JustJesus
New member
- Oct 10, 2014
- 1,294
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A neat experience. Thank you for reading.
Just messing. It was a neat experience, but let me share a bit more. Especially for those who are considering putting your name into the hat to be part of something special.
Preface: I had to wait for Competition Ready (CR) to be played on YouTube since I don't have regular TV broadcasting. No cable, no dish, etc. I watch streaming shows, and tried finding the show with no success. I did manage to watch a handful of episodes, and got a pretty good idea as to the format of the show.
"casting call" : When I first saw the thread by Mike Phillips, looking for people in Southern California, I was in disbelief. I don't recall seeing threads like that before. Admittedly, I didn't spend too much time on Autogeek. But I couldn't believe he would be posting such a thread. I thought maybe they always had a crew on standby or something.
I read through the thread, and noted his three groups of people that get priority consideration. Unfortunately, I didn't meet any of the three. The closest was being an ACTIVE member. As mentioned before, I wasn't very active on this forum. I've been around and lurked, but I was more active on the sister site, Autopia. I spent more time there, and posted with much more frequency there. The old "don't know unless you try" came to my head. So I threw in my name. I didn't intend, or think, I'd be on the show itself, but if I could provide a hand and get to see what goes on during the filming, and I figured it would be a cool experience.
"You're on the team" - Shortly after posting to the thread, that I wanted to be considered, I was getting nervous. What if I get chosen? What if I actually get to work on a nice car and....what if I'm "that guy" who messed up?! Yeah, I was getting nervous. Then, when i actually saw that I was on the team, I was both nervous AND excited. A chance to be on the team. A chance to meet AJ. A chance to meet Mr. Mike Phillips himself. To be able to shake the hand of the man I've learned so much from. I've read most of his books, read several of his threads, and seen many of his videos. I've picked up a lot from the man. So to be able to not only meet him, but to be able to work alongside him was exciting.
But I was still nervous! Days went by. I had noticed some of the others posting things like "got the call...spoke with Mike...nice talking to Mike.." but I had't heard from Mike since he posted. I waited patiently. Was nervous that he changed his mind. I didn't tell anybody, other than my wife, about being chosen, as I didn't want to jinx it. Several days went by, when I finally got in touch with him. We talked a bit and covered a few details. Cool chat. And I was "officially" on the team!!
Not official yet- Yes, I just said I was officially on the team. But, still my nerves were acting up. I was waiting for an email with instructions, locations. Any info that I would need. Nothing was coming. My cell phone. I even had to check to see if my phone was working!! And for some odd reason, when I called my cell from my work phone, it wouldn't ring! This took my nervousness up a notch. What if Mike has been trying to call me!!!!! I spent hours with my provider. Couldn't figure out what was up with my phone. When THEY called me, it rang. When I called myself, it wouldn't work! Eventually, my woman called me, so I figured it was just my work phone. Oh well.
OFFICIAL!! - Yup. The day came when I was emailed the Call Sheet. SWEEEEET. I had the email and Call Sheet with all the info I needed. NOW i was officially in!
Research - Now that I had more details, I went and researched a bit to find out more about: AJ. The car collection. The location. The production company. I wanted to know as much as possible beforehand. I like being prepared. My wife says I overdo it.
Location: TOP SECRET! Luckily, I spent some time looking for it online, cuz it's sort of hidden. It's neat, actually.
Cars - The guy has a nice collection. From what I learned online, he had some really cool cars. A Le Mans winning Porsche. A first production run Cobra. The FIRST Corvette to enter Le Mans! The subject vehicle, a 1929 Bentley. I checked the value on that car, and that made me even more nervous. D'OH!
Mapping - Yeah, I mapped out the drive from my place to the secret location. Several times. During several parts of the day. I wanted to make sure I knew how to get there, and how long it would take. The proposed route was always one of two ways. Saw how much time it would take, between 35 min and 1hr 5 min. Got it. I memorized the better route as well. You know, just in case.
