Repack the Muffs, Sammy on Euro Tour, Brad Gone to HOF - Shift and STeer Ep 542
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Car
BMW Z8
The BMW Z8 is a stylish sports car that was made in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It has a powerful engine and a design that pays homage to older BMW models, making it popular among collectors.
Car
Alpina Z8
The Alpina Z8 is a special version of a BMW sports car that has been upgraded to be faster and more stylish. It's a rare car that many people admire because of how it looks and how well it drives. If someone mentions it, they are likely talking about its luxury and performance.
Car
Chevrolet Corvette
The 1967 Corvette is a famous American sports car that many people love for its looks and speed. It's a classic car that collectors really want.
Concept
German muscle car
A German muscle car is a powerful car made in Germany that has a strong engine and a sporty look, similar to American muscle cars. They are designed for performance and speed.
Car
Ford Mustang (Fox Body)
The Fox Body is a type of Ford Mustang made between 1979 and 1993. It's known for being lightweight and is often modified for better performance.
Car
Ferrari 400i
The Ferrari 400i is a high-end sports car made by Ferrari. It has a powerful engine and is designed for both speed and comfort on long drives.
Company
Magnaflow
Magnaflow is a brand that makes exhaust systems for cars. They are known for making cars sound better and perform well.
Part
mufflers
Mufflers are parts of the exhaust system that help make the car quieter. They reduce the noise from the engine so it doesn't sound too loud when you're driving.
Part
starter
The starter is a part of the car that helps start the engine. When you turn the key, it makes the engine begin to run.
Car
Ford Lightning
The Ford Lightning is a special version of the Ford F-150 truck that is designed for speed and performance. The 1995 model is one of the earlier versions of this sporty truck.
Part
distributor
The distributor helps send electricity to the engine's spark plugs, which makes the engine run. It's important for making sure the engine starts and runs smoothly.
Car
Chevrolet 53
The 1953 Chevrolet is an older car that many people love for its classic look. Some owners update them with modern features like fuel injection to make them run better.
Part
headers
Headers are pipes that help get the exhaust gases out of the engine. They help the engine run better by making it easier for the gases to escape.
Car
Lotus Esprit
The Lotus Esprit is a sports car made by the British company Lotus. It's famous for its unique design and was featured in some popular movies.
Term
single stage paint
Single stage paint is a type of car paint that doesn't have a clear coat on top. This makes it softer and more vulnerable to scratches and damage.
Term
paint correction
Paint correction is when you fix the paint on a car to make it look shiny and new again. It removes scratches and other marks that can happen over time from washing and wear.
Term
old paint restoration
Old paint restoration is fixing up the paint on an older car to make it look new again. It can involve cleaning, polishing, and adding protective layers to keep the paint looking good.
Term
paint shrinkage
Paint shrinkage is when the paint on a car gets smaller or tighter, which can cause cracks or breaks. This usually happens as the paint gets older or due to bad weather.
Term
ceramic coat
A ceramic coat is a special liquid that you put on a car's paint to protect it from dirt, sun damage, and scratches. It helps keep the car looking shiny and clean for a longer time.
Term
PPF
PPF is a clear film that you can stick on your car's paint to keep it safe from scratches and chips. It's like a shield for your car's surface.
Term
polishing compound
A polishing compound is a product that helps make a car's paint look shiny and new by removing small scratches and dull spots. It's like a special cleaner for the car's surface.
Term
single-stage urethane
Single-stage urethane is a paint used on cars that doesn't need a separate clear coat. It's tough and protects the car's color from fading.
Term
lacquer
Lacquer is an older type of car paint that dries fast and looks shiny, but it doesn't last as long as newer paints. It's not used much anymore for new cars.
Car
Lexus SUV 470
The Lexus GX 470 is a luxury SUV that is designed for both on-road comfort and off-road capability. It's a part of the Lexus brand, which is known for making high-quality, reliable vehicles.
Term
trade-in
A trade-in is when you give your old car to a dealership to help pay for a new car. They will give you money off the new car based on how much your old car is worth.
Term
neglected
'Neglected' means that the car hasn't been taken care of well. This can make it worth less and not work as well.
Term
O'Reilly Veriscan
O'Reilly Veriscan is a device that helps you figure out why warning lights are on in your car. If your check engine light or ABS light is on, this tool can tell you what the problem might be, so you know what to fix.
LIVE
Every team, every topic, everywhere, this is Belize.
Hello, welcome to Shifted Steer.
I'm at the moderator, D'Andre here with Aaron Hagar.
We're down a man, Brad's out today.
Not exactly sure where Brad is.
He's trying to sell his mom's house in Arizona.
It's still didn't sell?
It's still didn't sell, and it's a nice house.
Yeah, it's a cool place.
I know he's done work on it,
and he goes back to just make sure everything is in order,
but I don't know.
You know, he's got rowdy neighbors.
Yeah, right?
Yeah, so no Brad today, but it's us.
Gearing up to go to SEMA, it's gonna be fun.
