Concours Etc.

The weather the last couple of days has been unfavorable to say the least. Today it was like spring. We have been busy redoing things around the shop. We are painting, reorganizing and adding some cabinets.

One of our customers dropped This off today.

It is an Amphicar.

The Amphicar was built in Germany from 1961 to 1968. Total production was 3,878 vehicles. The Amphicar is the only civilian amphibious passenger automobile ever to be mass produced. 3,046 Amphicars were imported into the United States between 1961 and 1967. The Amphicar is rear engined and uses a 4 cylinder British-built Triumph Herald motor producing 43hp. All Amphicars are convertibles, and the civilian models were originally offered in only 4 colors, Beach White, Regatta Red, Lagoon Blue and Fjord Green (Aqua).
We have been busy today with washes, Paintless Dent Repairs bumper repairs and booking appointments. One of our customers found us on Angies List and said that we were the highest rated Paintless Dent Repair and Auto Detail company in San Antonio by their standards. It was a nice complement. we will be working on his BMW on Monday and will post before and afters per the customers request.

The week start off with a bang and continues to go strong. The boys at Concours are producing some nice work as usual. Today Anthony an Ron completed the detail work on the 2003 Z06. This car has only been driven 2000 miles. The paint was in fair condition and only required a 2 step polish. Steve installed an upper and lower Paint Protection fil kit as well as rocker panel protection and wheel openings.

A new 2010 Camaro came in today for some over spray removal and a light polishing. The boys at Concours clayed the entire vehicle including the glass removing some type of paint over spray. It was then polished with Optimum Products to give it a nice shine and protection.

Ron preformed some great paintless dent repair on a minivan. Fixing a large 5″ dent in one of the sliding doors as well as a 1′ ding right in the body line of the front fender.

Anthony and Ron started the reconditioning of a used Carrera S for the Porsche Center and will have it completed in the morning for delivery. Pictures will be posted of this car tomorrow.

Thank you for reading our blog and if you want a car that “Looks, Smells and Feels Like New” then bring it to Concours Auto Salon!

The sun was out, the air was crisp and the steam was pumping today in San Antonio. Wow what a busy day at Concours Auto Salon. We had two interiors to detail today. One was a Chrysler mini van the other a Cadillac Esclade! Both interiors Hugh compared to a regular passenger car. Roy managed to squeeze in a little dent repair on a Dodge Durango and Anthony did a little polishing on a Corvette Z06 that we will post about tomorrow.

Roy and Ron worked hard together making the interior of the mini van look as good as new. It was one of the newer stow and go type with lots of little compartments witch all had crumbs and dirt in. Pictured above is Roy using the Vapor Steamer to clean and sanitize all the carpet, leather and plastic pieces. using this process will allow us to clean with 80%  less chemicals and allows your interior to dry much much faster.

The Esclade  was very dirty. The previous owner smoked cigars with the windows up covering the interior with a brown film that you could see running off all the leather and side panels while we were steaming them. The smell really really made us nauseated. Two men were on the job at all times taking a total of 6 hours to complete.

Just click on the images above to see them better.

The day was very productive and the customer were all very satisfied.

It’s another beautiful Saturday and we have been busy today at the shop. We have an 03 Corvette Z06 that has only 2000 miles on the clock. We applied Paint Protection Film to the front portion of the vehicle as well as the rocker panels.

We finished a bumper repair as well applied Paint Protection Film to the repaired bumper and delivered it today Pictured below is Steve putting up the finishing touches in the PPF kit.

Steve installing Paint Protection

Anthony and Ron put the finishing touches and delivered two vehicles today. The first one was a beautiful black Porsche Carrera S. It received a 3 step paint correction and a complete interior detail

The week was a busy one even with the rain. Ron and Anthony are looking forward to next week already and the challenges that will come.  Monday is booked solid with work with the rest of the days filling up fast.

Enjoy your weekend, love the ones your with not only on Valentines Day but every day and Don’t forget to watch the Daytona 500 Sunday on Fox.

For the past 2 weeks we have been working on a clients Ferrari 430. It is getting a front bumper makeover (more on that on another post) and some clear bra plus a paint polishing.

When I mentioned to the client that we could add some lighting to his engine bay he really didn’t hesitate in telling us to “go for it”. He was concerned though it would be too bright and look stupid but we assured him it would look really nice and add to the cars overall appeal.

We (Ron, Eric, Mike and myself) spent 3 hours discussing, positioning and planning the project. We already knew we wanted 2 colors, white and red. Red to go with the color of the Ferrari and also the engine manifold and we figured that placing the red underneath as much of the engine would be best to give it a nice glow. The result is stunning! It looks as if the engine is so hot it’s glowing red, like lava.

Now heat was a concern so we positioned the lights away from any metal engine structure but we also wanted to make sure that the lights could not be seen. This was both tricky and time consuming. Here is Eric and Mike working on the positioning of the lights.

Ferrari 430 Lights

In the picture Mike is running wire from the overhead LEDs that will give a soft glow to the top portions of the engine area and highlight the manifold and frames.

Ferrari 430 LED's

After the final positions were decided upon we began the tedious task of removing panels to run and hide the wires. Eric then worked on the on/off switch. Once again we did not want to cut or drill into any of the dash material so since our client does not smoke we decided to use the cigarette lighter as the the place to wire and house the switch. So upon opening the lighter cover he can easily access the switch, turning the lights on or off. When on the indicator light lights up red.

Ferrari Switch

Now the really tough part in this is trying to take decent pictures of the end result and not having any light or flash! It also doesn’t help that I am a “point and shoot” kinda photographer so I have little knowledge of camera settings but we did have a professional photographer come out and take pictures also so I am sure his came out far better than mine. I will be sure to post up those pictures after the paint polishing is completed.

