EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE: Presidential ‘Detail’

BOILING SPRING LAKES, NC (WWAY) — It’s time to get extraordinary, my friends. You’re about to meet a Brunswick County man who went to California to attend a special detailing school and ended up on Presidential ‘Detail’.

Brad Wilson’s instructor happens to head up a project restoring a retired Air Force One jetliner.
Next thing you know, he was being called for Presidential ‘Detail’.

The story starts here, in Brunswick County. Boiling Spring Lakes is a small, quiet community and tucked away off Route 87….is Brad Wilson’s automotive detail shop.
“I just got the shop a couple weeks ago,” Brad told Daniel Seamans.
Now he’s full ‘steam’ ahead with his new venture in Brunswick County.
But it’s the (ad)venture detailed on the back of his shirt that caught our attention(it says Air Force One Detailing Team).

“You’d work on a section with one or two other guys on a scissor lift, up 30 or 40 feet and you’d work on an area for about 4-5 hours. It was like doing 9 Suburbans,” Brad told Daniel. Except Brad wasn’t working on Suburban SUV’s.
Last week, he was working on the original Air Force One Boeing jetliner.

“Obviously,” he told Daniel, “we’re not going to go in with a garden hose and rinse off a plane of that size. Everybody had a bottle of water and we basically dry washed it where you try to wash the grime and debris where it’s sitting.”

Brad one of 35 professional detailers on the Air Force One Detailing Team. His first job on team? Putting the some final touches on the original Air Force One Presidential jetliner.
“It was built in the 50’s,” Brad said. “President Eisenhower was the first to fly in it. Then President Kennedy.”

This de-commissioned airliner now sits on the tarmac at the Museum of Flight in Seattle where once a year it’s been getting a little attention to ‘detail’ with hand selected veterans in the automotive detail industry.
“These guys come from all over,” Brad said. “California, Florida, Pittsburg, Cleveland, Indiana, New York, Boiling Spring Lakes? Boiling Spring Lakes.”

Brad even snapped a shot of the once, high tech, electronics inside(see video for photos).
Yes…that’s an old school pencil sharpener.
Next year, the plane will move inside a permanent, and covered, exhibit where it won’t be exposed to harsh outside elements. Brad will be on board once again. He says he’s honored to be chosen over hundreds of folks who wanted to join the team.

“They don’t get to detail Air Force One!” Daniel bragged to Brad.
“No, they don’t get to detail Air Force One. That’s pretty neat,” Brad replied.

Brad…that’s not just pretty neat….that’s Extraordinary!

Sidenote:
They also worked on one of the world’s first supersonic airliners, the Concorde “Alpha Golf”.
It was retired back in 2003.
The Air Force One they worked on was in service from 1959 to 1996.
As for the team of 35 profession detailers…they do this pro-bono.
But the memories are priceless.

Brad Wilson operates “Icon Automotive Detailing, LLC” in Boiling Spring Lakes.
To contact Brad for further information: 910-880-4697

-Daniel