2021_ADN_V6_No3_web

NITTY
GRITTY
A Thing
of Beauty
Meet the team who
detailed an extremely rare
1947 Cisitalia Coupe
By Kimberly Ballard
Master Orange County detailer, Rigo
Santana of Xtreme Xcellence Professional
Detailing in Laguna Hills, California,
and founder of the Nueva Generacion
de Detalladorese Network (NGDD)
got the opportunity to detail a rare 1947
Cistalia 202 Coupe designed by Italian
carmaker Pinin Farina. Santana led a
team to the Petersen Automotive Museum
in Los Angeles to prepare the vehicle
for exhibition at the Concorso Italiano
back on August 14, and for competition
at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance
on August 15 – 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.
Any vehicle must be in superb condition
to compete in such a prestigious event
as the Concours d’elegance and Santana
brought an expert team, certified by his
NGDD, to the museum to help remove
some scratches from the paint surface,
and to polish the vintage vehicle to its ultimate
shine. NGDD is 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.”
Santana chose to use clay bar, followed
by precision polishing to properly
repair the scratches. “We will be pulling
for the car to win a ribbon next week,”
said Santana. “The competition is brutal,
but this car is a true work of art.” (It is
unclear if the car won a ribbon due to the
timing of this publicaiton).
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.
This is hardly Santana’s first experience
with a beautiful Italian vehicle. Last
June, he flew in a professional team of
high-end detailers from Puerto Rico and
select cities in California to help him prepare
a rare 1968 Iso Grifo for induction
into the National Corvette Museum in
24 | AUTO DETAILING NEWS | VOL. 6, NO. 3 • FALL 2021