Competition Ready - JustJesus Experience

JustJesus

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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 :)
 
.
Some neat details with the car we were working on - 1929 Bentley

















And on set!



It's not all serious! There were some laughs to be had



Sitting back, watching a scene with the owner, Mike Phillips, and AJ






Background stuff



Going over some details. When Mike speaks, people listen.





The Guz on the left, Johnny on the right. Paying attention!



Going over a game plan for this scene




Rigo taking a moment with Mike and AJ





The Gathering (L to R: Cruz, Mike P., Rigo, Mike The Guz, Johnny)




Cruz getting busy!




Rigo focused on the task on hand



Looking good, Rigo!




Mike P. taking care of business




Looking good on this end




 
nice pics, great explanation as well. I had my own nervous feelings about it and about being "that guy". I think we al really wanted to talk more but were all a bit scared or at least I was especially on camera. it was so fun meeting and working with you and the rest of the crew. we should to a meet up sometimes and maybe to a trade and try out or something with all out or products and gear.
 
Coolness !!!!!

(glad I wasn't the only one who was nervous)
 
Thanks for sharing. My feelings are pretty much the same as yours. Excited yet nervous. Only 2 more days!
 
A HUGE thanks to Mike Phillips. All around cool guy. Pleasant "boss" (no sir, you didn't bark any orders!). To Autogeek, Competition Ready.

I know I was *very* lucky to have had this opportunity. And that's what I've been telling my friends when they ask how I got on there.

To the detailing gang, Cruz, Mike The Guz (I'm so used to using forum nicknames), Johnny (I keep wanting to call him Johnny the Giant. He easily overshadowed me!), and Rigo: Glad to work alongside you fellas. Good group of guys. And you guys laughed at my jokes. Too bad we couldn't use some of that stuff for the show! Ratings would skyrocket (not really, but I can dream).

YANCY! I didn't get a chance to say THANKS. I appreciate your hard work with Autogeek. You're pretty darn good with the camera and post-production work.

AJ was cool. It was cool to talk with her about cars and stuff. Nice to see her getting down on the floor and working them wire wheels on the other end of me.

Tom "the car care taker" - it was fun seeing him transform. You could see he was a bit nervous of a bunch of guys touching the car he spends so much time taking care of. Probably his babies (all those cars). As time went on, he was more relaxed. He was even joking with me and Mike at one point. Surely he saw he left the car in capable hands (us fabulous detailers).

For anyone considering doing this in the future, go for it. It was fun. It was work. It was nerve wracking. The lunch was good! Overall a good experience. One that I was fortunate to be a part of.

Thank you all!
 
nice pics, great explanation as well. I had my own nervous feelings about it and about being "that guy". I think we al really wanted to talk more but were all a bit scared or at least I was especially on camera. it was so fun meeting and working with you and the rest of the crew. we should to a meet up sometimes and maybe to a trade and try out or something with all out or products and gear.

haha... seems like we're all pretty nervous, judging from the other posts! With constant filming, it's kind of hard to talk. Keeping a quiet atmosphere, I think we just kind of sat back and watched :)

Yeah, that could be cool. I got some stuff. And if you ever want to try out some polishers before you buy them, I'll be happy to let you try mine out.


Coolness !!!!!

(glad I wasn't the only one who was nervous)

Coolness indeed. (no, you weren't!)

Thanks for sharing. My feelings are pretty much the same as yours. Excited yet nervous. Only 2 more days!

No problem. That's one reason I wanted to share. It's going to be okay. Nothing to really be nervous about :)
Have a good time. And you get to play with the new Flex!!
 
Great explanation of the whole deal. It's funny because I was a bit nervous as well, but most of it had to do with getting there on time because I didn't want to be late. [and the LA traffic was a nightmare that morning] Luckily I just did make it on time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Great story. Thanks for sharing. I've worked with Mike a few times at the AutoGeek show car garage in SoFla. He's a great guy to work with. Really knows his stuff and he's a great teacher. But, I don't think I could do what you did. That took some courage. Really glad it worked out so well for you.
 
Great review of your experience! I would love to take part in one of these, but between life and living in the northeast it is just not feasible for me right now.

Bruce Meyer's collection is one of a kind! It is one of my favorite collections. The black 32 ford roadster with the hard top is known as the Doane Spencer Roadster, it was one of the most important vehicles that created a new way/trend of custom building 1932 Ford Roadsters. It is built in the "Low-Boy" style.

I believe the Corvette that you liked so much is recognized as the first "Airbox" Corvette, as it featured a ram-air style box that forced air into the engine for more power. It was an experimental car built by GM R&D, and was expected to dominate its class in SCCA for that season.

I think what I like about Bruce's collection is that is not comprised or focused on collector cars for status symbol reasons, it is comprised of cars for their stories and their enjoyment!
 
Great explanation of the whole deal. It's funny because I was a bit nervous as well, but most of it had to do with getting there on time because I didn't want to be late. [and the LA traffic was a nightmare that morning] Luckily I just did make it on time.

Thanks. - Yeah, that whole area can get crazy with traffic. I was taken through some streets I've never been on, just Southeast of Downtown LA. Potholes so big, I feared my little Yaris would be swallowed up! Glad you made it on time, too :)

Great story. Thanks for sharing. I've worked with Mike a few times at the AutoGeek show car garage in SoFla. He's a great guy to work with. Really knows his stuff and he's a great teacher. But, I don't think I could do what you did. That took some courage. Really glad it worked out so well for you.

