IDA and NGDD-certified Scottsdale automotive detailer Carlos Cazares of Cayro Mobile Detailing was selected to help prepare a rare 1947 Cisitalia 202 Coupe designed by 1940s Italian carmaker Pinin Farina, for exhibition at the Concorso Italiano and for competition at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance – the crowning event at the popular Monterey Car Week.
The Cisitalia 202 Coupe is the only known remaining version of the designer’s 200 Coupe left. Made of three pieces of hand-beaten metal with single stage automotive paint, it has a permanent home in the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
Any vehicle must be in superb condition to compete in such a prestigious event as the Pebble Beach Concours d’elegance and Cazares was invited by SONAX detailing team member Rigo Santana of Xtreme Xcellence Detailing in Laguna Hills, to help remove some scratches from the paint surface, and polish the vintage vehicle to its ultimate shine.
Cazares is a successful automotive paint specialist in the Phoenix/ Scottsdale area and a certified member of Santana’s Nueva Generacion de Detalladorese Network (NGDD), the first and only professionally certified automotive detail training, taught 100 percent in Spanish, in the United States.
“These are priceless, vintage vehicles whose single-stage paint is very delicate and sensitive and must be treated as such,” said Santana, who is a former member of the Air Force One Detailing Team at the Seattle Museum of Flight, the McCalls Motorworks Revival Detailing Team at Monterey Car Week, and a member of the SONAX detailing team who cares for vintage and exotic vehicles on a regular basis.
“There is no room for a mistake in caring for these types of vehicles, so the team has to be carefully trained and experienced in understanding automotive paint processes of this age, and in this type of meticulous polishing techniques.”
“We had to use a process called clay bar, followed by precision polishing to properly repair the scratches,” said Cazares. “Clay bar is a safe and effective method for cleaning the paint and removing any embedded contaminates the vehicle has collected sitting in a museum. The machine polish requires a very careful and experienced hand to prevent burning the aged paint.
“It was quite the experience, and I am honored to have been a part of it. We were pulling for the car to win a ribbon. The competition is brutal, but this car is a true work of art.” In fact, it is genuinely a work of art.
Considered one of the most attractive cars ever built for its taut lines and graceful proportions, it was featured in a 1951 Museum of Modern Art exhibition called 8 Automobiles, which helped establish automobile coachwork as a legitimate art form akin to sculpture.
Consorzio Industriale Sportiva Italia (Cisitalia) was one of many small Italian firms that built specialty sports cars on Fiat parts during the immediate postwar period. After its successful one-seat racing cars, the firm introduced the road-going 202, a Pinin Farina-designed grand touring fastback with a modified Fiat engine. It has a 55 hp 1.1 liter inline-4 engine with speeds up to 103 mph.
For more information on Cazares’ work on the Cisitalia or to have him detail your vehicle contact him at (480) 781-8360 and visit www.cayromobiledetail.com.
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