Grand Opening

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

pipeous

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,269
Location
Surrey, BC, Canada
I just wanted to announce I finally got my auto detail shop open for business.

I was supposed to open a month ago, but I was in a really bad car accident that set me back a bit. I am still a little slow, as I still go to therapy a couple times a week, but the doc told me to start pushing myself. lol. ya ok. I polished an f350 for my first customer, then a sunbird yesterday that was scratched to hell. now I fell about 80 years old lol

www.madpro.ca is my website. work is coming in steady now. I quit my full time gig and am going to make a go of this.

also, we setup an 18th scale track outside the shop often. it's an industrial complex and the neighbours stop by to see our little rally cars battling it out
 
Bloody hell, had to polsih a black cobalt today. good thing I have beer in me or I'd really hurt right now. Friend bought this car from a dealership and they cut polished it. what a mess they made. it's bad enough they swirled the paint job, but you can see spots they damaged the paint with globs of crap in the buffing pad they used, burned the paint in spots and burned the rubber moldings. man I had a lot of repair to do. what a sweet car.

as far as track, a few of us bought those associated 18R's. I have the Citroen. out of the box rtr they are incredibly planted. we run them box stock. At first we were running road courses, but now we tape mini corner dots down in a section about 6 feet long and about an inch apart to make a cool bumpy section, we take big chunks of cardboard and put stuff underneath, then tape it down (rolling terrain is fun) and another cardboard we made a crested hill on to get a little air. next I am getting a long runner of all season carpet and putting large dowels or tubes under for a cool roller coaster section.

for the track boarders, we found my 100 foot black garden hose connected together makes a wicked infield, and we use 125 feet of air hose connected together for the outside. the garden hose stays put, the air hose sucks you in if you rub, sometimes folds around your car lol. it keeps you honest for sure, but no hard boards to hit andif you need to change the track design, just kick the hose around and it's done. we burn many packs off running. each direction, or just change layouts and keep going. too much fun. 30-45 mins runtimes. we keep the tracks small and technical and not much full speed driving. lots of corners and challenging stuff.

I had some pics taken late at night, but they were really dark and from my cel phone so I deleted them. I'll get more pics next time we run. I also run the bike outside. it's perfect, after about 5 most shops have closed and we play until 2 and 3 am lots. I run my 5th scale out there. only tenant is my buddy living upstairs, and he won't complain LOL

they love us there. I worked late again tonight. we are there late most every night and nobody gets broken into around us anymore... the guy living there is 320 lbs and wants to fight UFC so not much worry about stuff. he has a mini t to run plus his hellfire. there's about 15 rc's in our shop, and I added a guitar and amp to entertain myself between jobs
 
I wanted to share with the car buffs. I was working on this sweet beast last night. 1929 Ford... here's the rest of the pics. I am going to go in and finish it this morning.
http://www3.telus.net/Pipeous/Pics/shop/1929_Ford/
DSCI0004.JPG
 
Car turned out well. I have been asked to setup a display at a big car show next month in the Tradex building. I am detailing 6 or 7 cars for Jellybean's (Hot rod shop) that are in the show. The owner of the '29 is also letting me put some advertising in his car since it's going to be in the show...

this is a dream come true. working on cars like this is too much fun. the owner left the car in my shop for 3 days and I had to carry a towel around with me to wipe up the droool ;)

there was a lot of damage and the black paint was done in 1993. the biggest challenge was the shape. a lot of the polishing and cutting close to body I had to do by hand. the clear over the flames was 1 and 2 days old (they had to repair the clear done over the flames, one side a day) so I couldn't touch it. I claybarred the flame stuff to remove the sanding scratches, but they hit the surrounding body parts a few times with the side of their sanding disc and that was tough. since the car stayed, I polished all the exterior metal (and I was just sitting waiting for the plumbing inspector to show up and re inspect the changes since last inspection... I passed this time... still waiting for the electrical inspection then I can go get my repair plate and do dealership cars...)
 
Today I get to detail a custom car with almost 700hp engine going into the show. Taking the camera for sure. this thing is totally amazing. can't wait to pick it up and drive it :D
 
Well the car show is tomorrow, I am just getting home from a long day.... well here ya go, I did 2 cars today for the show. A 1959 Custom Mercedes Benz and a 1966 Beaumont.

The Benz is valued at $250,000. It has a Vette Engine. Originally the car had 65hp and now it has over 650. I tell you it was fun to drive. It has many custom things, and the stereo is insane. I love how Jellybeans has a custom glove box with a raised logo and name of their shop.

Here's the rest of the pics http://www3.telus.net/Pipeous/Pics/shop/1959_Benz/

DSCI0003.JPG
 
The Chev has a 396 Auto. The dash was originally red and had been dyed and I had to touch up a bunch of spots. The seats were actually dirtier than the pics show and were a big job.... bloody grooves were filled with crud.... ahh that's enough typing, I need to eat more food, get a few hours sleep and get the cars to the big show. since I got all the big jobs done I can just take a few small things to do basic cleans and waxes there.

all 3 cars here are in the car show this weekend and I was swamped with people coming in to the shop today. the benz is well known and in many magazines (there were 4 mags in the trunk with write ups on the car). http://www.abbotsfordcollectorcarshow.com/

rest of pics (it was getting dark so I will take a couple better pics tomorrow) http://www3.telus.net/Pipeous/Pics/shop/1966_Beaumont/

DSCI0011.JPG
 
I did a 56 Old Wagon today that is being auctioned off on Sunday at the show and had the 29 Ford back in the shop for some more work. That was by far the hardest car I have ever had to cut polish. I had to cut along the fenders in the groove and the only thing I could do in places was to put polish on my fingers or thumb and work it in, like around the gas caps (yes one on each side)

I am wiped. 14 hrs 2 days ago, 15 hrs yesterday, and here it is midnight and I just got home from setting up at the show. I am meeting an electrician in the morning to fix some discrepancies so I can pass my inspection, then back out to the show as I have this cool Solstace (sp?) with gullwing doors to do a demo show on. it is black and has a lot of blemishes in the paint. hood was just repainted at a body shop but looks to me like it was done outdoors. Going to demo claybar on this thing. .... did I mention I am wired on 4,000 cups of coffee? LOL... anyway, should be about 100 or so people watching

man the cars, trucks and motorcycles at this place is amazing. anyway, time for some sleep. my screwy shoulder from the accident is throbbing. time for a pill fest hehe
 
How can you not love working on such sweet classic cars? Too bad there aren't car shows every weekend. I have to go back to cleaning regular cars again this week.
 
it's been a hell weekend. We started ripping out the office area in the shop. I'll have a second bay soon. looking in, the wall on the right is now stripped and tomorrow I start ripping the wiring out (too dark now to cut the mains lol)

Good news though. 3 of our 4 cars entered took awards! 2 of the 3 I detailed.

The Benz got second in it's class. It's driven regularly and lost to a car that is never driven.

The Ford got 3rd in it's class. Again it's driven regularly and the winner had a polished frame.

The Solstace got second.

The only non bastard didn't place. It was up against some stiff competition and that dash is rough... the lenses are all scratched and filmy, chrome worn off and the black is faded bad. I was going to dye the dash faceplate but I didn't have the time.

I helped the guys unload the truck before I came home. I did my part to get the cars there but I found out Friday what my options were. Dave gets home Tuesday and all the stuff of his up top we had to load down and organize so it goes to storage Tuesday. We stripped most of the roof off, the bay side of the wall, doors, all the insulation pulled and stacked, cut some wires out and tried to figure out what the breakers actually go to because they are all marked wrong...
 
Back
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock    No Thanks