Thanks, and you're welcome. Must be nice to be so close to the shop!!! - I wasn't sure i could do it, either, until I was there. Then I just went to work.


Very happy for ya! Glad you were able to join the in the experience! I can only imagine how fun it was

Thank you, sir. I was glad, too. We did have fun doing this.

Thank you all for sharing.

From me, you're welcome!

Great review of your experience! I would love to take part in one of these, but between life and living in the northeast it is just not feasible for me right now.

Bruce Meyer's collection is one of a kind! It is one of my favorite collections. The black 32 ford roadster with the hard top is known as the Doane Spencer Roadster, it was one of the most important vehicles that created a new way/trend of custom building 1932 Ford Roadsters. It is built in the "Low-Boy" style.

I believe the Corvette that you liked so much is recognized as the first "Airbox" Corvette, as it featured a ram-air style box that forced air into the engine for more power. It was an experimental car built by GM R&D, and was expected to dominate its class in SCCA for that season.

I think what I like about Bruce's collection is that is not comprised or focused on collector cars for status symbol reasons, it is comprised of cars for their stories and their enjoyment!

Thank you. If you ever get a chance, jump on it!

It's definitely a nice collection. '32 Fords are still some of my all time favorites, and part of the reason one of my emails I've had for 20+ years is "deucekid" - I studied that car for some time. I loved it. The top on it was slick.

Not sure about the "airbox" - I think the first ones were in 1957. The one here is a 1960. But, it did have an interesting hood vent / piece...




This particular car is said to be one of three that took to Le Mans for the first time in 1960. Here are a couple of shots from the GM Archives.






Mr. Meyer seems to really love racing. I totally forgot to take pics of one of the newer, yellow Vettes that I used to watch racing in the American Le Mans series, as well as others. I would enjoy seeing them do battle with the Astons. :)

Here's some info, courtesy of Autoweek.com, on Bruce Meyer and the 1929 Bentley we worked on:

The Bentley, the 1929 4 ½ Litre, is not a supercharged model, Meyer insisted. And it's the real deal, too. "The blowers never won Le Mans. These won Le Mans. There's so many replicas, they're like Cobras: you just assume it's a replica." He's owned it for three years, where it mostly spent time in Europe and participated in a 1,000 mile classic rally
 
Wow!


Great write-up to share your experience. Thank you!

Excellent work with the pictures too!


Can't type much, leaving for California out of PBE at 7:00am tomorrow morning, getting up at 4:00am then travelling all day, shoot all the next day then travel all day back. Then on Saturday, it's our Saturday Cars & Coffee show.

Working on TV is a lot of behind the scenes work no one ever sees but reading a thread like this and the one posted by Mike aka The Guz is very rewarding.

Thanks buddy...


:cheers:
 
Great read and great photos. I think most of us were pretty nervous when we got there. But as you said once Mike P. came and gathered us around things calmed down.

I agree with everything you mentioned about Mike, AJ and Yancy. All good people.

It was great meeting everyone on the team and working with all of you. Was a fun experience. Maybe we will get lucky again and work on another episode together.
 
Looking forward to see the new season, expect it to be much better based on our input for sure!
 
As a massive vintage racing fan, that is a grand collection. There is some serious money sitting there, and some enginering marvels. Wow thanks for sharing such a cool experience. I would have been awestruck, some of my absolute all time favorites, and you lucky guys had a great opportunity to work some magic on them. Fantastic!
 
What an amazing opportunity and writeup! Thank you for sharing... the story and the pictures!!
 
Wow!


Great write-up to share your experience. Thank you!

Excellent work with the pictures too!


Can't type much, leaving for California out of PBE at 7:00am tomorrow morning, getting up at 4:00am then travelling all day, shoot all the next day then travel all day back. Then on Saturday, it's our Saturday Cars & Coffee show.

Working on TV is a lot of behind the scenes work no one ever sees but reading a thread like this and the one posted by Mike aka The Guz is very rewarding.

Thanks buddy...


:cheers:

Thanks, Mike! Your compliments are much appreciated. I'm not the best writer, or that great behind the camera, but I try.

I was glad to be able to share the experience with the forum. No doubt, there is WAY so much going on behind the scenes. I don't know how you manage with such a crazy and full schedule! On a bright side, there's the travel involved.

You're plenty welcome.


Great read and great photos. ...

It was great meeting everyone on the team and working with all of you. Was a fun experience. Maybe we will get lucky again and work on another episode together.

Thanks, The Guz (goose?) I liked our "hidden from the camera" fun moments. :) If not lucky, perhaps we can meet up for a detail session, or something like that.


As a massive vintage racing fan, that is a grand collection. There is some serious money sitting there, and some enginering marvels. Wow thanks for sharing such a cool experience. I would have been awestruck, some of my absolute all time favorites, and you lucky guys had a great opportunity to work some magic on them. Fantastic!

You're welcome. I definitely was awestruck. I even forgot to take more pics of the cars. Kicked myself afterwards, as one of my other favorite Vettes was there :(


What an amazing opportunity and writeup! Thank you for sharing... the story and the pictures!!

Thank you. And you're welcome. And, thanks for reading :)
 
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