...just kidding. A line from one of my favorite songs, modified to fit the day.

So after my ****ty morning, my in-laws called to see if we wanted to go to a little car show being held downtown. Every year I forget about this show til they call the day of.

SWEET! I wanted to go, hubby didn't, so I went with them.

Lots of cars from the 30s and 60s. Big BelAirs, a handful of GTOs (LOVE GTOs!), lots of Model As and hot rods. Between 300-400 cars total.

And ONE, lonely, singular, BEAUTIFUL restored 1965 Austin Cooper. Sort of an Indi Blue color, w/UJ roof.

Me ->

It had pictures from pre-restoration, and it was literally pretty much a rust bucket. The restoration was amazing. Just beautiful.

Anyway, my main observation was how FEW of the cars had paint that was in good condition. I get that not all cars can look like brand new...but if you're showing them, shouldn't they be pretty close? I guess I don't get the car show thing...it wasn't a concours event or anything, but I saw MAYBE 20 cars that had really good paint and only 10 that were flawless.

I also noticed how obsessed with paint condition I am. I was walking up to all the cars, trying to get the best angle of the light to look for imperfections

But is that normal for a car show? A lot of the cars looked just awesome from 10 feet away...but when you got up close...

 

i read the first line 'just kidding' and forgot to read the rest of your post.

 

 

ok, i read your post.

and i have to agree that most display cars are swirled pretty badly.
the cars you see at conventions are ikkkk.

it's the concours/show cars that really have the nicest finish.

 

I been shopping.

I want it.

There'd have to be some lotto winning first, though. Boo.

 

Oooooo - Ahhhhh - that is one little beauty....

Donna

 

blink 182? havnt heard that one in a whileeee

 

wait, no that was rock show I think.. hmm idk

 

Yup, that was the reference...good ear!

 

I cringe at each and every car show I attend or enter. It is simply amazing how badly 90% or the cars are swirled. I was at a show this spring in Nebraska and I saw some guy's kid rubbing, and I mean hard, with some crap QD and an old bath towel on an otherwise sweet '57 Chevy. I finally just couldn't take it any more and went over to talk with the guy. His response - his son likes to help and nope never heard of microfiber . I walked - why waste the time .
I've talked to Heather about this as well and she said that most of the hot rod crowd are old school and just don't notice or care about the finish of their $15,000 paint jobs . It's true though, my Dad was that way until I converted him, now he's a Prima user and a swirl noticer.

 

I know what you mean. Back in the mid-eighties, a friend of mine had his Corvair repainted, and when he showed it to me, it had the most heinous buffer swirls and holograms I'd ever seen. The painter had told him that it was "an optical illusion from the new paint being so shiny". After I fixed the paint for him, he took it back to the shop where he had it painted, and the guy that shot the paint just mumbled something and walked off.

 

Obtaining and maintaining a true show car finish isn't something that people who show off their cars necessarily know. At last years SEMA, I took photos of many of the award winning custom paint jobs that were horribly swirled out. Passing my card out to these people didn't do a bit of good though.

 

Absolutely true, and that's a shame, because from a dollar-cost standpoint, getting and maintaining a smooth, swirl-free finish is practically free, compared to the cost of a high-quality paint job.

 

I'm just amazed at how oblivious they are to the swirls. You can point them out, tell them how they can be rid of them and how to prevent them from reoccurring but all you get is that "deer in the headlights" look.
It is so hard these days to find a quality painter and so expensive to get your car painted that you would think you would want it to be as near flawless as possible.
If the kid wants to help tell him to wipe down the muffler, and buy a decent towel for cripes sake and quit using the goo from Wallyworld. How tough can it be.

 

Being a newly converted semi-OCD swirlaphobe... I'm just curious... some of this stuff we take for granted now (the PC, lotsa quality polishes, variety of foam pads, etc.) are fairly recent developments, aren't they? Last few years, anyway? I know guys have been using rotaries and wool bonnets forever...