Murphy's Law: hahaha. yeah. My phone lost complete service the night before! Serious? Yes. Hours spent trying the SIM chip thing, tried a different phone. Tried several things. Was on phone with cell provider for a damn long time trouble shooting. Eventually, he said it was the SIM, OR, a downed tower. But he said the tower being down shouldn't be the issue. He sent me to the store. Luckily, it was still open for another 30 minutes. Rushed down there. The rep there said, "It's the tower" - He showed me his phone, and said there have been 30-50 people already in the store with the same issue. One tower. Go figure. Oh well.
I got a back up phone and spent time getting that thing up and running. I neglected to do one thing: add data service to it.
Morning of the show: Armed with my non-working phone, using the wi-fi at home, and my back up phone, I kept checking the maps, GPS and whatnot. Here's where the data on the back up came to be important. Without that data part, I wouldn't be able to use my maps app!!!! And my regular cell phone was still down. Crud.
I used the wi-fi to check the maps one last time. Of course, there was an accident on that route I had memorized!!! I had allowed for 1 hour and 45 minutes to get to the location, which was way generous! Well, not anymore. GPS was putting me at being 5-10 min late. Not cool. The best route there, NOW, was an entirely different way. CRUD.
Riding on a high, and with hopes that my cell service was indeed a tower issue, i took a leap of faith and headed out, following the new route. Sure enough, once I was out of the wi-fi range, I lost GPS. NOOOOOOOO. ugh
I kept driving in the general direction. So nervous now. I can call if I had to, using the back up phone, but I was flying blind now. I kept going. And yes. Once I hit a different part of the city, or another city(?), service came back on!!! whoa. According to my "fitbit" my heart rate was increased through all this time! haha.
Arrived: Yes. I made it. And with time to spare. I could relax a little. Finally.
On set: I met up with the guys before we were called in. All were cool guys. Cruz, The Guz, Johnny, and Rigo. We talked, got to know each other some, before going into the area where the cars were.
We met up with the nice lady, Ashley. Signed a form, got our Tees, changed and talked a bit more. We got to see the cars in the collection. We got to see the car we would work on. Eventually, we gathered around with Mike and went over some details. We did an overview of what was going to happen, how, etc.
In speaking with the others, I knew I wasn't alone in being nervous. This helped. Mike was totally cool the entire time. Just another day at the office for him, I'm sure. This was a million dollar car!!!! Not everyday I work on something like that!
I won't give away too much info on the filming. You guys will have to watch the show!
Here's some parts of what did happen, generally speaking.
Filming: Filming was done in stages. Several takes were done on some scenes. There were scenes with just AJ. Some with AJ and Mike. Some with AJ, Mike, and the owner. Some with the detailers. In between scenes where the detailers were not working on the car, we would stand/sit around. We all seemed to be caught up in the filming. It was interesting, to me at least, to see how it's done. The camera guys doing their thing. The director doing his.
I'm sure during editing, I'll see the things we did will not be shown in the same order as filmed. That's how it works. But what do I know
The car itself looked pretty good overall. It wasn't until closer inspection, and with a Scangrip, that we could see the swirls. The tires were clean. Light dust throughout, but it was light. The undercarriage was even pretty clean. Cleaner than my cars, that's for sure.
Somewhere along the line, after we met with Mike Phillips and went over the details, I felt more relaxed. Gone was the nervousness. It was more about the car, and getting the job done at that point. And that was a welcomed relief. That's what I was there for, after all. To make this car look better. And we did.
Products- It was pretty cool that I had a chance to try new-to-me products. Some of those included:
- Pinnacle. A vast array of Pinnacle products. I FINALLY had a chance to use Souveran. Smells good and is easy to work with. We also used some of the polishes. Also easy to work with.
-Flex extension cord! - Nice cord. I liked it. Doesn't seem to kink up like the one I use at home
- Scangrip Handheld- Rugged, robust construction. I liked this light. So much so, I went home to see about buying it. I talked myself out of it for the time being, but kept going back and forth.
- Griot's Rolling Cart with outlets- I liked this cart. I noticed Griot's products were on sale, and there was a another sale going on as well. So I picked one up! And that's one reason I didn't get the Scangrip. My cart should be arriving tomorrow. Yay.
-Finger pockets - Used for polishing. Kind of neat. It was an odd feeling, but I liked that I was able to get around some tight spots
Anyway....I think I've talked way too much! Just trying to give you guys my experience. ON TO THE PICS!
