With his work light in the deepest recesses of a Ferrari F512 M’s engine bay, Tim McNair notes minor flaws that will require more attention. There’s a greasy smudge on the intake plumbing, chipped paint where the red shows through on the black chassis piping, a damaged sticker on an ignition coil—typical signs of wear on a 30-year-old car—and it’s all easily addressed.
Fixing them will not be a problem for Mr McNair, whose credits include preparing a Ferrari Enzo that received a perfect score of 100 points at the Cavallino Classic, where the marque’s cars are judged by judges.
But the creased finish paint on the engine is another matter. That color, silver, and in that finish with an attractive crinkle texture found on many Ferrari die-casts, just isn’t available in quality to his satisfaction.
For Mr. McNair, owner of Grand Prix Concours near Philadelphia, it’s all in a day’s work. His livelihood is making sure collector cars make it to the top competitions as perfectly as possible. Far from the casual routine of an owner prepping for local cars and coffee, the stakes of Mr. McNair’s job are much higher. Its themes will be scrutinized at formal events like the concours d’elegance, a beauty showcase that typically features classics revived by seven-figure restorations.
So when a customer gives him a car to prepare, he cleans, polishes and fixes defects. With the judges – likely to include experts involved in the details of which type of hose clamp or headlight bulb is correct for that year and model of vehicle – working under strict guidelines, a concert requires precise preparation. To be a Best Performance contender, a car has to be more than spotless. It must be factory accurate in myriad details.
Time to call in an expert.
This is the position held by Mr. McNair. His decades of experience have been accumulated since he started as a 15-year-old, progressing to his time as a Mercedes-Benz technician and now providing high-end preparation.
Mr. McNair takes his skills and encyclopedic knowledge of classic and racing cars—as well as carefully organized cases of cleaners and obscure parts—to the garages and workshops of collectors, applying the finishing touches to cars that have already been restored or, in some cases, preserved in almost their original condition.
“I’m the 2 percent,” says Mr. McNair, emphasizing that his focus is on covering the fine points after restoration, the critical details that separate the winners from the losers.
His portfolio includes a mastery of what a modern Ferrari should look like, inside and out, but also ranges from an 1885 Duryea to a 2024 Bentley Continental GT Speed Edition 12. For his clientele of historically significant vehicles, the Mr. McNair likens his work to that of an art conservator, an apt parallel for hand-crafted creations of millions. Each presents challenges to maintaining originality: Factory finishes can be fragile, and there are likely to be many materials in use, each requiring different cleaners and protective treatments.
The value of a top concert prospect is often in the millions of dollars, and special restorations of rare models regularly reach seven figures. The cost of the finish alone can be impressive: Mr. McNair notes that a 1931 Duesenberg Model J at Reimel Motor Cars in Wayne, Pa., has $100,000 worth of chrome trim on trim like its grille and bumpers.
Even completing this last bit of work before a major concours can require 40 to 60 hours of work, for which he charges $150 to $250 an hour. The aim, says Mr McNair, is to “ship it complete”. Ideally, when the car leaves its transporter at the event, all it needs is a dusting.
The particular advantage Mr. McNair brings to clients whose vintage machines compete for honors at top-level competitions is decades of experience as an official at concours such as Pebble Beach in California and Amelia Island in Florida. He knows what the judges will be looking for.
“Getting it right starts with research,” he notes, tracking down documentation such as period photographs – color images from the period are the ultimate source – and manufacturer’s build sheets, all to bring a car to its ‘as-delivered’ condition. . For exclusive European brands, certification from the automaker’s historic programs is sometimes available, verifying installed options, paint color and upholstery materials — even down to the part number listed on a suspension arm.
With the available historical resources in hand, the guide to the work to be done becomes the checklists used by the reviewers. These worksheets are a reminder of the items that need to be functional — horns, wipers, turn signals — and guide Mr. McNair’s work. Judges use them to record the overall condition of the car as well as note any mechanical defects. Then points are often deducted.
Before the car can be cleaned, visible defects are addressed. This is where experience is valuable. For example, a Sharpie isn’t the right touch-up (an important shortcut for beginners) on a black finish, because the texture and sheen won’t be right — and will throw off a judge’s critical eye. Chips can be repaired with paint used by model builders, often available in an exact match to factory colors.
Details like the creased finish in the Ferrari engine bay can be more of a challenge. Mr. McNair did not find a satisfactory silver in this texture, so he paints the removed parts with a red wrinkle paint and then a plain silver paint. Even this requires special precautions: If any painted control marks remain from factory assembly, they must be preserved.
The question of what constitutes correct surfaces – matte or glossy, whether the color is authentically imperfect or beyond what it looked like from the factory – is an important issue in a group where sensitivity to over-restoration is strong.
“The first step to getting it right is knowing what it needs to be in the first place,” says Eric Peterson, principal of Leydon Restorations in Lahaska, Pa. “This may require a deep dive into any documentation for the car and knowledge of what was used during the time period: chrome, nickel, zinc or cadmium plating, for example. Even then, there will be questions about what has been over-restored.” .
Surface preparation is no less difficult option, explains Mr. Peterson, who is also an entry judge.
“Some processes can dull the bare metal finish,” he says, “so we have to rely on experience to choose between techniques like soda blasting or steam sanding to achieve the desired finish.”
“The takeaway,” he says, “is that judges look closely and if a finish is wrong, they’ll wonder what else is wrong.”
There is also an understanding from the judges that the cars will be driven on the field and that they may have covered miles in the touring and road rallies that often accompany these events.
“An entry should be well prepared for the entrants’ judging, but that doesn’t mean it’s surgically clean,” says Pebble Beach judge Ken Gross. “Judges are not there to intimidate, but they can see the difference between honest dust and sheer negligence.”
The kit of Mr. McNair to solve these problems contains cleaners and polishes, as well as microfiber cloths. A degreaser used in restaurants to clean hoods, SD-20, works well on motor oil buildup without damaging the surface underneath. And it uses black cotton swabs made with bamboo shafts that are less likely to break than white cotton swabs with cardboard shafts.
Mr McNair is clear that his role only goes so far. A wealthy client was so pleased with the revival of his leather car seats that he asked for the leather chairs in his home movie studio to get the same treatment. Mr. McNair obliged, but that wasn’t the end of the requests: Could the owner’s Ferragamo loafers be treated, too, so they wouldn’t soak from the pre-dawn chill on the boardwalk at Pebble Beach?
These shoes were seen with beads of water glistening on their surface at the concours d’elegance there a few weeks later.
