During this year's auction season here in Scottsdale Arizona, we had
many unique automobiles presented to us from clients with various needs
as far as detailing goes. One vehicle in particular this year that we
consider one of our greatest achievements in our detail career was a
1968 Shelby GT500 Custom Fastback with a fully molded Eleanor
body kit. It was built to sell at Barrett Jackson Auto Auction right
here in Scottsdale Arizona on Friday, January 18th 2013. This iconic
car from the famous movie "Gone in 60 seconds" is one of the most
sought after muscle cars in America. Although this one wasn't the
typical dark metallic silver with black stripes, it carried its own
persona and set the bar for one of the most tough-looking and powerful Eleanors ever built.
We spoke with the builder about detailing a car he was building for the
auction. He told us his vision of the car which hadn't even been sent to
be painted yet; it was essentially a shell bolted to the frame. He
dreamt the car the night before; Triple black, twin supercharged V-8
with a 6 speed transmission, power steering and power brakes, leather
interior, there was no expense to be spared. He told us he wanted the
car to be perfect in every aspect of the word; so this is what we gave
him:
First, when the car came back from the paint booth, and before he began
to build the car and lower the 427 small block into the painted and
clear-coated engine bay, we hopped in the engine compartment. From the
strut towers to the firewall and every painted surface within the
compartment, we three stage sanded it (including one wet) to remove any
imperfections, clear runs, and orange peel. Next, we followed up by performing 4 stages of compounding/polishing, and cutting in corners by
hand, we removed all sand marks and yielded an engine bay that looked
blacker, wetter, and better than 90% of cars' exterior paint on the
market.
