Superior Shine
02-05-2010, 10:04 PM
This is much more than a story about an old ‘32 hot rod. This is a story were a tragic event ultimately brought together a bunch of gear heads to come to the need of one of our own.
Mr. Davis doesn’t live far from me. I’d drive by his house after work on my way home and see him out in front of his home waving at passerbys in support of his beloved pet “Moe” which was taken away from him and his wife by the local authorities.
I knew he was a gear head because I have seen him at local cruise nights and classic car shows that he would attend in a little black hot rod
One day while he was visiting Moe at a wild life sanctuary he was savagely attacked by two chimpanzees that had escaped from their cage.
The attack left him unable to finish an old hot rod he had worked on years ago. When word got out about Mr. Davis old skool hot rod, gear heads at from the Cal-Rods ( www.Cal-Rods.com ) car club and Pete Chapouris / So-Cal speed shop (SO-CAL Speed Shop (http://www.so-calspeedshop.com) ) among others, came together to finish it.
The car had been sitting out doors parked under a canopy and covered with a tarp. It wasn’t much protection from the elements.
The car ultimately was completely disassembled and redone 100% by volunteers. Everything had been redone except for the paint. That is where we come in. Mr. Davis either painted this lil car outside or in his garage years ago. It had never been wet sanded and polished.
I was honored to be asked to come in and polish the ’32. Our task was to make her shine. We only had one chance at it. No going back and painting anything if we messed up. We took it easy, took our time and gently brought a shine out of the old paint.
I had in my arsenal of all the latest Meguiars goodies, #105, #205, etc.. It was evident pretty quickly that I had the wrong types of products for this paint. When I come across a paint that I am going to shine, I let the paint tell me what it take for it to surrender a shine to me.
Luckily I had been polishing since the early 80s so I had some experience to fall back on when this old girl was getting stubborn. I made a mad dash back home and dusted off some old Meguiars products I hadn’t used in years such as #4.
14 man hours later we completed our work. The finish wasn’t perfect but I appreciated it. It had character. It shined. Evident was the touch of a gentleman that had spent countless hours cutting, chopping and molding this work of art before he laid down the paint in his home garage. I greatly admired it.
Mr. Davis doesn’t live far from me. I’d drive by his house after work on my way home and see him out in front of his home waving at passerbys in support of his beloved pet “Moe” which was taken away from him and his wife by the local authorities.
I knew he was a gear head because I have seen him at local cruise nights and classic car shows that he would attend in a little black hot rod
One day while he was visiting Moe at a wild life sanctuary he was savagely attacked by two chimpanzees that had escaped from their cage.
The attack left him unable to finish an old hot rod he had worked on years ago. When word got out about Mr. Davis old skool hot rod, gear heads at from the Cal-Rods ( www.Cal-Rods.com ) car club and Pete Chapouris / So-Cal speed shop (SO-CAL Speed Shop (http://www.so-calspeedshop.com) ) among others, came together to finish it.
The car had been sitting out doors parked under a canopy and covered with a tarp. It wasn’t much protection from the elements.
The car ultimately was completely disassembled and redone 100% by volunteers. Everything had been redone except for the paint. That is where we come in. Mr. Davis either painted this lil car outside or in his garage years ago. It had never been wet sanded and polished.
I was honored to be asked to come in and polish the ’32. Our task was to make her shine. We only had one chance at it. No going back and painting anything if we messed up. We took it easy, took our time and gently brought a shine out of the old paint.
I had in my arsenal of all the latest Meguiars goodies, #105, #205, etc.. It was evident pretty quickly that I had the wrong types of products for this paint. When I come across a paint that I am going to shine, I let the paint tell me what it take for it to surrender a shine to me.
Luckily I had been polishing since the early 80s so I had some experience to fall back on when this old girl was getting stubborn. I made a mad dash back home and dusted off some old Meguiars products I hadn’t used in years such as #4.
14 man hours later we completed our work. The finish wasn’t perfect but I appreciated it. It had character. It shined. Evident was the touch of a gentleman that had spent countless hours cutting, chopping and molding this work of art before he laid down the paint in his home garage. I greatly admired it.