Some of the cars in the collection
Yes, I really liked that Corvette. I took more pics of it
Just messing. It was a neat experience, but let me share a bit more. Especially for those who are considering putting your name into the hat to be part of something special.
Preface: I had to wait for Competition Ready (CR) to be played on YouTube since I don't have regular TV broadcasting. No cable, no dish, etc. I watch streaming shows, and tried finding the show with no success. I did manage to watch a handful of episodes, and got a pretty good idea as to the format of the show.
"casting call" : When I first saw the thread by Mike Phillips, looking for people in Southern California, I was in disbelief. I don't recall seeing threads like that before. Admittedly, I didn't spend too much time on Autogeek. But I couldn't believe he would be posting such a thread. I thought maybe they always had a crew on standby or something.
I read through the thread, and noted his three groups of people that get priority consideration. Unfortunately, I didn't meet any of the three. The closest was being an ACTIVE member. As mentioned before, I wasn't very active on this forum. I've been around and lurked, but I was more active on the sister site, Autopia. I spent more time there, and posted with much more frequency there. The old "don't know unless you try" came to my head. So I threw in my name. I didn't intend, or think, I'd be on the show itself, but if I could provide a hand and get to see what goes on during the filming, and I figured it would be a cool experience.
"You're on the team" - Shortly after posting to the thread, that I wanted to be considered, I was getting nervous. What if I get chosen? What if I actually get to work on a nice car and....what if I'm "that guy" who messed up?! Yeah, I was getting nervous. Then, when i actually saw that I was on the team, I was both nervous AND excited. A chance to be on the team. A chance to meet AJ. A chance to meet Mr. Mike Phillips himself. To be able to shake the hand of the man I've learned so much from. I've read most of his books, read several of his threads, and seen many of his videos. I've picked up a lot from the man. So to be able to not only meet him, but to be able to work alongside him was exciting.
But I was still nervous! Days went by. I had noticed some of the others posting things like "got the call...spoke with Mike...nice talking to Mike.." but I had't heard from Mike since he posted. I waited patiently. Was nervous that he changed his mind. I didn't tell anybody, other than my wife, about being chosen, as I didn't want to jinx it. Several days went by, when I finally got in touch with him. We talked a bit and covered a few details. Cool chat. And I was "officially" on the team!!
Not official yet- Yes, I just said I was officially on the team. But, still my nerves were acting up. I was waiting for an email with instructions, locations. Any info that I would need. Nothing was coming. My cell phone. I even had to check to see if my phone was working!! And for some odd reason, when I called my cell from my work phone, it wouldn't ring! This took my nervousness up a notch. What if Mike has been trying to call me!!!!! I spent hours with my provider. Couldn't figure out what was up with my phone. When THEY called me, it rang. When I called myself, it wouldn't work! Eventually, my woman called me, so I figured it was just my work phone. Oh well.
OFFICIAL!! - Yup. The day came when I was emailed the Call Sheet. SWEEEEET. I had the email and Call Sheet with all the info I needed. NOW i was officially in!
Research - Now that I had more details, I went and researched a bit to find out more about: AJ. The car collection. The location. The production company. I wanted to know as much as possible beforehand. I like being prepared. My wife says I overdo it.
Location: TOP SECRET! Luckily, I spent some time looking for it online, cuz it's sort of hidden. It's neat, actually.
Cars - The guy has a nice collection. From what I learned online, he had some really cool cars. A Le Mans winning Porsche. A first production run Cobra. The FIRST Corvette to enter Le Mans! The subject vehicle, a 1929 Bentley. I checked the value on that car, and that made me even more nervous. D'OH!
Mapping - Yeah, I mapped out the drive from my place to the secret location. Several times. During several parts of the day. I wanted to make sure I knew how to get there, and how long it would take. The proposed route was always one of two ways. Saw how much time it would take, between 35 min and 1hr 5 min. Got it. I memorized the better route as well. You know, just in case.
Murphy's Law: hahaha. yeah. My phone lost complete service the night before! Serious? Yes. Hours spent trying the SIM chip thing, tried a different phone. Tried several things. Was on phone with cell provider for a damn long time trouble shooting. Eventually, he said it was the SIM, OR, a downed tower. But he said the tower being down shouldn't be the issue. He sent me to the store. Luckily, it was still open for another 30 minutes. Rushed down there. The rep there said, "It's the tower" - He showed me his phone, and said there have been 30-50 people already in the store with the same issue. One tower. Go figure. Oh well.
