Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance - Best in Class - 1963 Studebaker Avanti R2 detailed by Mike Phillips

[Mike Phillips]

Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance - Best in Class - 1963 Studebaker Avanti R2 detailed by Mike Phillips

This last weekend, a 1963 Studebaker Avanti R@ I detailed (and used for some videos), won Best in Class at the 2025 Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance in Palm Beach. Here's a few pictures of the car at the event and in the Gino's Man Cave after the event.

Back at Gino's Man Cave

This Avanti has SUPER SOFT SINGLE STAGE BLACK PAINT
If you've ever struggled to finish out on soft paint, the Dr. Beasley's NSP 45 works great. I also used this on the 1969 Pontiac GTO in the background as it has super soft single stage red paint.

I've detailed every car and the 1966 DUO Ski Boat in these pictures and about a half dozen other classics and muscle cars not present.

The students in one of my past classes actually detailed this 1970 Dodge Charger with only 30,000 original miles.

I sanded and buffed pretty much everything on this 1960 DUO Ski Boat

This Nash Rambler has super HARD paint - luckily it wasn't too bad of shape when it arrived.

This 1960 VW Pickup had SANDING SCRATCHES throughout every body panel.

This very rare 1969 Matador Red GTO Convertible had super soft single stage paint that I fixed, and I also buffed out the windshield and passenger side window to remove scratches out of the glass. Full write-up on the Dr. Beasley's blog.

Buffed out the AMC Pacer

Multiple aspects for this Amphicar. I buffed the scratches out of the windshield, buffed the scratches out of the clear flexible rear plastic window, did the paint correction to tall the louvers and of course, all the paint.

Mike

 

[Fech]

Congratulations again! Racking up the awards!

 

[Mike Phillips]

***UPDATE***

This last Sunday, 3/16/2025, this 1963 Studebaker took another award at the 2025 Palm Event car show.

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

Congratulations again! Racking up the awards!

Thanks, the owner of the Studebaker told me this after attending the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance,

The Judges asked me how I was able to get a swirl free finish on a black fiberglass car?


If I had been there, I would have said it all comes down to quality abrasive technology.



Mike

 

[Setec Astronomy]

If I had been there, I would have said it all comes down to quality abrasive technology.

Don't forget the guy behind the buffer.

 

[Mike Phillips]

Don't forget the guy behind the buffer.

Ha ha, according to some experts, that guy is a hack!

LOL

 

[mc2hill]

Great work Mike! That is a nice car, but from his collection I would choose the Nash pulling the DUO ski boat.
I was supposed to attend that show with a car I have been detailing for about 10 years. I was working on it before it was completed, and it won the Hagerty Special Award this year! Sadly too much going on with my real job.

 

[Mike Phillips]

Great work Mike! That is a nice car, but from his collection I would choose the Nash pulling the DUO ski boat.

I hear you on not having enough time. I have a LOT of pictures from detailing the 1952 Nash Rambler, but no time to process. And for what it's worth, the basecoat/clearcoat paint on this old 2-door Nash was ROCK HARD. Luckily, it only had light swirls an scratches in the paint.


1952 Nash Rambler

First time I used the Plasma Coat for a show car detail.

Same goes for the boat, I did a full sand, compound, polish and ceramic coat, just no time to process all the pictures to create a solid write-up.

1966 DUO Ski Boat - All Original

Mike

 

[mc2hill]

Thanks for sharing/resharing those pics!

Here are a few shots of the 1912 American Racing Special that won the awards at Amelia.

 

[Setec Astronomy]

First time I used the Plasma Coat for a show car detail.

Wait...what? Plasma Coat? You keep bringing up these products I've never heard of, obviously I need to spend more time studying the Dr. Beasley's website.