Car (Truck) of the Day - Ford E350 Custom Box Van - Insurance Claim - Accident Repairs

This truck was in pretty bad shape. A tow truck carrying a car changed lanes into the side of it. In addition to the visible damage, the structural members under the hood & fender were crushed, see the photos below.

Before:

Almost Everything Autobody replaced the hood, fender, headlamp, bumper & wheel cover. We repaired the support structures underneath the skin plus fixed the dents in the door and replaced the broken suspension components. Then we repainted the entire cab and replaced the emblems & decals. Looks like new, huh?

After:

Car of the Day - 1998 Ford Taurus - Auto Paint

Before:

After:
Color changed from white to red.

Car of the Day - 1997 Honda Accord Coupe - Car Paint

Before:

After:

San Francisco International Auto Show

I spent a day at the San Francisco International Auto show with my father & friends this past weekend. SF Gate magazine actually published a photo of some of us, David Lehrer & his kids, in front of a Mini Cooper. David has been a great friend for 30 years and has probably been to the car show with me 25 times.

Let Downs:

Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead--I think my father got it right when he called it "a Dodge Ram on steroids." It's a whale of a car that isn't as ugly as the current Phantom but this 2-door convertible is surprisingly ungainly up close and one of the few cars that looks better in photos than it does in real life.


Acura--what happened to those beautiful cars from just a couple of years ago? I've gotten used to the "beaks" on the hood and I am drawn to the looks of the TL on the freeway but at the car show I got inside the cars for the first time. They seemed cramped and the interiors weren't as elegant as the previous models. The changes to make the RL look like the rest of the model line are pitiful. I can't be the only one to think so because I don't think I've ever seen one on the road.
Nissan & Infiniti--Where were they?

Surprises:

Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon--in the past few years I've really come to love station wagons. The CTS is a world class car and the Sport Wagon means you can have a lot of driving fun and still haul everything you need. This may be the best Cadillac since my favorites from the 1920's & 1930"s.


Honda Crosstour--Essentially a fastback version of the Accord. This updated design gives the car a handsome, unified look.


Hyundai Equus--A great follow-up to the well-received Genesis, the Equus is a very big car. It looks like the best from Lexus. The interior appears the equal or superior to any luxury brand and the exterior is (with the exception of the anime version of the "Spirit of Ecstasy" on the hood) is sleek, restrained & imposing in just the right way. The spokesperson at the display said that previous versions of the Equus were used by diplomats & statesmen in Korea.


Aston Martin--Okay, no real surprises here. Aston makes the most gorgeous cars on the planet right now.

Jury is Still Out:

Jaguar XJ--I have been a Jaguar fan my entire life. I still aspire to own a 1966-1968 S-Type and I think the exterior of the 2003-2009 aluminum-bodied XJ to be the most handsome evolution of the original 1968 body style (even if the interior wasn't.) The 2010 XJ is a big change and I'm not sure I like the gaping mouth on the front but I'm warming to it. The design, and especially the headlamps, work better than they did on the XF. The interior, from what I could see of it, looks intriguing: dark and a bit Blade-Runner/Matrix/5th Element-ish but with subtle splashes of chrome & sparks of light. I guess I'm convincing myself. Let's drive it!
Note: Image links from Wikimedia Commons (commons.wikimedia.org)

Car of the Day - 2006 Mercedes Benz CLS 55 AMG - Auto Paint

This was a sad story. A beautiful 2006 Mercedes Benz CLS55 AMG ($87K base price when new) had been vandalized. Just about every body panel had been "keyed" so that there were deep scratches and creases around the entire car. The owners had been quoted many thousands of dollars to repair the damage. The family very much wanted to get the car fixed but within a more reasonable budget. We repaired the dents & scratches & repainted almost the entire car. We did NOT remove the trim, door handles, etc. So if one looks closely, it is possible to tell that the car has been repainted. But for the purposes of this family, for normal use, and even when viewed parked in the VIP spot at a fancy club or restaurant, the car looks very good.

After getting their car back, the owners brought us their 2008 Buick Enclave that had experienced a few parking lot mishaps. We repaired dents on both rear doors, both quarter panels, the front bumper and the fender flares and restored the two-tone paint job.

1/2 Price Presidential Paint Sale

The best deal of the year. Almost Everything's Presidential Paint with 2 year nationwide warranty is 1/2 Price! Come in before Friday for ridiculous savings. Make your car look presentable again before you see your friends for New Years  ;)

Regular $600, now just $299!

Almost Everything Autobody
37414 Centralmont Place
Fremont, California 94536
510-745-9770

Kobi Eshun Photographs

Tenuous link to cars today. . .

I invite you to look at the breathtaking photography of my good friend, Kobi Eshun. Kobi is a car guy, inventor, photographer, world champion stunt kite flyer and very proud father. He and I met in our first job out of school and we roomed together for a few years in the old Besler Building (coincidentally the factory where the Doble Steam Car and Besler Steam Plane were produced in the 1920s-1930s) in Emeryville, California.

"Kobe" was born in Ghana, went to school in England and Texas and now calls California home.

Click on the sample photographs below to see his photo albums. The photos are copyrighted and may not be reproduced without permission from Kobi Eshun.