Ferrari Lights Glass Down

Engine lights glass open

It's Lava!

Well thank you very much for reading, please post any comments you may have. Next up is an Audi R8 and we are very excited about that project!

I’ll post up soon the finished detail of this Ferrari 430.

Take care,

Anthony

Thursday was nothing but rain all day! We had a couple of people stop by for some dent repairs.They were in and out in less then a hour each. One gentleman was a medic in special forces and had some cool stories about Afghanistan and Iraq. He will be deployed to Haiti soon and wanted to get his wife’s car in order prior to his departure. Be safe and thanks for your service.

Anthony has spent the better part of the day cleaning one of the many doctor clients Concours services. His father is flying in from Germany tonight and he wanted his S500 to be perfect.

Later anthony will post pictures of project Ferrari. we have shown the finished product to customers at the shop and all think it looks very cool.

Concours Auto Salon would like to welcome to our family Roy Rodriguez.

Roy is a trained PDR professional and has been employed in the auto body business for over 15 years. He is a hail repair specialist previously working with a local automotive hail damage repair company here in San Antonio. Roy was hired based on his work , honesty and integrity.

Roy is currently being trained by Anthony in proper detailing procedures here at the shop. Roy’s place in the company  will be preforming paintless dent repairs as well as assisting with detailing and will soon be doing our wheel and bumper repairs.

Roy is a Texas native, married and a father of two.

Welcome aboard Roy! It’s great having you with our team.

It started out a little chilly today but it has warmed up to almost spring like conditions. Tomorrow the weather is going to change and it will be cold with a chance of sleet in the evening.

We have been working on project Ferrari and will be posting pictures and further comments when it’s finished later this week. Mike has been installing and wiring lights in the engine bay. When finished it will all be hidden and look factory.

Ron did another amazing paintless dent repair on a Lexus SC430. It had a long crease in the drivers door from another car  trying to park next to it. Eric will be installing Johnson’s IR window film after the car has a quick bath. Ron will then deliver the good Doctors car back to his home.

San Antonio Window Tinting

Doctor D dropped his Audi R8 off for a quick spruce up and to check out project Ferrari. He really liked what we are doing and is interested in having his car done in a similar fashion as well.

For a car that “Looks Smells And Feels Like New’ it can only be Concours Auto Salon

Early last week we had a customer come in with two long creases on the right side doors of their F150.  We were unsure if we could repair the damage to our standards.Our customer really wanted us to do the repair as he couldn’t be with out his vehicle for several days. We asked him to come in Saturday and we would give it our best effort.

Here are some pictures of the damage prior to the repair.

F150 Rear Door

F150 front Door

After a little more then 5 hours of repair time both of the doors were returned to like new condition. The customer was very very happy and didn’t expect the job to be as good as it was done.

Front Door After Repair

Rear door after the repair

Total cost to the customer was $500.00 This saved him more the 50% from a traditional body shop repair.It also save him several days with out his vehicle.

For the best paintless dent repair in the San Antonio and surrounding areas contact Ron or any one of the others pros at Concours Auto Salon.

When we received a call from a Porsche Cayman owner to detail his engine we figured it was a prank seeing as how the Cayman is a mid-engine sports car!

Well turns out that the Cayman owner was legit and very serious. The reason for the engine cleaning was he wanted to display the engine by removing the factory cover and replacing it with a clear acrylic cover.

After some discussing with our new client about his wants we also decided to paint some areas of the engine to make it stand out a bit more. Then we decided to add some LED lighting to the engine area so as to show off the clean, detailed and painted engine.

Now with the Cayman in our shop we began to remove the factory cover.

Cayman factory engine cover

With the top removed we were greeted by a thoroughly filthy engine.

Dirty Cayman engine

Concours Auto Salon

Before the lights could be positioned we had to give the engine a general cleaning which was accomplished with the use of our steam vapor cleaners. This way no water would be introduced into the surrounding interior areas.

We decided to use white LED lights without any other colors because the key was for it to be noticeable from the outside but yet subtle. Our client is a professional so we were seeking “cool” and not “tuner boy”. Eric and Mike got started on the lights and the interior on/off switch while Ron and I planned our painting scheme.

The Cayman’s brake calipers were painted red with Porsche painted white so we decided that we would stay with that theme. After the LED lights were in and the interior switch was installed Ron and I masked off the interior and surrounding painted areas and began the tedious task of polishing as much metal work as we could reach.

We then masked off everything but the Porsche covers and lightly sanded those down and began the painting process. After the painting work cured we shot them with clear and allowed it to cure.

Here is the engine after being cleaned, detailed,  lights installed and painted. Quite a difference huh?

Super Clean

Concours Auto Salon

In this next picture the clear cover has been installed.

Crystal Clear

Concours Auto Salon

Here is where we installed the on/off switch. We choose this place so if the current owner or perhaps the next owner decides to remove the lights he or she can easily replace this piece. The install makes it look straight from the factory.

Factory Finish!

Now for the whole look. It was difficult to get sharp pictures because of the lighting situation…..that and I am by no means a skilled photographer.

Concours Auto Salon Perfection

Concours Auto Salon

Well the client was very impressed and pleased with the end result. If this is something you would like to do with your Porsche Cayman then give us a call at  210-616-9669.  Ask for Ron or Anthony and we will answer any questions you may have.

Soon we will post up our new projects. A Ferrari 430 and also an Audi R8.

Thank You,

Concours Auto Salon