was not concerned with them. Proper detailing of the collection is something that they are not interested in nor see value in...

But hey, if you crack the safe I'm in

David Fermani said:
All the cars are in beutiful condition, but desparately are in need of polishing/cleaning to make 100% perfect. .
Click to expand...
As usual you are correct, you don't even need a light source (fenix/brinkaman/etc) to see the defects... Case in point the below picture of the rear decklid of a Z8:
IMG_0123.jpg
 
Shnikies, that's an awesome collection.:drool5::drool5::drool5:=P~=P~=P~
 

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