Undercarriage Restoration
- Thread starter polaris68
- Start date
blumax
(deceased)
What do they do?
I've known "Dr Detail"--aka Darren McKendry--for about 25 years. Darren has been detailing cars since he was 12 when his Father taught him to do the family car and for the past 25 years he has had a large faciiity in Costa Mesa and on a daily basis does high end cars that many of us would lust for--has developed a following of thousands of local customers over the years due the quality and level of services offered. They are among the few automotive service facilities around that do fine refurbishment along with detailing to Concours levels if so desired.
Answer to Sven--under-carriage refurb is very labor intensive and includes:
power steam cleaning, in depth detailed hand cleaning, hand removal of all old type under-coating, re-paint of various parts to correct colors, and application of modern epoxy under-coating to renew the under-carriage to better than original factory condition when new--parts removal is minimal or not necessary--re-furb of parts done in place.
Over the past 15 years or so I've worked with Darren on a number of vintage BMW's on which we have collaberated to bring them to a very high cosmetic state--they have included the finest original E-9 and E-3 that I have ever sourced (28,300 original miles on the E-9 and 28,900 on the E-3 a one owner car I found in So. Dakota) and others--have also periodically employed his services on the BLUMAX and other personally owned cars. Also--to prep u'carriage and engine compartments on cars that I have handled on consignments.
I can personally vouch for his team of 7-8 experienced people--his lead man Jerry has been with him for nearly 20 years, several others for 8-10 years--a very experienced, capable and knowledgable group. HTH
I've known "Dr Detail"--aka Darren McKendry--for about 25 years. Darren has been detailing cars since he was 12 when his Father taught him to do the family car and for the past 25 years he has had a large faciiity in Costa Mesa and on a daily basis does high end cars that many of us would lust for--has developed a following of thousands of local customers over the years due the quality and level of services offered. They are among the few automotive service facilities around that do fine refurbishment along with detailing to Concours levels if so desired.
Answer to Sven--under-carriage refurb is very labor intensive and includes:
power steam cleaning, in depth detailed hand cleaning, hand removal of all old type under-coating, re-paint of various parts to correct colors, and application of modern epoxy under-coating to renew the under-carriage to better than original factory condition when new--parts removal is minimal or not necessary--re-furb of parts done in place.
Over the past 15 years or so I've worked with Darren on a number of vintage BMW's on which we have collaberated to bring them to a very high cosmetic state--they have included the finest original E-9 and E-3 that I have ever sourced (28,300 original miles on the E-9 and 28,900 on the E-3 a one owner car I found in So. Dakota) and others--have also periodically employed his services on the BLUMAX and other personally owned cars. Also--to prep u'carriage and engine compartments on cars that I have handled on consignments.
I can personally vouch for his team of 7-8 experienced people--his lead man Jerry has been with him for nearly 20 years, several others for 8-10 years--a very experienced, capable and knowledgable group. HTH
rb1971
Well-Known Member
Wow. That looks seriously phenomenal.
Wow +1
Honolulu
Well-Known Member
Questions
John, that's a VERY clean undercarriage. I hope you still have your arms and legs, and other as-issued appendages after that work.
Question I have concerns the exhaust. I see what looks like a smaller center resonator, no intermediate muffler, and maybe a non-original rear muffler. Can you provide details on these components, and their source?
Thanks!
John, that's a VERY clean undercarriage. I hope you still have your arms and legs, and other as-issued appendages after that work.
Question I have concerns the exhaust. I see what looks like a smaller center resonator, no intermediate muffler, and maybe a non-original rear muffler. Can you provide details on these components, and their source?
Thanks!
Bwana
Well-Known Member
Beautifully done! Ah...can you give an order of magnitude of how much that cost? Or is it a "If I have to ask I can't afford it" kind of thing :-D
d-ace
Well-Known Member
Looks great, and actually if you could post how many hours a professional with the tools would need to do this work would help. This way ones that would need to do the work themselves (location or budget) would get and ideal how much work it is.
Also my group always used synthetic latex for the first coat about a .100” of an inch thick. It burns into the metal so well a sandblaster with 175 pounds of pressure will not remove it, it just bounces off. It cost about $30 a quart for the real stuff. Next we used a high-end undercoating followed by painted to match the color of the car.
However, the metal prepping is the most important thing and how it is done.
Also my group always used synthetic latex for the first coat about a .100” of an inch thick. It burns into the metal so well a sandblaster with 175 pounds of pressure will not remove it, it just bounces off. It cost about $30 a quart for the real stuff. Next we used a high-end undercoating followed by painted to match the color of the car.
However, the metal prepping is the most important thing and how it is done.
I really like your comment: "If I have to ask I can't afford it" kind of thing.
That's goes for a lot of us I think.
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Exhaust is Coupe King stainless. Not the current one they are selling but an earlier model.
- Messages
- 143
- Reaction score
- 36
Thanks. The undercarriage was finished in gray Wurth