I'm glad you're going,
and I know Brad's going for a couple of days,
so we'll have the crew out there for a little while.
At the very least, I think we're all gonna meet up
at the SeaTech Battery Chargers event Tuesday.
Yeah, we're gonna be unveiling a couple cars,
and yeah, look at the car.
You'll be in their booth.
You're gonna be in the SeaTech booth.
Yep.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Uh-huh, 11 o'clock.
11 o'clock?
Yeah.
Okay, that'll be good.
Yes, we're gonna pull the covers off some stuff,
and talk about what's underneath,
which I don't even know yet.
Right on.
I just said yes.
I just said yes.
Yeah.
I'm gonna grab some interviews for the podcasts.
I'm not exactly sure if it's gonna all be car cast,
or here, or both, or what,
but I guess it depends on how those interviews turn out.
But I'm gonna sit down with the Ring Brothers.
I'm gonna sit down with Steve Strope.
Haven't spoken to him in a little while.
He's had some really cool cars.
Actually, I think Brad was just with Steve.
So Steve Strope, like Brad, is a big BMX collector.
Yeah.
And Brad's been working with this museum in Nebraska,
and launching this BMX thing,
and there was an awards banquet,
and I think Brad and Steve were out there
with some of the other guys.
Yeah, a Hall of Fame or something, wasn't it?
Yeah.
Huh.
So I was hoping we could talk to Brad about that,
but we'll have to save it for a couple weeks from now,
when he's back.
Well, if they were out there,
then the Strange family is probably out there too.
So.
I don't know, do you think about our era of BMX
around sort of our age group, right?
And Brad, he's old.
He kind of started, he was at the very beginning of it.
Yeah, now it's coming back, it's nostalgic.
There's different groups, then there's awards,
and Hall of Fame stuff, and things like that.
That's kind of interesting.
What Tim and Carrie are big into at Strange,
Tim and Carrie Strange,
Carrie is still rocking it, man,
as far as I know, although she had a pretty bad accident
in the office earlier this year, late last year,
but yeah, they're, I wonder if they were there too.
I don't know, I haven't been on social media a lot.
I did a couple little posts,
actually dad's birthday post is like almost at 100,000 views.
I don't know, must have been right in the prime of everything.
That's kind of cool, but other than that.
Speaking of, I heard he announced a European tour?
Yeah, I talked to him the other day,
but he didn't say anything.
He didn't even write a go.
Getting floods of messages about that too,
and I guess he's doing a European tour, yeah.
Which is awesome, he talked about it before,
I thought they were gonna do it last year,
and then he said, I'm done, I'm not touring anymore,
I'm tired of touring, touring's hard, but yeah.
Well, he likes the residency stuff,
so when they're going back to Vegas
and sort of can set up camp for a month or two, then.
Yeah, which is awesome.
Which is much easier, right?
And if you can come home occasionally if he needs to,
or just stay out there if he needs to.
Yeah, I think that's in February and September, right?
I think so, I think so.
Which was kind of, that's the plan,
that's what he's been talking about for years,
is doing the residency twice a year,
maybe even the birthday bash,
and just trying to establish himself there.
It's more affordable for the fans to go,
or at least it used to be.
It's easier for the fans to go there,
or at least it used to be.
No, it just seems to be more accommodating.
Mexico, still Mexico.
I know there was a lot of cartel action down there
during the birthday bash.
I didn't hear any stories from people,
but social media was just announcing stuff all the time.
There was a bunch of threats,
but no incidents that I know of.
But yeah, Vegas just seems to be a bit more user friendly
for the average Joe,
and I think dad can do more.
The problem with the Mexico property,
the challenge is it only holds 900-something people.
Yeah, yeah.
So it's three days every other day
of everybody trying to get in.
And I could imagine it's getting harder
as people get older, having to camp outside
on the parking lot and streets and sidewalks,
and it's brutal, it's a lot to ask.
And I know dad has always felt bad about that,
and really hasn't been a sound solution for it.
The lottery is what it is.
But in Vegas, they can come multiple times,
they can buy tickets, every seat's a great seat,
sound, lights, the show,
it's a little more organized and rehearsed,
but it's a great show.
Vegas is gonna be March and September.
Oh, March and September, okay.
March and September,
and then they're stuff in England.
I mean, I guess you could call it a tour.
I guess I could have looked it up too, sorry.
But it's in July, and it looks like two dates.
It's July 4th and July 5th.
Oh, that's good.
Manchester and Birmingham.
Oh, I'm sorry, there's two other dates.
I'm sorry, there's four.
That's a long way to go.
Oh, 4th, July 4th, 5th, and then 7th and 9th.
So Manchester, Birmingham leads, and in London.
Got it.
Four events there.
I wonder, I have to ask Dad what that's all about,
because part of the reason why he hasn't traveled in Europe
is so expensive to travel overseas now.
I mean, it has been for a long time,
but I mean, it is like, it is crazy.
Like it's not economically sound.
So I'm curious if someone is bringing them over there,
because they just got to have them,
or what the deal is, because that's cool.