'Cause maybe it's just that, if you got your learnin' more than a few years ago, you have a totally different understanding of what's practical for mere mortals than we do... because what was practical, say, 10 years ago might be a bunch of swirls and holograms?

Just curious - agree or refute...

 

OMG - that's a beauty.

 

I think that most body shops earn their bread and butter on collision repair work. There is only one high-end shop in Dallas that I know of where I would expect them to be able to buff out the paint to a swirl-free fiish. The other ones would be perfectly happy to pick up their buffer from the shop floor and polish your paint for you if you wanted...

 

I agree with you Blimey- the products and technologies that are mentioned around here are fairly new. With that being said you could make the argument that some of the old-school hotrod guys haven't really come across these swirl removing products, etc. But you'd think they might give synthetics a try at least!

 

I wondered if that were some of it...like maybe these guys just don't KNOW???

But at the same time, they're spending $$$$$ on paint jobs and going to shows all over the area. And I DID see paint that was well-cared-for - those cars were the ones that caught my eye right away. So if these guys go to a show and do a little walking around, they'll SEE what their finish should look like.

Maybe they just can't tell the difference? I know when I was home last week, I was trying to show my dad the swirls on his XKE, and he thought I was nuts. If I'd had the stuff on hand to polish them out, I would have, just to show him.

There were a lot of cars at the show that were beautifully restored inside and out...they just lacked that onnnnnne thing, and that was a perfect finish.

Makes me want to have a Prima booth next year, with my blindingly shiny lil MINI to show what it can look like!

 

Yeah - I really think there are a large percentage of entusiasts who have NO IDEA what a swirl or hologram is, nor how to get rid of it, nor have they ever see an OctaneGuy-type "side-by-side" before and after test spot to convince them that there IS a difference in a nice wax job, vs. a nice wax job on top of well polished paint...

A buddy of mine recently bought a used red 911 - beautiful car, with more swirls and fine clearcoat scratches than you can imagine... he was SOOO proud of it. And I pointed out the swirls. And he said, "Yeah, it's a little swirly"... And I told him he could get rid of those and make the paint better than new. He asked how, I hooked him up with Heather, he spent some bucks. I asked him last week if he ever finished polishing his 911 - he replied "Yeah - it was a lot of work but it's PERFECT - now I'm afraid to drive it..." :-)

 

I don't think you are putting enough value on your time. By the hour, good paint care can get real expensive.

 

A lot of the old school guys would rather drive their car than spend the time on proper exterior care. It's a matter of priority.

I'd rather look at 50 year old daily drivers than trailered concours cars. You get a sense of the fun the owners are getting out of their rides. I find the concours cars to be depressing since they aren't being used for their original intent, driving.

 

Not really. You just have to stay on top of it. Some of these show-car paint jobs are $15k+.

 

Well, I used the term "dollar cost" specifically to refer to the cost of materials. I understand and agree that there's also a labour cost involved. But in my case, detailing is also a hobby, so it's not as if the time I spend detailing our vehicles is time that I would rather spend doing something else.

You're right, though - if for some reason I wanted to assign some arbitrary cost per hour on the time I've spent detailing cars and bikes over the years, then I've spent tens of thousands of "dollars" on paint care, but I think that's a meaningless calculation.

 

I'll buy that - to a point. If they aren't bothered by light-to-moderate swirling, and don't want to take the extra time to keep the finish absolutely pristine, that's fine.

What ticks me off is the people that have nice or expensive vehicles that are really grungy, and they say "I'd rather drive/ride it than clean it!", as if they're *proud* of the fact that they're flat-out neglecting an expensive piece of precision equipment.

For me, it's a matter of professionalism and pride of ownership. Just as you don't toss dirty, greasy tools back in your tool chest when you're done with them, you should spend a little time periodically to keep your vehicles clean. They don't have to be perfect, but they should at least be clean.