A collectible car’s appearance makes the first and, often times,
most lasting impression. Engines that purr like a kitty cat,
transmissions that shift as smooth as warm butter, and brakes that
stop straight on a dime are of course wonderful, but for better or
worse it’s visual impression that often matters the most.
And because of this it is important for comprehensive, high
quality cosmetic restoration to encompass all aspects of the car’s
appearance including internal and external bright trim
items. Resto Trim, located in Lindenhurst, New York, is one
of the country’s foremost trim restoration facilities.
The company’s president, Don Ness, has operated a full service
restoration shop called Don’s East Coast Restoration since 1987.
And like most vintage car restorers Don has been in the old car
hobby his entire life. In fact, he is so enamored of vintage
tin, and Bow Tie products in particular, that he has the tail
section of a 1957 Chevrolet tattooed on his back, and owns a
faithful German Shepherd watch dog named “Nomad” and a pussy
cat named “Chevy”. According to Don’s wife Cathy, who
works side-by-side with him in the business, old cars are really
the focus of his life. “Don simply loves restoring
cars,” she explains. “He eats, sleeps and breathes
vintage cars and loves the work we do here.”
Don echoes the sentiments his wife expressed. “I really do
love restoration work,” he says with obvious enthusiasm.
“So many people hate their jobs and I think that’s sad, a
terrible way to go through life. A lot of people I know
can’t wait to get home from a job they don’t like so they can
play with their collectible car. I get to play with
collectible cars all day so I really do consider myself lucky.”
The fact that Don is passionate about his work manifests itself in
the quality of his restorations. His love for the cars
induces him to always go the extra distance to make everything the
best it can be. “For me,” he explains, “there’s
great satisfaction in taking something that’s a complete mess,
that’s literally falling apart from age and use, and
transforming it into a show piece. People think of it as
magic and I appreciate the admiration but high quality restoration
work is mostly just patience and paying attention to every last
detail.”
And it is this philosophy, this patience, attention to detail, and
love for what he does, that makes Don’s trim restoration so
special. Initially he sent out all the brightwork from cars
he was restoring to someone who specialized in it. But about
six or seven years ago he began restoring all the stainless and
aluminum trim items himself and found that he was not only very
good at it, but also that he thoroughly enjoyed it.
As he continued to do the trim restoration himself, Don found that
he got better and better until he reached a point where he could
restore almost any piece regardless of how mangled or deteriorated
it was. “I love to take a rare molding that’s all dented
and dinged up, that maybe the owner thought could never look good
again, and make it perfect,” he says with understandable pride.
Over the years car owners and even other restoration shops heard
through the grapevine that Don did excellent trim restoration and
as a result, started bringing their bright work to him. So
in addition to the bright work he did to complement his own
restorations, he was doing more and more of it for other
people’s projects. In fact, he was doing so much of it for
others that he decided to start a separate division of his
restoration company to handle all the trim work exclusively.
And thus Resto Trim was born.
To provide the space needed to handle the increasing work load,
and to confine the mess that metal restoration inevitably creates,
Don built a separate area of the shop for Resto trim. And to
make sure that the quick turnaround time customers desire is
accommodated, he hired an experienced metal finisher to help him.
The metal finisher, Roque Pimentel, brings more than twenty-five
years of experience to work with him every day. He took some
time out of his busy schedule to explain all the steps involved in
restoring bright work. “The first thing we do is inspect
the parts” he says. “we look at each piece for surface
defects, distortion and the like, and then map out a plan for the
restoration of that item. Needed repairs are done first, and
each item is different as far as what it requires. Creases
and dents can sometimes be taken out with hammers, bucks, and
related tools, sometimes we need to weld areas to build them up or
fill voids. Welding, of course, is a precise science all by
itself. It’s crucial to chose the right alloys and a lot
of skill is required.”
“After all repairs and prep work is finished”, he continues,
“the piece goes to the finishing area where it is cut.
Cutting involves different grades of compounds and different
cutting wheels. Then we do the polishing, which also
involves increasingly finer grades of materials and tools.
After polishing is where a lot of shops are finished, and to the
average person a well polished part looks beautiful. But for
true perfection we do an additional process that old-time metal
finishers call ‘coloring’. Coloring is a method of
ultra, ultra fine polishing that really brings out the beauty of
the metal and makes the piece perfect. After coloring is
completed, the part is final inspected, wrapped up to protect it
in transit, and delivered to the customer.”
I thanked Roque for the abbreviated metal finishing lesson and,
noticing all the bright trim in neatly arranged rows waiting
its’ turn, apologized for the time I took him away from his
work. “Oh, that’s no problem,” he said, gesturing
toward all of the yet to be restored parts. “The more I
have to do the happier I am. More work is only a problem
when you don’t like what you’re doing, but I love what I
do!” As I said before, when a restorer loves what he does
it is clearly reflected in the quality of his work. Both Don
and Roque are passionate about trim restoration and as a result
Resto Trim is among the best in the business.