Yeah, presumably somebody made an offer and it made sense.
Because that's not all about the shows.
I can't imagine breaking even with only those shows.
But hey, Dad does good business.
He doesn't do bad business, so he does good business.
That's what I'm saying, he does good.
I'm curious.
From what I've seen and all the stories and stuff,
I've talked with like, listen, it must be making sense somehow,
because he's doing it, something's going on.
I gotta say, I get a lot of compliments on life
and creativity and gene and genetics,
but good business is not, I didn't inherit that one.
Well, as long as he's got it figured out,
he provides some overwatch.
I consider good business almost breaking even.
Yeah, right?
I don't know, knowing him, he may have something else lined up.
It may not be like a live performance or something.
It could be that made sense.
There could be another deal that makes sense.
He could be launching some other products out there
or making that kind of deal.
Like on paper, it's making sense.
Like, he was probably thinking,
I've got to go to London for a meeting.
Why don't I do four shows while I'm out there, right?
Why don't I do some shows out there?
Well, the reality of that may be that Joe
may be on tour in Europe next year and said,
hey, why don't we all just, you know?
Yeah, could be that, right?
Yeah, who knows?
My dad wanted to take the family, us and my siblings,
to Ireland, Ireland or Scotland, sorry.
I think we were talking about doing Ireland too,
but Scotland, he's got a friend who has a biggest state there
and he's doing some cool stuff.
And dad went and stayed at the castle this year.
And wow, I mean, wow.
So he says, we're all coming here next year.
I'm gonna, that's gonna be our family trip.
We haven't done a family trip in a long time.
So I think that would be great.
We're gonna try.
You guys can do it, it sounds awesome.
Oh, me too.
We're gonna try to go to Africa with a friend of mine
who says it's gonna be his last trip.
And so he invited us and another couple
to join him on a little safari in Africa.
He used to do tours and he lived over there much of his life
and he's getting up there in age.
And he said, this is his last trip.
And when someone is experienced,
does that ask you to go with him on his last trip?
That's a big yes.
So I think that's sometime in June or early July.
So I have to see if we're in Africa,
it's only a few hour flight from Africa to Europe.
So maybe we can go to those shows.
I don't know, that'd be pretty cool.
Yeah.
You should meet, you can see your family
in the Czech Republic.
It's all about finding someone to watch the dog.
Yep.
Yep, we're in the same boat.
It's the same thing.
It's like, can they go with us?
How long do they go for?
Where do they travel?
Can somebody watch them?
Yeah, but nothing to do with cars.
So nothing to do with cars.
Moving on to cars, I have to prep the Z8.
Dad decided to take the Z8 to Hawaii now.
So we're putting to bed the Tesla and the 67 Corvette.
Now I got to prep the Z8 Raft or SEMA.
I got to get that.
I don't know he had a Z8.
He does, he has a Z8 Alpina.
It's kind of a quiet member of his estate and collection.
You know what, it's a cool car.
I never liked it.
And then the first time I drove it, I'm like,
this is a German muscle car.
This thing feels like a muscle car.
It's cool.
I like it.
I've really learned to like that car.
They've gone up in value as well.
And the Alpina, is that one with the automatic transmission?
Yeah, he's got it out of automatic in it.
I think they're a single clutch.
It's a little jerky.
It's not refined.
It's steers heavy, it's clunky, but it's cool.
You know, but that's a good car to have out there.
It's a sports car, it's convertible.
And it's a BMW.
Any dealer, it's.
Yeah, you can go in.
You can still get in and fire it up.
It's got a roof.
I'm going to put the hard top on it.
So he's got a hard top on it too.
But they're a neat looking car.
It doesn't smell like gas.
It's not like, you know, like the test like this.
It smells gassy and exhaustive.
It's not like the muscle car, man.
It's for a German car, it's rough.
Like, it's very visceral.
I don't know if it's rough.
It's very visceral.
It's cool.
It's, I don't know, it's hard to describe.
It's just muscle car just comes to mind.
And it's not like an old muscle car or a new muscle car.
Well, I was thinking compared to the 67 Corvette,
like this is much easier.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But I mean, as far as the drivability and experience,
it's kind of like a, I don't know, it's like an 80.
You know what?
It really reminds me of how your Fox bodies drive.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
It's like, it's not really rattledy,
but you feel stuff moving.
Like you feel stuff jerking around.
You know what I mean?
And it feels good.
Probably like Brad's Mercedes.
Yeah, probably.
I'm not in the race with those.
This is a 500.
Yeah.
What is it, 80s?
80 something feels a little heavy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, but cool, like I, yeah, like, yeah.
Yeah, it's kind of hard and stiff when you touch it.
It's not, you know what I mean?
It's not cushy, you know?
Yeah.
But I dig it.
I really like the car.
And I think it's a great car for over there.
It's going to hold up well.
Everything's protected and covered.
They were a limited edition.
They're pretty valuable.
I don't know.
He said six or 700.
I think they're more like three or four, right?
