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1940 Ford Coupe Charred in Garage Fire


Joe@Adams

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Hello everyone,

 

I wanted to finally post the writeup on the 1940 Ford Coupe that was brought to us about a month and a half ago.  The story of this amazing car is pretty incredible.  Enjoy the story and the pictures to go along with it.

 

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The customer pictured above brought his 1940 Ford into us to see if there was anything we could do for him.  He told us that the car had survived a fire inside of a garage that had been struck by lighting.  He two other cars in the garage and they didn't make it.  This Ford is a car that he has put a lot of work into and was crushed that it was threatened by the fire.

 

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The car was covered but the night before the lighting strike the gentleman went into the garage, opened the trunk to air it out and left the cover pulled back towards the middle of the car.  This caused the distinct char line on the back of the car pictured above.  Now, as you can see the car looks destroyed and let me tell you, if I had a link for you to be able to click and smell your nose hairs would burn from the terrible smoke smell.

 

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After a little bit of discussion we gladly accepted the the car and drove it over to wash in our washing area.  The gentleman drove off with high hopes but still pretty bummed with the current state of his precious car.

 

While I took advantage of snapping photos of before and after, I didn't get much of the process.  But, I did get a lot of video footage of the revitalize/detail process which I'm editing into a short video that I took a break from to deliver this write up.  So I will post a response to this topic with the finished video link.  The video has Adam working a lot on the car and a few of our other team members.

 

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So, as you can see the '40 Ford turned out perfect!  A lot of the char and smell came off after a two bucket wash.  The interesting thing was Adam added about six ounces of Rinseless Wash to the normal two bucket wash.  It helped with lubricity and smell.

 

The big job and the thing that took up most of the char and smoke damage was the Clay Bar.  Adam and two of our other team members clayed the car twice for good measure.  They clayed everything excluding the rubber.  It was amazing how the clay grabbed all the nastiness right off the paint.

 

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After claying the whole car the men started to polish the paint of the car.  Using our two stage polishing system they started with the Cyclo Polisher paired with the Orange Microfiber Pads and the Paint Correcting Polish.  That did some great work but they then moved on to the White Microfiber Pads and the Paint Finishing Polish.  You all should have seen the pads.  They were very wasted from the smoke damage on the paint.

 

Next the fellas moved on to the Orange Foam Pads and the Paint Correcting Polish still with the Cyclo Polisher.  They were near perfect and finally finished the job with the White Foam Pads and the Paint Finishing Polish.  This made the paint look perfect.  Not only did the two step polishing system take away all the smoke damage it also fixed all the swirl marks in the paint. After polishing the paint the fellas put a nice coat of Brilliant Glaze on the paint and sealed it with our amazing Americana Paste Wax.  The metallic look in the paint was sparkling like new!

 

After the polishing of the paint, Adam and our other team members moved on to the chrome accents.  They used our two stage metal polish system using our Metal Polish 1 and Metal Polish 2.  While working on the chrome accents Adam, being the detailer he is, didn't want to miss the engine.  So as the two guys finished the accents Adam moved on to the engine using All Purpose Cleaner to take off all the nastiness and then they all went at it with the metal polish system.  The engine looked amazing after the detail as you can see from above.

 

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As you can see here our customer came back to pick up his beautiful classic and was very surprised how the Ford came back to life.  You could see the instant gratification he was feeling and even gave Adam a hug in appreciation.  It was amazing how our product took to the fire damaged coupe.  I have to say as the guy taking pictures and video I was very amazed how well the car came out and am very impressed with the result.  

 

I hoped you enjoyed this story and write up.  Please stay tuned for the video on this classic due to the candid nature of the video and how much fun the guys were having detailing this car.  Thank you for your time.

 

Joe Trigeiro

joe@adamspolishes.com

Cinematographer/Photographer

Creative Design

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Real nice story.  One can see the heart break in "OLD KID" owners eyes.  And the pure joy when he picked up the finished product.  Great work by Nick and staff.  Since I live in Westminster, CO, I have occasion to visit the HQ in Louisville.  A real nice bunch of folks.  Nice before and after shots Joe.  Anxious to see the completed video.

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the other 2 GM's burned up, ha...and this is coming from a GM guy

 

My thought I guess is if they were parked in any normal garage, one would think none of them would have made it out.  Thinking of the roof collapsing and falling on the car, etc.  Not a lot of space so to speak.  Where as if it were a large garage, did just a corner burn down, and that car was parked in an area by itself.  Which is why it survived.  If that makes any sense.

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Just curious as to why that car made it, but the other 2 didn't?  Any explanation?

The other two cars did not have a cover on them so they got wasted by not only the fire but the water and debris caused by the fire fighters.

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The other two cars did not have a cover on them so they got wasted by not only the fire but the water and debris caused by the fire fighters.

 

Thanks for the explanation, Joe.  So do you know if the others just need repaints, or where they destroyed beyond repair?

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