Welcome to Automobilia of West Haven AND West Palm Beach, Florida

After such an easy winter season, it was hard to believe that come the scheduled Tuesday night for our March monthly meeting, we were again dealing with a weather threat. We made the call to postpone until Thursday. It was a good move and we still ended up with 60+ CVRers making their way to West Haven for the event.

The crew at Automobilia was excited to have CVR back and the members of the club always enjoy inspecting the current projects going on at Automobilia. Co-Owner Alex Jones was on hand to host the meeting along with his crew. Alex and I chatted and figured this was the sixth CVR event to be hosted by Automobilia over the years. Co-owner Christian Mead was not in attendance and that was due to the first big announcement that Alex shared with us – Automobilia has expanded and opened their second store in West Palm Beach, Florida!!! Christian was pulling duty at the West Palm location and Face-timed with us for a minute, to say hello.

As with most monthly meetings, the CVRers began the meeting with socialization and a tasty dinner that wasprovided by Automobilia. The Automobilia shop, spotless as always, had a number of fantastic project cars scattered throughout the shop for the CVRers to inspect. Before long it was time to kick off our evening agenda with an update on the CVR calendar from the various chairs that were in attendance. We also welcomed a couple of new members who were enjoying their first monthly meeting.

Then, it was time to hand things over to Alex Jones for an update on things at the shop, along with their product offerings. After informing us of the news of the new FL shop, Alex then introduced the Automobilia team and then moved on to a review of the XPEL offerings.

No surprise, but things continue to evolve with many of the services that are offered by Automobilia. When it comes to paint film protection offered by XPEL, they have now been able to move their product from 8mm to a 10mm thickness. This adds even more protection to your vehicle’s paint. These improvements are made while still making it so that the technician can install the product in a way that makes it invisible to the customer. Impressive.

Alex showed the self-healing properties of XPEL with a scratching demo on the black XPEL film, where we could watch the scratches disappear right before our eyes as heat was applied. Alex then reviewed the many other services Automobilia offers such as ceramic coats and vehicle customizations and updates in those areas.

Alex then brought up Juan Maldonado to review the current state of window tinting options. Very interesting and I had no idea that you could  claim a state medical exemption for window tinting! Finally, Alex had Automobilia affiliate Dana Accabo come up and go over insurance offerings and some of the surprising “gotchas” when it comes to coverage on your collectible automobile.  

With the presentation complete we conducted our raffle with a grand prize of a full wash donated by Automobilia. Special thanks again to Alex, Christian, and the entire crew at Automobilia for all their work hosting our March event.

Next month you’ll find our April monthly meeting hosted by our friends at Sloan Motorcars and Fairfield County Motorsport in Fairfield. Please be sure to register using your constant contact invitation. You’ll be receiving your invite during the first week of April and as always, check the CVR calendar for the latest updates.

Thanks, your CVR programs crew