Yeah.
I haven't driven them up in a long time, but it's a cool car.
There's not a lot of them.
And it's a cool car, I got to say.
So anyway, yeah, I got to prep that.
Take that down to San Diego on the 18th of November.
OK.
But yeah, I'm looking forward to that drive.
It's going to drive it all the way down there.
To Hawaii?
Yep.
Yeah, and I found a solution.
Follow up on the 400i, I was saying that the exhaust pipes
are shot and they were spraying out glitter.
I talked to our buddy at Magnaflow.
And I'm going to see if they're removable.
And I'm going to slide them off and put them in the trunk
and take them down with me, because I don't think
he's too far from where I'm going to be.
And drop them off and see if he'll,
because we talked about Richard at great length,
talked about taking them apart and keeping them original.
And that way they're in the original housing.
And I thought that'd be pretty cool.
So I'm going to try to do that for him.
Yeah, I mean, no one better than Richard Waitis.
He's down at Oceanside.
You've been down to that facility?
Oh, yeah, yeah, I took the Jeep down there
and he custom built the whole system for it
and gave me the full tour.
Man, that place is amazing.
And that's why I told dad and my dad, like,
you should see this place.
I mean, these guys are the, they're
in the forefront of technology and all this stuff.
I said, this place is amazing.
He goes, yeah, yeah, go ahead.
Thumbs up.
I mean, that's the way to do it.
I mean, because I think so too.
Because they have R&D on site with a lot of manufacturing
and the packaging and all that stuff,
like you can go down there and go,
here's all the original stuff.
Instead of swapping a muffler, like,
let's take all the bad crap out of this muffler,
let's repack it with modern stuff and make it a high flow.
Yeah, just kind of put it back with the original casing
and any stampings, any of that stuff can all be read.
Yeah, that's the place.
Yeah, well, it almost sounds like they'll cut them open,
slide out the guts.
That's what I think.
I just think they'll take that original muffler case.
They'll open it up, they'll repack it,
make a whole new thing on the inside,
put it all back together, weld it, clamp it,
whatever it needs to do.
Exactly, yeah.
So I'm looking forward to that.
I don't want to cut it.
But if it means preserving the original,
if you cut it, then it's not original anyway.
So I have to look and see if the mufflers are separate.
I'm hoping.
But you mean to get it off the car?
Yeah, because there's four.
There's four, it's two and two, or at least the tip.
So I have to look and see if there's two mufflers,
or four, I don't know.
How can you remove it?
How much can you remove?
Yeah.
If it goes mid car, then I don't want stuff sticking
out of the window.
Yeah, yeah, right.
I mean, here's the thing, it's like, if you cut it,
you know, you can weld, you can bring it back,
you can weld it, you can grind it down,
you can smooth it out, you can make it look
like it never happened.
But like, you know, if you need to, you can do that.
Yeah, true, true.
I wouldn't want to do a new cut.
If I could find a place where it was welded,
then I'll cut it at the weld,
and then I'll take it to my buddy's muffler shop
and have them do it properly.
Right.
I got to get in there and figure it out,
but I'm excited.
I like these little projects, you know?
Yeah.
I like these little projects.
I like little projects that you could do in finish.
Manageable.
Yes.
Yeah, like, you know, like when I just went the other day
and I did, I posted a video a couple of weeks ago
of replacing the starter on my 95 Ford Lightning, right?
And I was just like, you know, and I was going to film it,
you know, so it's like, all right, let me,
let me just go down, let me move the truck
in the right location, and let me just lay out the parts
and figure out what tools I need.
And then can I film this?
Can I do it?
And can I get it all done?
It was just a couple of hours to get it done.
It took more time trying to hold the phone
underneath the truck while I'm doing bolts going,
this is the bolt, this is the bolt, right?
It took more time doing it, figuring that out
than anything else.
But yeah, just going in and going, it needs a starter.
It starts, but then when I drive it someplace
and the starter's warm, it won't start again.
So if I go to the grocery store or the gas station,
I'm stuck there until the truck pulls.
Yeah, that sucks.
And I was like, I don't want to, like,
so I just going to do this starter now.
And it was, it was one of those little projects
where like, it's good, a couple of hours,
walk through it, film it, and now it works.
Now I don't have to worry about the starter.
The next one I'm going to do is, is the tune up,
the plugs and the wires and stuff,
but I have a distributor, new distributor
to go in it as well.
So granted, I get everything lined up and I can mark it
and it's, and I don't miss a tooth and I can pull it out
and put the new one in.
It should be pretty, pretty smooth.
Yeah, that's good.
Cause starters, boy, I used to have that problem
with my mom's old 53 Chevy that was all converted
and fuel injected and all that,
but the starter would get hot and it just wouldn't start.
And I had, I had like four water bottles
that I'd keep behind the seat.
Just dump them all over everything in the area.
Just try to, I know I probably heat so tough
of everything coming off the, off the headers,
but the headers were so tight against the inside
of the fenders that there was just no room for nothing.
