Stacey's Mazda RX-7, Exterior Restoration
This document last modified May 21, 2003.
The exterior restoration was handled exclusively by a shop that Mike Vanichuk, one of
Stacey's customers and a long time friend of the family, had recommended.
Mike is an avid car enthusiast and collector, and has plenty of experience with
restorations. He pointed Stacey toward "Big Rig," in Abbotsford, BC.
The Big Rig Group is not your ordinary body and paint shop.
This company specializes in tractors, trailers, buses, farm equipment and all
other, well... big rigs. It was only through Stacey's contact that
she was able to get through the door with her pint-sized four
wheeler. The car was truly dwarfed by all of the other machinery present.
But once inside, the staff at Big Rig proved to have big
hearts as well. They gave Stacey free access to the facility, and the freedom
to examine the work in progress, ask questions, take
pictures and even to lend a hand on her car, within their facility. Stacey told
the story:
"Jim, today I had the car towed to where I was told
to. You should have seen the look on the faces of the two young detailers.
Unfortunately, I was not camera ready, because it truly was a Kodak moment.
Apparently, these two young men, Travis and Colin, were only
told to come in and detail a car. They probably thought that all they
would be doing that day was vacuum the rugs and use a little
Armoral on the dash. When they started working on the car,
I said to them "Hey! Where's my rag and solvent. If you think
I'm leaving, think again. In stunned disbelief, they handed
me my stuff.
So, 'me and the boys'
spent four hours straight. Great kids. By the end of
the day, both were offering to come in tomorrow, Sunday, and weeknights, after
school. I said 'nice offer boys, but you need a day off.'
Sorry Jersey, I didn't
get my hands on the digital camera. But I did take a
whole roll of film. And now -- drum roll,
please...
The entire dash is spotless, the doors are spotless, the pod
and console are, you guessed it, spotless."
(Pictures of the dash and console, after this detailing effort, are
available on the previous page.)
That wasn't the half of it.
More often than not, when Stacey would walk into their paint facility, she
would be greeted with comments along the lines of
'Hey, look who's here!' and 'Where have you been? The car
looks great! Want some coffee?' Very friendly.
Big Rig should be credited with
more than just friendly greetings every time Stacey walked in:
"For the last three months that I have been in the different buildings at Big Rig, I have
watched the guys work. Mechanics, sand blasters, painters, body men -- they
take pride. There is no shitty work done there. I've
seen vehicles repainted because the painter wasn't happy with the final result,
even though it looked fine to me. In the last three months I have seen
semi's, buses, motor homes, sports cars and hot rods go
through. The feeling I get from this group of people is that
if I had a problem with any of the work
they did, then it would be corrected. I'm not
worried."
I should mention this though: before any of you locals, in
the Vancouver area get any ideas about bringing your rust-bucket projects to
Big Rig, be aware that these restorations are not what their business is about, as Stacey describes:
"Don't forget the reason I have access to such a business is because of
my customer, Mike. I really don't think the public has
access to this place. Not like the free reign that I've
been given around there. I really doubt they do allow the public in because I
haven't seen anyone other than the familiar faces that get
paid to be there. The only exceptions are the customers who are escorted around
by the owner, the manager or the shop foreman. That
would be Bob Wiebe, Paul McLeod and Bill
Cooke."
Anyway, Big Rig initially tried to remove a section of the black paint that the thieves
used on the car. They found that the paint underneath was badly scratched, eliminating any
hope of saving the original paint:
Big Rig took care of removing every piece of
exterior trim, the tail and marker lights, all of the glass, and some of the
interior trim, in preparation for painting. The car was also walnut blasted and
primed before several coats of candy-apple red paint and clear coat
were applied. They even took care of sourcing used glass, in
perfect condition, to replace the windshield and door pieces that were damaged by the thieves.
Besides the owners and her friend Mike, a few other names
kept cropping up when Stacey talked about Big Rig, and they deserve some
acknowledgement: Scott kept Stacey informed as the work progressed. Vic, one of
the shop guys, took care of cleaning up and
re-applying all of the trim. And finally, Mike was
recommended as their best painter. The results bear that out:
Did you notice the Freightliner tractor in the background? :)
One other contributor to the exterior restoration should be noted: Tom Mayer, via the internet, provided
advice on various types of paint removal processes, including the walnut
blasting that Big Rig ultimately opted for. Tom proved to be an invaluable
resource throughout the restoration process, as he is very knowledgeable about
body repair and painting techniques. Although he never laid a hand on the car,
his recommendations and explanations, offered freely and completely
independently of the shop where the work was being done,
were tremendously reassuring to Stacey while Big Rig was doing their thing. It
is a testimony to both parties that their expertise concurred on every issue
that Stacey asked about.