I got a back up phone and spent time getting that thing up and running. I neglected to do one thing: add data service to it.
Morning of the show: Armed with my non-working phone, using the wi-fi at home, and my back up phone, I kept checking the maps, GPS and whatnot. Here's where the data on the back up came to be important. Without that data part, I wouldn't be able to use my maps app!!!! And my regular cell phone was still down. Crud.
I used the wi-fi to check the maps one last time. Of course, there was an accident on that route I had memorized!!! I had allowed for 1 hour and 45 minutes to get to the location, which was way generous! Well, not anymore. GPS was putting me at being 5-10 min late. Not cool. The best route there, NOW, was an entirely different way. CRUD.
Riding on a high, and with hopes that my cell service was indeed a tower issue, i took a leap of faith and headed out, following the new route. Sure enough, once I was out of the wi-fi range, I lost GPS. NOOOOOOOO. ugh
I kept driving in the general direction. So nervous now. I can call if I had to, using the back up phone, but I was flying blind now. I kept going. And yes. Once I hit a different part of the city, or another city(?), service came back on!!! whoa. According to my "fitbit" my heart rate was increased through all this time! haha.
Arrived: Yes. I made it. And with time to spare. I could relax a little. Finally.
On set: I met up with the guys before we were called in. All were cool guys. Cruz, The Guz, Johnny, and Rigo. We talked, got to know each other some, before going into the area where the cars were.
We met up with the nice lady, Ashley. Signed a form, got our Tees, changed and talked a bit more. We got to see the cars in the collection. We got to see the car we would work on. Eventually, we gathered around with Mike and went over some details. We did an overview of what was going to happen, how, etc.
In speaking with the others, I knew I wasn't alone in being nervous. This helped. Mike was totally cool the entire time. Just another day at the office for him, I'm sure. This was a million dollar car!!!! Not everyday I work on something like that!
I won't give away too much info on the filming. You guys will have to watch the show!
Here's some parts of what did happen, generally speaking.
Filming: Filming was done in stages. Several takes were done on some scenes. There were scenes with just AJ. Some with AJ and Mike. Some with AJ, Mike, and the owner. Some with the detailers. In between scenes where the detailers were not working on the car, we would stand/sit around. We all seemed to be caught up in the filming. It was interesting, to me at least, to see how it's done. The camera guys doing their thing. The director doing his.
I'm sure during editing, I'll see the things we did will not be shown in the same order as filmed. That's how it works. But what do I know
The car itself looked pretty good overall. It wasn't until closer inspection, and with a Scangrip, that we could see the swirls. The tires were clean. Light dust throughout, but it was light. The undercarriage was even pretty clean. Cleaner than my cars, that's for sure.
Somewhere along the line, after we met with Mike Phillips and went over the details, I felt more relaxed. Gone was the nervousness. It was more about the car, and getting the job done at that point. And that was a welcomed relief. That's what I was there for, after all. To make this car look better. And we did.
Products- It was pretty cool that I had a chance to try new-to-me products. Some of those included:
- Pinnacle. A vast array of Pinnacle products. I FINALLY had a chance to use Souveran. Smells good and is easy to work with. We also used some of the polishes. Also easy to work with.
-Flex extension cord! - Nice cord. I liked it. Doesn't seem to kink up like the one I use at home
- Scangrip Handheld- Rugged, robust construction. I liked this light. So much so, I went home to see about buying it. I talked myself out of it for the time being, but kept going back and forth.
- Griot's Rolling Cart with outlets- I liked this cart. I noticed Griot's products were on sale, and there was a another sale going on as well. So I picked one up! And that's one reason I didn't get the Scangrip. My cart should be arriving tomorrow. Yay.
-Finger pockets - Used for polishing. Kind of neat. It was an odd feeling, but I liked that I was able to get around some tight spots
Anyway....I think I've talked way too much! Just trying to give you guys my experience. ON TO THE PICS!
Some of the cars in the collection
Yes, I really liked that Corvette. I took more pics of it