And they would heat up, they would heat soak everything.
And, and so it would never start once it got hot.
And it was, it was an automatic.
So you couldn't bump start it.
And it was just, just a nightmare.
So, and then I put a new starter in it and it had to be shimmed
and I couldn't get the shimming right.
And you could hear it, oh, when they're not shimmed right,
oh, they just sound like hell.
But yeah, yeah.
For me, this one, when it, I ended up with like a power master,
it was, it's overkill because I was going to build
the bigger engine for it and the whole thing.
So I just wanted to get the good starter for it.
But since I had it, I was going to put it in, went right in,
smooth, two bolts, plugs, no shimming or anything.
And on that power master, it allows you to clock it.
Oh, cool.
So I kind of like just loosen the two set bolts, put it in,
clocked it, like doesn't hit the oil pan, doesn't hit the header.
After gap.
Hit it with a little sharpie, turn it out, lined it up,
tightened it down.
Then it went in easy.
Like just.
Oh man, I wish I had that back there.
Yeah, got lucky with it.
Because this one, you could torque it, you know, on that axis.
But to get the gears to line up, you know, you had to shim it.
There was just, you can't see, same thing, you just can't see in there.
And yeah, I needed it.
Orthoscope is how they call it, the little camera.
Orthoscope.
Orthoscope.
Boroscope.
A boroscope.
Boroscope.
Yeah, whoa.
Hey, sorry, folks, if I went the wrong direction on that one.
Yeah, wrong, wrong hole.
Boroscope sounds scary than orthoscope.
But yeah, maybe one goes in your mouth and one goes.
So the.
Okay, so I got a, I got a question for you, but let's take a quick break and then we'll
just be right back.
Okay.
Okay, so we were talking earlier today about a friend of yours, someone that you were talking
to that has a lotus spree and saw your video on detailing the Ferrari, the black, right?
And you were, and we talked about it here on the podcast.
It's like, it's like, how do you bring that back and not ruin the paint?
And it's an old car and soft paint and, and I guess single stage, no real clear code on it
because that's why the pad was getting black.
So I guess a friend of yours or a quaint desire years saw that and going,
I need a little advice.
Here's my car.
It's a 70s.
Yeah, I think he has a 70s lotus spree turbo to change font car.
The Spyrolemi car.
Yeah, right.
Very wedgy, um, fiberglass, fiberglass body.
Yes, I believe those were fiberglass bodies.
And it's black.
Yeah, and it's black.
And, uh, and you know, he was probably dreaming.
Ken's probably going, oh, if I could get this to look like that.
Yes.
So what he did is he asked me, Hey, buddy, the Ferrari turned out great.
Uh, how can I get my Lotus?
Yes, that is his actual car.
So we're looking at the photo.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Those be that are looking at this photo that we're looking at that looks like
something in outer space, like a star.
I was going to say, yeah, that is a photo of outer space.
That is actually the paint.
That's the paint with the flash shining it with rings around it.
Like it's some sort of like it's a nebula way or something going on.
That is a black hole in the middle of that, I would say.
Yes.
So I like the car.
Cool car.
Yeah.
I love those cars.
And he's done a lot of work to that car.
He's had it for a while.
It's, it's an, you know, it's an older car and it's amazing how those cars really,
they're kid cars, man.
There's stuff on that car that isn't on other cars.
There's vacuum formed pieces and there's a little plastic panels that looks like
someone made them in their garage.
Maybe they did somewhere along the way.
I don't know.
I still love them.
I would own one of those.
Yeah.
I think he bought it for like 20 grand, 20 years ago or something.
Not even that 10 grand.
I don't know.
Anyway, I offered him 25 about 10 years ago.
But anyway, yeah.
And it brings up a really interesting challenge, a very interesting conversation
because, you know, I definitely entered into the realm of professional detailing.
And because of that, you know, I'm using a variety of products that are available to
the public, but, but, but they're more like science labeled rather than, you know, oh,
you know, clear coat cleaner, you know, they're serial numbered kind of.
And I'm using more commercial and industrial, not only products, but, but equipment and tools.
And, and there's, there's, oh God, such a deep conversation.
So basically what I had to say to him in short is Ken, what is your expectation?
If your expectation is for it to look like dad's 400, which in my eyes,
is maybe 75% of what it can be.
I was very conservative on that car and I only had one day.
I really needed several days, probably three days.
And I would have had to wash that car between every step almost.
I mean, it's very involved.
So I told him, I said, what's your expectation?
If you want it to look like dad's car, honestly,
I don't think you're ready for something like that.
And you'll probably do more damage.
Because he's asking, how can he do it himself?
Yes, he's asking, you know, hey, how can I make, you know, this car look like that?
Well, you can make it by paying someone else to do it.
That's the reality.
Yeah, let someone who's professional because now it needs what's called paint correction.
You need to undo what's already done over the years of washing.
And just having it be a normal car, he didn't do anything wrong.
He just, it was a normal car.
He kept it in his garage.
