MYRTLE BEACH — This week, Dave Cobb has been one of the chosen few.
The
manager of Myrtle Beach Detailing, Cobb is one of 32 detailers
nationwide chosen to put a fine-toothed comb to the original Air Force
One and the first airplane used to help acclimate astronauts to zero
gravity conditions. He was chosen from more than 150 detailers who
trained with Renny Doyle, a master detailing connoisseur who owns
Attention to Details Ltd., a company that teaches beginners and
professionals about detailing cars and airplanes.
Every two or three years, Doyle chooses his best students to work on airplanes at Seattle’s Museum of Flight.
“I
have carefully selected my team because there is no room for mistakes
in detailing this $100 million airplane,” Doyle said in a news release.
“I need people who will accept nothing short of perfection and Dave is
one of those people.”
The Air Force One Cobb is working on this week was used by Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon.
It now sits on the museum’s tarmac, exposed to Seattle’s infamously-wet weather. It hasn’t been cleaned in more than two years.
The museum pays nothing for the work, which is supported by the individual detailers and corporate sponsors.
Cobb
has been in the detailing business for only a couple of years. For the
12 years before that, he was a salesman at Beach Ford, but took the
advantage to change careers when the opportunity presented itself.
“It’s a big job,” he said of the airplane detailing he is doing in Seattle. “It’s a tiring job. But it’s also a rewarding job.”
Cobb,
38 and married with a 5-year-old daughter, said Tuesday he’d been
working on the wings of Air Force One and after that, would move to
detailing the aluminium in the engines.
Then comes the NASA aircraft.
Detailing work is just what the name says, making sure every inch of the airplane looks like new at the end of the job.
He said he feels like the work in Seattle helps to preserve a part of U.S. aviation history.
Cobb
said after he was hired to manage Myrtle Beach Detailing, he trained
for about three months to learn the fine points of detailing.
There are a lot of details, he said, that go into detailing.
Cobb said detailing cars in Myrtle Beach is a rewarding job with instant feedback.
“There’s a great sense of accomplishment in taking something that’s really dirty and making it like new,” he said.
Source: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com