24 Hours of Le Mans!

It's that time of year again, the oldest and greatest auto race in the world celebrates its 90th anniversary this weekend in Le Mans, France (June 23-24, 2013.) The race is fast and torturous. It is where the world's premier auto makers--Aston Martin, Audi, Chevrolet (Corvette), Chrysler (SRT Viper), Ferrari, Honda, Lotus, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Porsche, Toyota--come to show not only that they have the fastest, best handling, most advanced cars but in order to win, they must also be reliable and economical.

The race attracts top drivers including celebrity Patrick Dempsey who in past years has been a LeMans class leader. Audi once again captured the pole in 2013. Toyota was third fastest in qualifying with a hybrid prototype.

Unlike most races, these vehicles must run all-out for 24 hours straight without breaking down and with as few stops as possible. At 2013 speeds we can expect the leaders to travel more than 3000 miles (5000 km)

NASCAR, Formula 1 and Indycar feature straights that can be a thousand feet long. LeMans features a straightaway that is 4 miles (6 km) long followed by a series of curves, hairpin turns and shorter straights.

It is our favorite race at Almost Everything because the cars look like real cars and the technology is often a few years away from making the cars we drive everyday safer, more fun and better performing.

1995 Chevrolet Tahoe Paint Overhaul!

Almost Everything's Car of the Day is a 1995 Chevy Tahoe.  This mini SUV started out with no shortage of terrible old paint. Its original clear coat had failed over years of being beaten by the sun's harmful rays causing the top layer to look white, also the base layer of primer had failed causing lots of crack or "check" marks in the top surface! These paint defects would cause the new paint to look terrible if we simply painted over them, so we stripped the hood, roof, and both fenders down to the bare metal, ridding them of all of the checking primer.  The rest of the truck we sanded what was left of the old peeling clear coat down to a smooth paintable surface.  After masking, the truck was sealed with a primer and finally painted in its original color with our Urethane + Integrated Clear Coat paint!

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Can I park here?

Almost Everything's Cars of the Day are two extreme opposites. The Chevrolet Silverado has about five feet of ground clearance, whereas the BMW E30 has a little less than an inch and a half between its oil pan and the ground. Interestingly enough, the BMW hauls engines, furniture, and other massive stuff to test the vehicle's structural integrity in a real-world setting. The truck looks pretty.

Full disclosure: the BMW belongs to Joel, Almost Everything's Customer Service Manager.

1964 Chevrolet El Camino Color Change

Almost Everything's Car of the Day is a 1964 Chevrolet El Camino. Unlike most of the cars that are featured on our page, this "Cruck" or Car-Truck came to our shop with what appeared to be a beautiful paint job. When we thoroughly inspected the car with the owner we did discover plenty of old, improper bodywork which was cracking and ruining the beautiful finish! This paint had been on this truck for nearly twenty years and the owner grew tired of the subtle red look, after we finished all of the body repairs we repainted the exterior with an aggressive bright orange for that old-school "High Performance Chevy" look!

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2014 Corvette Stingray Wreck!

How is this even possible? Almost Everything's Wreck of the Day is a 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. It isn't even on the market yet! We get this scoop from our friends at WreckedExotics.com. In their article, they quote General Motors as saying, "During evaluation, the inside tire caught the edge of the pavement during a tight corner, leading to the accident. Thankfully, no one was hurt, the car received only minor damage, and no citations were issued." Hard to believe this is minor damage. . . but nothing we couldn't fix!

1967 Pontiac Firebird Color Restoration!

Almost Everything's Car of the Day is a 1967 Pontiac Firebird. This classic muscle car came to Almost-Everything looking pretty beat. There were rust holes in some body panels, old bodywork that was not too interested in looking great anymore and its paint had faded from years of being outside in the sun. We began our restoration by replacing the unusable rear right body panel with a new reproduction panel made specifically for rusted/damaged areas which was provided to us by the car's owner. Once that was completed we began smoothing and "re-skimming" over the old body work so it would not show through the cars new upcoming paint job. Once the specified areas were smooth, we applied a primer sealer and finally repainted the entire exterior of the vehicle with our Urethane + Integrated Clear Coat paint!

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1996 Chevrolet Camaro Color Change

Almost Everything's Car of the Day is a 1996 Chevrolet Camaro.  This Chevy started its life as a green car, somewhere along the lines a shoddy paint job was applied over the original paint, in addition to that there were some non-matching body panels standing out like sore thumbs!  We started the transformation by first sanding out all of the chips and scratches in the existing paint, then applying a primer sealer to seal the freshly sanded surface.  The owner wasnt liking the blue that the car had been painted previously too much, so he opted to refinish it with a newer and darker GM blue!

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1968 Chevrolet Impala Color Change!

Almost Everything's Car of the Day is a 1968 Chevrolet Impala.  This old-school cruiser came to us looking pretty rough, it had a thick coat of epoxy primer applied over some existing 3rd party bodywork.  Naturally the flat grey wasn't the color that the owner wanted on his classic Chevy, so he decided to have us repaint the entire exterior and even the door jambs with our Base - Coat / Clear Coat paint.  Since the car did not have a trace of its original paint anywhere, the owner simply picked a color that he liked, it is called Dark Persimmon Metallic and definately fits this car perfectly!

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IROC Camaro Color Restoration

Almost Everything Car Paint's Car of the Day is a 1987 Chevrolet Camaro. This iconic muscle car came to us with lots of old unfinished primer on it. We began by removing all of the old unwanted stickers and decals. We then scuffed up the existing surface with an abrasive pad, sealed the fresh surface with a Primer Sealer, and finally we painted the whole car "Frost White" with our Enamel paint!

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