He washed it with off-the-shelf products, with towels, probably old towels that he
kept rewashing that, you know, were old hand towels or old shower towels that he just,
you know, said, ah, these towels are all I'll use to wash my car.
That's what we all did.
That's how we knew.
My dad used dish soap.
He still has a bottle of the yellow dish soap in the shop, in his garage,
over with the car washing stuff and an old hard foam sponge.
I mean, that foam sponge, like you would use that to sand off something.
Like it is coarse, man.
Like now that I have this knowledge, I cringe every time I see anything there and I see him
put his hand on the car and like white brush stuff off with his hand or with his sleeve.
I'm like cringing, going, no, no, no, no, no.
But if that's how you treat your car, then you have to wash it regularly.
How you wash your car, there's nothing wrong with that.
But once you recognize all those things and the steps it takes to restore old paint and make it
look new or make it look so much improved, you have to take care of it in the same manner.
And what I told Ken was, you may have one shot at this and as he sent me more video,
it was checked, which means that the paint has shrunk back and created breaks.
So there's all these crevasses in it on a microscopic level or even on a fingertip level.
You can scratch them, they're deep.
And those can't be repaired.
They can't be filled.
They can't be masked because they actually show the primer underneath, which is light.
So there are little white cracks everywhere.
You can't fix that.
You have to repaint it.
So how do you make the car better?
What's your expectation?
Now that it has all these scratches on it, those are less noticeable.
If you paint correct and get a nice clean shine, then those will become more apparent.
I had to explain all this to him and his mind is going crazy because it's exploding.
And then you've got to take care of it because everything you do,
you're going to leave a mark and you're going to see it and you're going to have to buy all the
right towels and the right soaps because you don't want to get an aggressive soap that's
going to eat the finish that you just put on it.
And do you ceramic coat it?
Do you PPF it?
Like how do you get, right?
Like it just creates this monster of all these things you've got to do to take care of them now.
And I said, you don't want to do that to that car.
You know, I'm just trying to get dad excited because he has never seen his collection look
as nice as it does.
And he has entrusted me to do it.
And it's that typical father-son thing of I want to make dad proud and happy.
I want to utilize the skills that I've worked so hard to learn.
And they're great subjects.
I'm familiar with most of them.
I drew them all since childhood.
We used to wash them together with hard foam sponges and towels, showering towels, bath towels,
and dish soap, you know, in a dirty bucket.
We didn't even rinse the bucket.
I mean, that's how we used to live.
So I want to evolve them.
And I also want to, I also want to take care of them and prepare them for any future use
or future showing so that they don't look neglected.
The problem is how many times have they been washed?
How many times have they been detailed?
How many times have they been polished?
The old polishing stuff that we used to use was real aggressive.
And you take off a lot of paint and you can only take off so much paint.
So you can only detail these so many times.
They only have so much life in them.
So you have to measure the depth of the paint.
Like it gets so involved.
I know I'm doing all the talking.
Sorry, but it gets so involved.
There's so much knowledge to be had.
You have to decide what your expectation is and what your aftercare is going to be.
Really, it's that simple.
And thinking about your friend trying to tackle this on his own.
You're right.
On a car that old, it's tough to sort of gauge without experience how aggressive you can be
and even how to explain how to start.
Where to start.
Gently and then work your way up to, you know, because you don't know what that means, right?
So I think maybe.
So I think and I'm not a professional detailer by any means.
You know, I detailed my own cars and use the machines for sure.
But I wouldn't be able to hand out the right advice.
Although one thing that was taught to me by a professional detailer we work with on a TV show was
he's like, your car looks great and it's black and it's shiny.
He goes, but take a plastic bag like a Ziploc bag, put your hand in the Ziploc bag
and then run it over the paint and you'll feel every little grit through the plastic bag.
And then once you polish it and clean it up and you think it's good, then try it and you'll
probably notice the difference, especially on a black car.
It's like, you know, so my advice to your friend would probably be just for the sake of
not ruining that car is don't use a machine.
Just start by hand.
Yeah, like just start by hand to get an idea of the products that you're using.
Like, are you starting with a compound?
Are you starting with, you know, just start by hand?
It's not going to be nearly as effective as a machine and it's going to take a while.
But you don't even have to do the whole car.
Like just start on, you know, like on that car or something, maybe underneath the wing or something
and just start.
Yeah, a test area.
Yeah, or if he does want to work on that fender, if you're taking pads and polishing
pads and doing it by hand, then see if it starts to make a little bit of a difference.
Yeah, see what your results are.
You know, and then you can go, well, then maybe I want to keep working on it
or take it to a professional or start with a machine.
But start by hand and just try it out to see and go, oh, you know what?
This may be more involved than I need to.
Maybe I need a professional.
At least when you bring it to them, they're going to go, yeah, no problem.
You didn't do anything real bad here by buffing it by hand, you know?
Yeah.
Yeah, you didn't take that old rotary with the big mop on it and just check it out.
Right, just burn through it real quick.
