Mike Phillips on "Chasing Classic Cars" with Wayne Carini

[Nick McKees37]

Mike Phillips on "Chasing Classic Cars" with Wayne Carini

Last night Mike's first episode with Wayne Carini aired on "Chasing Classic Cars" on the Velocity Channel. This is the "Premier" Episode to kick off Wayne's new season for 2013 and it will repeat multiple times for the rest of the year here in the U.S. and around the world.





1953 Hudson Episode
On last night's episode, Wayne shared the history and story behind the 1953 Hudson he's been chasing since he was 16 years old!


Mike Phillips & Wayne Carini with the 1953 Hudson at Wayne's shop in Connecticut...





Mike is known in the collector car industry as an expert on restoring antique and original single stage paints like the paint on Wayne's 1953 Hudson. Mike used his special process to not only save the paint job but to also restore it to its original factory luster. Before starting this process Mike measured the paint on classic car using the very accurate Defelsko Paint Thickness Gauge and as you can see by the pictures the paint was incredibly thin.


1.6 Mils on the top of the passenger side Fender...





2.8 mils on a section on the trunk that was covered and protected since the car was purchased new.



The average Post-it Note is around 3 mil thin so this means the paint on this car was incredibly thin. Any mistake made by using too aggressive of a compound or polish would have burned through the vintage lacquer and exposed the primer and even sheet metal below.


Here's a picture showing how thin a Post-it Note is to give you and idea of how thin the paint on this 1953 Hudson was. It has been 59 years since this car rolled out of the Hudson assembly plant in Kenosha, Wisconsin.






Wayne giving the original factory paint a final wipe and giving Mike the Thumbs-Up!





More Pictures of this Classic Car Paint Restoration

You can see the before and after pictures of the 1953 Hudson Hornet in the link below...

Wayne Carini 1953 Hudson Hornet Original Paint Restored by Mike Phillips



Mike Phillips and Autogeek on Chasing Classic Cars
Mike and Autogeek's segment will air from now until the end of the year during all new premier episodes on Tuesday nights at 10:00 pm Eastern Time on Velocity Channel.

[Pinpoint_Precision]

I am going to watch it tonight. I recorded yesterday's episode. That's awesome, happy for Mike and great series to watch. Nice pairing for sure. The professor with the collector.

[MadMerc]

Great episode! I just love those old Hudsons!

[spiralout462]

I am going to watch it tonight. I recorded yesterday's episode. That's awesome, happy for Mike and great series to watch. Nice pairing for sure. The professor with the collector.

I also recorded but haven't watched yet.

[RTexasF]

What is the name of that episode?

[Mike Phillips]

I am going to watch it tonight. I recorded yesterday's episode. That's awesome, happy for Mike and great series to watch. Nice pairing for sure. The professor with the collector.

Wayne is the real deal, by that I mean he's not only a die-hard "Car Guy" but genuinely nice and fun to work with. His team works hard and the cars he turns out of his shop are top notch. Looking forward to our next project...

Great episode! I just love those old Hudsons!

Me too... my favorite detailing project is restoring the original paint on classic cars and working on Wayne's 1954 Hudson Hornet at his shop was pure pleasure. Some of the panels I literally rubbed out by hand just to be extra careful as the paint was incredibly thin...

In this shot I'm rubbing the paint out using Pinnacle Advanced Swirl Remover, which is a Medium Cut Polish that can be applied by hand or machine as Wayne watches my technique...

[Mike Phillips]

A lot of the techniques I used for all three of the cars I worked on for Wayne Carini can be found in the second edtion of my how-to book...




Detailing How-To Book and Detailing How-To E-book by Mike Phillips

[BillyJack]

I watched it last night,Mike. Too bad you got so little air time in the episode for the accomplishments you made, but I guess that's just TV.
One question arose after watching; You mentioned using a diminishing abrasive product on older paint. Is there a preference for DAT vs SMAT on older finishes or was this just an explanation of the polishing process for the general public?

Bill

[Mike Phillips]

I watched it last night,Mike. Too bad you got so little air time in the episode for the accomplishments you made, but I guess that's just TV.

How little time there is for a TV show become very apparent when you start shooting a show. a 1/2 hour show is only around 20 minutes once you subtract Network Time and Commercial Time, (two different categories).

So just for the exercise, think about just how much information you can present in 20 minutes.... not a lot of time to get real in-depth...


In the TV world, a spot is usually 30 seconds or 60 seconds. A segment is usually 1 to 2 minutes and if you get 3 minutes or more that's out of the norm and considered a l-o-n-g time.

One question arose after watching; You mentioned using a diminishing abrasive product on older paint. Is there a preference for DAT vs SMAT on older finishes or was this just an explanation of the polishing process for the general public?

Bill

The key priority when working on any paint and especially when working on thin paint that is important to the owner to preserve, not screw up, is to use the best quality polishes available. For polishes, (not compounds), I like to use diminishing abrasive polishes like I used with the Pinnacle products. That's my personal preference. A person could use DAT or SMAT but the key most important factors are,

Use the best products available
Use the least aggressive products needed to get the job done
Focus on the task at hand

Another option to bullet item two above is to use a product that is even less aggressive than what you think you need and then either apply it twice or work the product longer, the idea being uber careful.


I taught Wayne's guys how to use DA Polishers and the Flex 3401 while I was at his shop. When it came to working on the Hudson I let Marius and Brandon use the Porter Cable and the Griot's 3" Mini Polisher for areas that I believed still had good film-build.

For the tops of the front fenders and the hood however, I rubbed these out by hand using a microfiber applicator pad and did it very carefully, methodically and always paying close attention the the paint surface.

As soon as I saw the green color go clear I would rub a few more passes and then stop.

We did machine apply the Pinnacle Souveran Paste Wax but we used a very soft blue Lake Country 5.5" Flat Pad on the 4.0 setting on the PC.


So all aspects of the project were performed very carefully.


The paint on the car looked a lot duller than it does in the pictures, one of those things where you had to be there to really see the true condition of the paint. The end results in the pictures are the real deal however.


Good questions...

[Mike Phillips]

Tuesday night is premier night for "Chasing Classic Cars" so if you missed our segment last week you can catch it tonight on Velocity channel at 10:00pm Eastern time which is about 45 minutes from the time of this post.