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My Trip to SEMA 2013!
My Trip to SEMA 2013
Visiting SEMA is an experience almost every car enthusiast can enjoy. During the 4 day show, four GIGANTIC halls are filled with everything automotive and custom lining the walls and exterior of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Cars and trucks, vintage and cutting edge technology, factory cars along with Ridler Award winning hot rods, and everything in between, grant the eyes an automotive experience that overwhelm and awe. It doesn’t matter if it’s your first trip or 20th, you’re a young pup or seasoned car veteran, there is always a palpable aroma of enthusiasm in the air surrounding Las Vegas in the days leading up the to the Specialty Equipment Market Association show, as it is the largest car show in the world.
[View of the Ford booth from the top, right before doors opened]
[View from the opposite end during the show from the Skybox!]
My trip was no less grand; in fact, there was no possible way I could have planned it better. I was fortunate enough to have been selected by Mr. Derek Bemiss, of Detail Werks, to be one of five individuals representing Meguiar’s to prep and maintain the Ford booth vehicles. I was quite honored to have been chosen as this was Bemiss’ 10th year leading the Meguiar’s team at SEMA for Ford. Having the chance to work alongside the likes of Derek [who maintains the personal cars of Barry Meguiar], Ryan Sunok, Nicholas Winn, and Kevin Brown [the famous Buff Daddy – also his 10th year] was quite an honor. To say these guys are knowledgeable is underselling it at the least. These guys are ROCKSTARS
, [I know many out there know them so I won’t ramble on with details of how we constantly talked theory and product] so to be included in this group was a humble honor. However, you would never know these guys were best of the best because there wasn’t an over-bearing ego in the bunch and everyone did everything with the group agenda in their sights. This simplified all of our MANY duties and goals and allowed us to quickly dial things in and GO GO GO! You can imagine how necessary that is when having to prep 50+ cars in two days! Also, its byproduct was a lot of fun and laughing; it seemed that the more we worked and developed cohesion as a unit the deeper we got into each day; [and some LATE nights] the group would find a way to have even more fun while working furiously.
[Left to Right, Nicholas Winn, Ryan Sunok, Christopher Brown [Me], Kevin Brown, Derek Bemiss....... Sorry for the blurriness.. The camera went on the fritz and we were unable to recapture another.]
Ford’s booth inside SEMA was about one and a half football fields long and held 40+ vehicles, depending on how they arranged it in any given day. This included the many custom transit vans that were featured this year, the one off 1956 Shelby inspired F-100 Snakebit that was unveiled at SEMA, as well as Charley Hutton’s Ridler Award Winning 1940 Ford Build, “Checkered Past,” which was completely hand sanded then finished to perfection by Jason Killmer.
Outside the Ford Out Front Display had an additional 10-14 vehicles; all of which were positioned either directly in front of or very near the exhibition track. This featured Von Gittin Jr., Tanner Foust, and Ken Block wowing the crowds drifting demos, Raptors 3-wheeling and jumping, and Jack Roush lighting up the turns. So we never had a lack of vehicles to maintain by removing the ever present clouds of burnt rubber.
Derek and Kevin were notorious for working additional projects after our prep shifts for Ford, helping out other booths get their featured cars ready for the big week. The first night they stayed and worked on one of Chip Foose's cars finishing it for opening day. So they ended up with something like a 18 hour day, but the Car turned out great and everyone was happy.
[Derek works on the wheels while Kevin cleans the undercarriage.]
The next night we had one more project to do after we finished prepping all of Ford's for the show ahead. It was a 1940 Oldsmobile at the House of Kolors Booth. I was assisting Derek and Kevin when all of a sudden, no less than Jason Rose comes walking down the empty walkway and picks up a buffer and reports for duty. As mentioned earlier, the mood was light and fun. One would think getting these sultans of shine together might be tense, but no Kevin and Jason just asked what needed to be done then everyone laughed, enjoying time away from the day’s long schedule; while doing what they love to do--- polish paint. I don’t normally care for red, but this color was deep, rich, and the metallic popped when we finished. Take a look, the results speak for themselves!
[Derek Bemiss, Jason Rose, and Kevin Brown prepping a 1940 Oldsmobile the night before opening day of SEMA 2013. We all had a great time relaxing by polishing and laughing
after a long day]For the rest of the week we cared for all of the cars in Ford’s Booth and along the way had a great time. Our group was fortunate enough to have gotten the opportunity to do a ride along session on the exhibition track out front. We were all geared up with helmets and such to get into a Ford Raptor to traverse the course when Chris, who was running the even for Ford, yells, “who wants to ride with Roush?” I piped up as quickly as I could and moved near the car. Previously we were told he was only running solo for the crowd, so I whipped out my phone and captured the entire run on video! When I got into the car Roush even thanked me and the team for taking care of all of the Ford vehicles. It was unreal, the Legend thanking us . . go figure!
The rest of the show was very much as you would imagine looking at pictures and reviews; vehicles, giveaways, models, and thousands of car enthusiasts with kiddie like grins on their faces wandering the halls, constantly snapping pictures, and making TONS of awe inspired comments about all the multitude of niche products to completely custom built vehicles. If you’re a car guy and a people watcher then this show provides plenty of opportunities to catch hilarious jaw dropping moments or those priceless moments when you capture that brief flash over someone face when they fall in love for the first time.
[Me wiping down one of the many cars in for Ford booth during the show]
Overall the experience was far better than anything I anticipated. [which as times can be hard to do for me] I got to work with, and talk all things automotive, with a World class group of guys for a week, I was able to see the latest and greatest products and vehicles the industry has to offer, all while making new friends, meeting many of the car care industry’s top guys, and seeing some faces I seldom have the opportunity to do in an environment that only fuels our collective car obsession.
I would like to thank Senior Michael Stoops for thinking of me and referring me to Derek Bemiss for an opportunity to represent Meguiar’s and Ford. Thank You Derek Bemiss, Nick Winn, Ryan Sunok, and Kevin Brown for immediately welcoming me in my first rodeo on the team and providing such a fun and rewarding experience. Also, everyone at Ford was great to work with and had such respect and appreciation for our work; so it’s easy to see why Derek’s teams have been there a decade now representing Meguiar’s and Ford.
I think my SEMA experience is forever ruined, because the bar can’t be set much higher! But that’s not gonna stop me from trying. Until next year everyone . . .
WOW i totally overlooked that i mispelled Barry Meguiars name wrong..... oops.... 
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