Like, I mean, because now it's like, when I take out the machine, I'm like, all right,
I'm grabbing a polish or even just a cleaner wax and I'm just like,
but I'm lubing the pad first and prepping the area and just like getting all the right.
You were talking about having all of the right products to do it.
When I was a kid, you and I were talking about washing cars with just regular soap,
and just waxing cars even by hand.
The first time I packed them when I even used a buffing machine or any sort of polisher,
I didn't think about any sort of lubricant or spray or anything.
No, you put, you squeeze it on there and let it dry.
I know, like now that I know what I know, I cringe at what we didn't know before.
Yeah.
Things were done, but it had been done forever.
I mean, you buff out the bottom of your boat every couple of seasons.
That's what you do.
You just put it on a big rotary and just put a bunch of compound on there and just
chow down until it shines.
I think to me, my first question would be, this is old paint.
It's checked.
It's heavily damaged.
What's your expectation?
I mean, do you want to look at it and go, hey, that looks shiny.
It looks good.
Or do you want it to look like a show car?
A show car, it's going to need to be repainted.
And what I would tell Ken is it's going to be hard to measure the paint because
all the paint measuring devices need to be, they only work on metal.
So if it's composite fiberglass, carbon fiber, you can't read the depth of the paint, what's left.
So you have to really visually inspect it.
And that's where those little cracks can really be handy because you can look at those cracks
and see how much paint is left just through those cracks and kind of get a rough idea.
But you'd be real conservative.
Like you said, you work an area that probably has more paint on it.
There's areas on the side on the lower sections of the quarters, which probably have more paint.
If the car's always been indoors, sometimes the roof can have more paint or the hood can
have more paint, you'd be surprised that the pillars, but somewhere like an edge,
the top edge of a fender would probably have less paint because gravity is going to pull it away
from that pointy edge.
So you don't want to start there.
But yeah, you try different things on different areas as conservatively as you can.
And like I said with Dad's Ferrari, it's got a lot of paint on it because we think it's been repainted
early on in its life.
It sat outside in an impound yard for a year.
So Dad thinks that Claudio repainted it back then.
And it shows signs that it looks like it might have been repainted.
It's just a different paint.
But his car has probably been repainted.
I would think many times.
And it may have good paint on it.
It may have a little more modern paint.
Might have a single-stage urethane and maybe not an old lacquer.
But by the checking, I would think it has a lacquer on it.
But yeah, you test different areas and see.
But like I would tell Ken, you're not going to get some of this deep scratch out.
But anything that we do is going to be an improvement.
And you're probably going to be happy.
So if your expectation is, I just want it to look better,
you're going to be really, really happy with the day's work and I will help.
But if you want it to look show car new, you're looking at a repaint.
Yeah, I agree with that, though.
But the fact that he's been like, he's had that car there
and he's been staring at it for years, and it's kind of looked that way.
You're right.
Once you start doing some work on it, it's not going to be perfect,
but you're going to realize how much better it's getting.
Just the shine is gone.
If you took out half the swirls that are on there and made it shinier,
it would look so much better.
Agreed.
It would be extraordinary.
It would be stunning.
Even if you got 50% of it out, it would look stunning.
It would just look like a well-preserved car.
And this brings me to another point and this is managing expectations.
So my brother was selling his Subaru years ago and it's always been outside.
It's always been thrash.
He doesn't, he's not a car guy.
He doesn't really take care and washes them the old school way.
And when I came over, he wanted to trade it in.
He was trading it in on a Lexus SUV 470, I think it was, right?
It's the older generation than what's out now.
Great vehicle, great choice, Andrew.
Good job.
But this little Subaru, it wasn't too far gone.
So I told him, I said, since you're trading it in,
if it looks like it's been outside all of its life,
it's going to be an outside car and you're going to get rock bottom.
If it looks like a well-kept garage car, you'll get more for it.
You're not going to get top dollar for this car, period.
You're just not, it's neglected.
But it was a cool color, it's a neat color green with that brown interior.
It was really a neat combination and I would think desirable
to the person that likes that, very desirable.
So I said, let's elevate it so that when they look at it,
they immediately say garage-kept.
That's where we're at.
And that was my goal.
And Andrew understood that and we did it.
And I cleaned the engine as well because that's everything.
I cleaned the wheel wells and I cleaned everything I could get to well.
So there were signs like, we're not big dishonest,
we're not going to ice blast the undercarriage,
but we're going to tidy it up.
And that's exactly it.
And I was so proud because Andrew goes, I got a really good trade-in.
And the guy goes, oh, good.
It looks like it was garage-kept.
That's like the first thing he said.
That's all I needed to hear.
Yeah.
And I did.
I buffed that car out.
I didn't do a three-step.
I decontaminated it, clay barred it, and then did a light cut and then a polish.
I didn't jewel it.
I didn't go to a micro polish.
I just went to a fine cut and then a polish.
And it really elevated the car.
It's modern car, clear coat.
It wasn't thrashed.
It was just neglected.
And that was it.
So like this car, like Ken's car, there's going to be scratches.