Besler Steam Plane & Doble Steam Car

Amazing 1933 film from the Besler Company of the Doble Steam Car and the Besler Steam Plane. I actually lived in the old Doble/Besler factory in Emeryville, California from about 1986 to 1993, when Emeryville was still an old industrial wasteland and cheap housing for artists instead of the shopping mecca it is today.

The Doble is a little known but magnificent automobile that competed with the likes of Rolls Royce & Duesenberg. When the Doble brothers' company failed, William Besler bought the factory & continued to develop steam power. He worked with General Motors for many years on steam power. Besler also provided smoke screen generators to Allied forces during WWII.




More links on Doble Steam Cars & Besler Steam Engines:

http://www.damninteresting.com/the-last-great-steam-car
http://ucblibrary3.berkeley.edu/gendl/EADprint/doble2.pdf
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt3p30193p;developer=local;style=oac4;doc.view=items



Jay Leno writes about his Doble: http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/jay_leno_garage/1302916.html?page=1

http://steamingdownsouth.com/Doble/doble.html

Q&A: Racer's Special Discounts

Donna Seeley wrote to ask if we offer a "Racer's Special." You bet. We paint lots of local race cars and can match specific race colors & liveries. We provide volume discounts to race clubs as well as to companies, fleets and any organization with multiple vehicles. Give us a call to discuss your needs. You won't find a better deal in Northern California.

1970 Chevrolet Camaro - Restoration on a Budget

Before:

1970 Chevy Camaro. Customer removed engine, interior & trim prior to transport to Almost Everything Autobody. Almost Everything cleaned rust, welded holes, ground off old paint & repaired dents. Then we painted the entire car, including the dash, with a 2-stage pearl blue paint. We finished the car with a set of 3-stage pearl white stripes. The customer reassembled the interior and put in a new engine. The car is fierce and turns heads everywhere it goes.

Of interest in the background of the picture below is a 1968 Chevrolet Corvette convertible. Almost Everything Autobody repaired a number of cracks and holes in the fiberglass and performed a complete paint job on that car.

After:

Another interesting car in the background of a photo is the 2004 Chrysler PT Cruiser that belongs to the manager of a local automotive repair shop. He wanted to create something special--and fix some dents that PT Cruiser had gathered along the way. So we painted his car in a two-tone, 2-stage Harley-Davidson orange & black paint scheme. The owner had ordered some original Harley Emblems that were meant to go on the sides of the motorcycle gas tank. We were able to mount these emblems to the fenders. Look for Mike & his Harley Cruiser on Peralta Ave. in Fremont.

Almost Everything Wins Best of Fremont Award

Almost Everything Autobody thanks our customers for voting us the "Best" Auto Body Shop in the Bay Area in the Fremont Bulletin's annual readers survey. Almost Everything Autobody won the category for Auto Body, Collision Repair & Auto Paint.

In accepting the award, Frank Barnard said, "The award really goes to our team. We have a great group of guys at the shop. They have 75-100 years of experience in the auto body business. Their hard work and dedication made this award possible. I am very proud of their success. Thanks again."

Frank's Cars - #9: 1964 Ford Thunderbird

Here is my latest acquisition, a 1964 Ford Thunderbird. I bought from Nicolas Perez who owns Sunshine Auto Detailing on Mission Blvd. in Hayward. He put it up for sale many months ago when I didn't have any money to buy a car. I know people will think I'm crazy but I think that the 1964 Thunderbird is the most beautiful car ever produced in the USA. I've lusted after it since I was a little kid--and it is as old as I am so this has been a while in coming.

The economy has been in the toilet for the past 2 years and Nicolas' beautiful car never sold. I continued to see it parked behind his business for months and I finally broke down. Nick wouldn't take a dime less than his asking price. So I eventually paid him what he wanted--more than I could afford and less than I think it was worth so all-in-all an okay deal for both of us.

The car looks like it was purchased by an elderly couple then put in a nice garage & forgotten for a few decades. The interior looks almost new--it doesn't even show the hardening & shrinkage that I would expect on the seats but they are worn just enough to show that they are original. The engine starts eagerly and the car drives well.

I'm in love.

It needed paint so we brought it into the shop for some exterior freshening. Then we got busy. So it has been sitting, naked (bare metal) in a corner for weeks. I only got to drive it a couple of times before the crew tore into it. Everyone here wants it to be a show car but this is frustrating! The good news has been that the original sheet metal is very straight. The bad news was that the original paint was microchecked (in technical terms, the paint was "toast") so everything has to get stripped down to bare metal.

The trunk looked like it had never been used. The original tire & liners were virtually untouched. . . but it smelled musty and an old parts catalog sitting at the bottom of the trunk was wet. . . we found rust. Lots of rust.

Fortunately, the rust in the trunk has turned-out to be just on the surface. It cleaned-up fairly easily.

Who can tell us what this is? We can tell it is an air inflator connector and it is on the driver's side wheel well in the trunk. We haven't done any research into it. It looks like it connects to the rear suspension. Is this an early self-leveling system? Was it stock?!

More photos to come after she's painted.

Car of the Day - 2005 Mercedes Benz CL500 - Autobody Work

2005 Mercedes Benz CL 500 with dented quarter panel, broken tail light & scraped bumpers