Hi Ryan,
I feel so bad that I just now found this thread... looks like you posted it July 24th and it just fell off the radar somehow...
Mike,
I was wondering if you have in the past, or plan in the future, to prepare cars for Concours d'Elegance? I would think if Ralph Lauren wants to win another Best in Show at Pebble, then he may need to give you a call!
I actually haven't done much of this type of work. I have detailed cars for Concours shows but in all cases it was doing the paint polishing aspect, nothing else. In all cases either the owner was taking care of everything else or there wasn't much to do.
Related to that is I don't really like doing all the other areas as it's more or less just dirty grunt work. My thing has always been paint, you can even ask Joe aka Superior Shine. One time he started a thread asking for help, said he needed some "Detailers" for some projects.
Someone replied to his thread recommending me. Joe replied back and said,
I know Mike Phillips, he's not a detailer, he's a paint polisher.
And it was all meant with due respect and in good fun. I can do just about any aspect of car detailing, the key word though is "like". I actually "like" polishing paint and to me it's the paint on the car that either makes or breaks the big pictures. I also refer to myself as a "big picture detailer".
Below are three good examples of the kind of work I like to do and that I've done almost all of my life, note these cars are clean as clean as a whistle, inside the car, the engine compartment and underneath.
Where they were lacking was in the paint department. They were beautiful show car with ugly, swirled-out, hazy looking paint. It kills me to see such cool cars with horrific looking paint and my natural inclination is to fix them.
These are just four examples but I could post more examples all day but I have other things to to...
1939 Lincoln Zephyr - Swirls Removed - Modeled by Nicole
1970 Barracuda Extreme Makeover
1954 Ford F-100 - Extreme Makeover - Process and products used
Blown 1934 Ford Pick-up - Show Car Makeover - Modeled by Kristin
I would also say that in my life in this industry that the majority of focus by any of the more well known or celebrity detailers is the
paint. Most of the people you would recognize the name of are known for their ability to
polish paint.
Not clean a set of floor mats. Can anyone name the famous detailer that's known the world over for cleaning floor mats or door panels? Whoever he is he deserves all the glory coming to him.
:dunno:
But if someone were to start a list of the top detailers in the world, what is it do you think they are known for?
I dare say,
polishing paint.
Polishing paint is both a craft and an art form
in my humble opinion. It's easier to do now days than ever before but when creating a true work of art the person doing the work truly pours themselves into the object of which they are working on. Like described
here.
Really, this popped into my head since you lived in SoCal and other parts of the West Coast and had Monterey and Pebble Beach just up the coast.
I lived most of my life in Oregon and prepped cars for niche concours events in both Oregon and Washington.
When I moved to California, while I worked on a lot of cool cars, I never prepped any specifically for Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.
Two cool cars that I did the paint polishing on that were in a ton of big cars shows were
Scrape & Titanic. At that time though, they were not allowing this niche of car into Pebble Beach although I think now they have a category or two for these types of cars.
Side note: in the same fashion that Zymöl has a wax for Mr. Lauren and Swissvax has a wax named for Miracle's Paul Dalton, I think Max needs to name a Concours wax after you! It could be called the "Mike Phillips You Found What You Like, Now Use It" wax, or something of the sort.
Ha ha... that's funny... in a good way. I've never met Paul Dalton but have admired his work via forums. One thing I probably admire about him as much as his detailing skills is the way he takes the high road when people of lessor character display their jealousy on forums.
Seems the more successful a person is in any walk of life, the larger the target on their back becomes and sadly there's always a few disgruntled people that like to throw darts and cause problems. The good news is a person's posting history reveals their true character and sooner or later history shows what's really what.
As to my own wax? There are so many good products on the market now days, I mean there are some extraordinary products out there that it's hard to imagine topping any or all of them, (no pun intended). That said, I do have an idea for a product or
LSP as they are now called but that's another topic for another day.
Back to the concours, maybe you would consider Concours d'Elegance preparation in your semi-retirement in X number of years? I think I speak for everyone that would be ecstatic to see a car prepared by you.
Apologies if this has been asked/answered multiple times.
Happy detailing!
I'm definitely open to that idea. Just figuring out the logistics and the framework for such an event is the tricky part. As they say, the Devil is in the details. I'm more interested in these two aspects of car detailing,
Restoring antique and original paint on classic cars.
Wetsanding, cutting and buffing for a show car finish on custom builds.
But all three "types" of car detailing deserve attention.
Thank you very much for participation on our forum, I always like to read your posts and sorry I just now found this thread. I would never normally ignore any thread like this... sometimes it's just hard to keep up with everything going on...