There's going to be blemishes, just like Dad's Ferrari.
There's going to be some marring or whatever is into that paint.
But if we can just get that, exfoliate it to 50% and get that shine back,
just from five feet, you go, wow.
And in the highlight, you'll see some webbing and some stuff.
You're great.
You're going to be so happy.
You'll learn something and you'll remember this moment forever.
That's what I'm going to do for him after SEMA.
I'm going to go where the car is and tidy it up for him.
Plus I want to because I want to take on the challenge.
As long as he knows that shit might happen.
Well, give you a chance to kind of walk through the process and go,
let me show you a little bit how to do this.
And let's try a little area or go ahead and grab a pad and start by hand and see
if it's making a difference.
And then also you can gauge his satisfaction and his work ethic.
Absolutely.
Those are the two things.
It's like, how much do you want to work on this and how satisfied are you going to be?
Generally, the satisfaction level can be lowered when you realize the work increases.
Exactly.
And I'm not even charging you.
The real funny conclusion to this is that I think he's a candidate to take this on as a hobby.
He's got some nice cars.
He likes to take care of them.
He wants to do it right.
He's asked the right questions on how to evolve to go further with what he enjoys doing.
He's got some focused stuff, challenges, and as long as he can maintain the patience
to do something like this, I'd like to teach him to see if he wants to take it on as a hobby.
Preservation is awesome.
And I think as we get older, from my experience with people that mentored me growing up,
it was often the older guys that wanted to really keep things perfect than the younger guys.
The younger guys just want to drive them.
The older guys are like, I don't drive it as much.
I like to look at it.
I want it to be pretty.
And I don't know, maybe that's just part of getting older.
You're going to, Mr. Miyagi, his Daniel Maruso, right?
Yeah, he's pretty skinny.
You're just going to like, I'm going to show you wax on, wax off.
We're not using machines here.
You can't learn karate with a buffing machine.
You got to do it by hand.
Wax on, wax off.
That's it.
Absolutely.
You got to do it by hand.
Here's a new microfiber and a little bit of compound.
Go to work on that mirror.
All right.
So I don't really know what the schedule is going to be for a shift in steer next week.
I know we're all going to be off at sea.
Oh, yeah, true.
Uh, maybe we find some time to record something or, uh, yeah, we'll, we'll, we'll figure it out.
Well, we'll see you, Brad.
Yeah, well, what we don't give you next week, we'll make up for with SEMA.
And I think I'm going to try to shoot some content.
So we should have some visuals.
You know, every year for SEMA, I buy a little more camera gear.
Most of it I don't use because it's usually audio and we're trying to do stuff for the show.
But since we don't do as much YouTube content, we're not going down the deep dive,
but I actually bought some cinematic stuff.
I'm, I'm, I'm getting excited about, about getting into more cinematography.
So I bought some, I bought anamorphic lens and a nice little contraption to hold my phone.
And I'm going to try to shoot some more cinematic stuff,
something that might be a little more visually interesting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we'll see how that goes.
Yeah. You know, I was going to say, I'm, I'm attempting to do some of that this year at SEMA
as well, trying to get some video while I'm there.
I'm definitely getting a bunch of interviews for, for the car cast podcast, but
yeah, trying to, trying to get something up on YouTube, get some b-roll so we can see
some of that stuff and see some of the people that we're talking to.
Some of the guys have been on the shows for years and, and we don't really get to see them.
So I don't know.
I didn't go last year.
So I, I miss everybody.
I'm hearing from all kinds of people and I'm very flattered by that.
And I really look forward to, to seeing everybody in person next week.
Yep. All right, guys, we're going to wrap this show up.
Well, that's it.
Yeah.
Oh, I did all the talking again.
I'm sorry.
That's okay.
See what Brad's not here.
All right, guys, we'll see you next time or we'll see you at SEMA.
If you're around at SEMA, we'll be there.
If you see us, please come and say hi.
If you're looking for a specific chance to say hi, the Seatech booth, 11 o'clock each day,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, at least.
Go over there and see.
You'll get a face-to-face wave and a handshake.
Go over there and see your hand.
All right, guys.
Thanks so much.
We'll see you next time.
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About this episode
D'Andre and Aaron discuss various topics, including Brad's absence due to family matters and their upcoming plans for SEMA. They share insights about the event, including interviews with notable figures like the Ring Brothers and Steve Strope. The conversation shifts to personal projects, such as prepping a BMW Z8 for Hawaii and detailing a friend's vintage Lotus. They delve into the challenges of restoring old paint and managing expectations for car detailing, emphasizing the importance of proper care and techniques.
Original notes
This is Shift and Steer, your quick-hit automotive news podcast.
On this episode #542:
• Barrett-Jackson Fall Auction
• Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony Going on Euro Tour
• Brad's Gone at BMX Hall of Fame
• Repacking Mufflers
• bonspeedStreetWear.com & drinkbravago.com
Let us know your thoughts about our shows; hit us up on Instagram @ShiftSteerMedia or [email protected].
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