Prologue

A few, few days ago...
In an area far, far away (from the equator)...

Dr. X, once called Mr. X, had recently returned from a holy voyage deep into the land of Automobili. He spoke of his adventures in his infamous monotone, sharing tails of custom pistons, old men with radiators, and women dressed in logos. I didn`t believe him. He spoke of a fine old sage, named Sir Enzo Tajerhiro Bristol Vagnale III who honored him with the title "Doctor". The only difference I noticed was Dr.X often wore a paper bag on his head and mimicked the mechanical breathing sounds of Darth Vader.

When I asked about the above breathing sounds his response was terse, "I am not breaking, I am a large displacement piston creating a vacuum during the down stroke, filling my cylidner with a glorious mixture of fuel and air, primed for a glorious explosion." Mr....errrr Dr.X`s `holy voyage` must of have been more like a peyote trip in the New Mexico desert I thought.


Day One: A New Hope.

In the twelve months that had passed since my last trip to Area 51, Dr. X`s collection had grown. Additionally Dr.X has purchased an additional storage area to house the ever growing collection and had requested his crew hand neon lights about the place. More proof of peyote influence.

The frigid atmosphere filled my lungs as I exited my transport to the secret location. Round 4.

The first step was to unpack all of the supplies needed to tend to the collection.

Any empty table (how clever)



Mikey and I started by unpacking the polishing pads.. A mixture of 4, 5, and 6 inch Lake Country pads in every color of the rainbow as well as Lake Country H20 pads and Lake Country`s 1Pad polishing system.




We also unpacked our cleaning chemicals and abrasive papers. The line up included products from Meguiar`s, Optimum, Pinnacle, PS21s and Blackfire.




Polishing and compounds used were from Meguiar`s, Menzerna, or Blackfire.








The Ford RS 200 "Evolution"- The fastest accelerating car built until the McLaren F1.

Ford decided to rally race in the mid 1980s. In 1987 Ford built 24 RS Evolutions for road use in Europe. Featuring a wild 550-615 horsepower engine and a curb weight less than 2400 lbs, magazine tests had the car hitting 60 from a stop in under 2.5 seconds running 10 second 1/4 miles. This built in the day when Porsche was king with their 450 horsepower 959...
The Guiness Book of World Records listed the RS 200 Evolution as the fastest accelerating production vehicle in the world for 12 years.

Since it was never sold in the US and since only 24 were built you may have never heard of it, but it makes WRX owners shake at night.

The RS 200 was washed with Optimum No-Rinse and clayed by Mikey using Pinnacle Clay.




A fair amount of contamination had gathered in the 25 years since it was built.




The defects where impossible to capture in the lighting and Dr.X had ordered only a minor clean up since this car will be used on the road. Meguiar`s M105 on a Flex PE 14-2-150 rotary and a LC tangerine pad cleaned up 95 percent of the defects and Blackfire Finishing Polish via a gray pad on the same machine gave the white a nice glow. 2 coats of Blackfire Wet Diamond sealed in the shine.









Day one came to a swift and easy ending. I felt refreshed and ready for the challenges that lay ahead. I stayed at Mikey`s place, an old paint and body shop turned into a house, named The Lair. Next to my bed sleep and old Abarth Double Bubble. I tucked myself into bed and drifted off, thinking of the Buddy "The Rocky Mountain Legend" and the beautiful, warm Carolinas.


Day Two: Let`s ghia rocked...

I arrived at Area 54 and was anxious to see what was next in the studio. I was hoping for something small, tiny, and dark in color. Instead I met the Ghia 450 SS Convertible.

The Ghia 450 SS Convertible.

Ghia is a famous coach builder from Italy and was noted for building some beautiful automobiles for Alfa Romeo, Fiat, and even Volkswagen. The Ghia 450 SS is the only automobile that was ever labeled as a Ghia, making it the only production Ghia built. Only 52 of these hand built Italian exotics, this example featuring an optional hard top. The powertrain is actually a Mopar Commando V8.

History aside, this car was in rough condition, with deeper scratching all over the paint. After a bath in the new Blackfire shampoo and a thorough application of the clay bar I got to work. Meguiar`s M105 and a wool pad made quick work of most of the deeper marks, wielded on the venerable FLEX PE 14-2-150 rotary polisher.

This was followed with Meguiar`s M105 and a Orange Light Cutting pad on the FLEX rotary, and finally Menzerna P085rd on a crimson pad via the Porter Cable. This was topped with two coats of Blackfire Wet Diamond All Paint Protection.

The begging condition: the best I could capture on red.




And after three rounds of paint correction.




Working the hood of the Ghia SS with the FLEX rotary and a Lake Country 1Pad Wool pad.




The FLEX PE 14-2-150 offered perfect control during the second stage of polishing, here using a 5.5 inch pad on the tiny lip of the trunk.




Working across the trunk while Mikey (far right and barely visible) handles the hand polishing duties around the tail lights.




50/50 of the door, before/after...




The large surface area of the Ghia SS took nearly a full day to complete the first two stages of polishing. At 10:00 PM we packed it up and called it a night. The temperature had dropped considerably since the first day and it spent of most of the night covered in 4 blankets, dreaming of the Florida beach and direct sun.