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Working for the advertising and TV industry, Cars in Camera is a car transporting operation with a difference. And it has the specialised kit to prove it...
Wafford-based transport operator Peter Dale has helped devise an extraordinary system called PeelCote which will transform a vehicle's appearance. Ifs a sprayed-on paint skin which can be applied over the top of a factory-applied finish, then peeled away once it has served its purpose without leaving any marks. PeelCote is available in any colour you like: even metallic ones. And its proving invaluable to Dale's customers.
Dale and his wife Jill run Cars in Camera, which specialises in delivering cars which are going to be filmed or photographed for advertising purposes. If only white ones are available, but the client feels a red one would look better in the setting he has in mind, then Dale can recoat it in anything from a deep rich claret to screaming pink. "It's even possible for one car to be filmed or photographed in two separate colours during one shoot," he says. "We am also use PeelCote to spray a 1996 car in the new 1997 colours if that's what a manufacturer wants for its brochure. We can match any colour code we are given.
"We've never done a truck—although it's been discussed—but we have PeelCoted a train for a Kit-Kat commercial! We've done a Vauxhall Combo van too—it appeared in launch advertisements and we've just done a Peugeot van."
PeelCote is proving popular worldwide. "We've PeelCoted cars in Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands, and we've just done three airs that have been flown out to the CS for a TV commercial," Dale says.
Customers vehicles are taken to studios and outside locations in both the UK and Europe on Cars in Camera's fully enclosed, curtainsided car transporters. "We've gone to Tunisia, and we've been to Morocco on several occasions," says Dale. "In fact we've got agents out in Morocco to help us deal with the authorities."
The shots aren't always straightforward. "On one occasion a manufacturer wanted to show how safe its ear was, so it was suspended from a crane by one of its seal belts," Dale recalls. "We arranged the crane, and a cherry picker to accompany it."
Breakdown
It's all a far cry from the way the business started. "We began 24 years ago as roadside breakdown and recovery specialists, and worked for most of the garages in the London area," Dale recalls. 'In the late 'seventies we found we were doing a lot of work for Fiat on the Great West Road, and I got a 'phone call one clay asking me to take the then-new Fiat 126 up to a photographer called Paul Campbell in the Lake District, "I got it up there, helped him set up the shots up on the grass near one of the lakes, valeted the car, cut down bracken that was in the way, and really quite enjoyed it," Dale continues, "Three weeks later, Fiat asked me to do another job with Paul—he'd requested me because he was so pleased with the way I had helped him—and it all grew from there."
As a consequence, 12 years ago Dale decided to commit the business fully to the film and promotion industry "We haven't done a breakdown for nine or 10 years," he says.
Cars in Camera operates nine trucks, all Mercedes bar an ageing lveco Ford Cargo 0813. There are two tractor units—a 1628 and an 1834—a pair of 814 rigids and two 1317 rigids, all supplied through M-Li's own dealership in Edgware Road, north London.
The rigids and trailers are fitted with a mixture of bodies. 'Both my semi-trailers were bodied by Transporter Trailer Engineering, which unfortunately went under during the recession," Dale explains. "But the 1317 I recently acquired was bodied by V-Tech, and I'm very impressed with it V-Tech's Roll-Tip body is a slideback with a difference. "With a traditional slideback you have a lever lopusli the body backwards, and another lever Le make it tilt," Dale explains. "But with this one. all you do is push a button—in fad a kid of four could operate it_" Roll-Tip uses a gearbox power take-off to drive a pump which in turn propels a single hydraulic ram working at a pressure of around 3,000psi. Two milers are fitted to the front of the body, and two at the back, and they guide the body down a profiled subframe mounted on the chassis.
Rollers mounted on the chassis rear crossmember provide additional assistance. Pushbutton controls are mounted either side of the cab, and the body can be propelled backwards to ground level in no more than 20 seconds; quicker than a trad:tional slide-back.
V-Tech—Vehicle Technology—built the 1317's c-urtainsideel 24ft body as well as the slideback system at its Blidworth, Nottinghamshire factory. The body will hold two large executive cars on two levels. "We've also fitted the 1317 with a towing hitch can transport a third car on a trailer if w to."
The whole body weighs 3,640kg, and ' claims that a similar body mounted on ventional slideback would weigh some more. Dale says: "Roll-Tip oozes build q and it's proving very reliable; and that's tant to us. I would rather pay the exti have something that will still be work five years' time." The 1834 tractor was acquired thi too—it replaces a 1628 which was stolen pulls a six-car Transport Trailer Engin semi-trailer which was acquired secom and refurbished.
Dale's willingness to buy two new suggests that business is healthy. "Like i people we had a policy of replacing our every four or five years, but then the rec arrived," he explains. "It's really only L the past six or seven months that we hk we can go forward, and invest in new mem." Bodied, and running at 12 tonnes the 1317 cost him .E55,000.
Flagship
Dale still views his refurbished T'TE trailer as the flagship of his fleet, howt triaxle riding on air-suspension, it has which can he raised and lowered 18in hydraulic rams, a front upper deck raisi lowered in the same fashion, and a rea raised and lowered by four screw-type The height of the front section of the deck can be altered too, and the whc runs at 28 tonnes.
Looking for a driver to get the best your car in a TV ad shoot? Dale has two contract; a former Danish karting cha Kirmten Kolby, and and former Formuk Formula 3000 driver, Julian Westwood.
So how come PeelCote isn't available Public? Dale left PeelCote on a car fc months, and took it through a carwai times without too many ill effects—but tear if you catch it with, say, the edge c watch strap. There's also the cost—i. £2,500 on average. "And I suppose bar hers could commit a crime, take the gt car into an underground car park, Peel( then drive out the other side in a di coloured vehicle!" says Dale.
1=1 by Steve Banner