Saving History

Longtime Marco Islander Keith Pershing is well known for his work restoring vintage vehicles at Island Automotive, the auto repair business he’s owned since 1979 with his wife Vicki. But recently a loyal customer approached Pershing about restoring a dolphin statue that was part of a 2003 fundraiser for the Art League of Marco Island (now Marco Island Center for the Arts). Pershing and his team at Island Automotive jumped at the opportunity.

There were originally 36 dolphin statues created in a project dubbed Dolphin Debut, organized by Friends of Art and the Marco Island YMCA. The fiberglass dolphin statues were painted and decorated by local artists and auctioned at Marriott’s Marco Island Resort (now JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort). The Dolphin Debut fundraiser was recognized by the City of Marco Island with Resolution No. 03-29 on May 5, 2003.

Over the past 20 years many of the dolphin statues have fallen into disrepair or have disappeared altogether. There’s one displayed on Barfield Drive. One resides at Mackle Park. Former Goodland artist Denise Santos restored at least one of the dolphin statues in 2012.

Pershing turned the restoration project over to John McCoy, who does much of his body work and painting. Mike Pettitt, McCoy’s restoration technician apprentice, was also highly invested in the project.

"John’s an artist,” Pershing said of McCoy. "He’s amazing.”

The dolphin statue used to stand in front of Marek’s restaurant in Old Marco. Somewhere along the line the dolphin’s flippers were removed and reattached. The statue was also given a waiter’s outfit. It was rescued by a local collector who wishes to remain anonymous.

"It was super-rough when we got it,” Mike Pettitt said. "The flippers were cut off. It was holding a menu. So we had to peel off all of the fiberglass on those and find the original flippers. We had to repair them and put them back on. They were cut at 90-degree angles. It was horrible. The shirt it had on was like jeans material and they just put fiberglass all over it. We had to peel it off and scrape it off. We used picks. I felt like I was chiseling for a couple of days.”

“They had human clothing on this,” John McCoy said incredulously, "and they painted it with resin. It was really destroyed because there was resin dripped all over. They butchered the fins. It was a real disaster. We had to put a real effort into it to bring it back.”

The ensuing four-month long project brought about results that are simply amazing. The restored dolphin statue looks better than new. The artisans at Island Automotive attacked the project like they would a car restoration.

“It’s pretty similar to doing body work on a car,” Pettitt said. "I’m learning to restore cars, paint, body work, and everything. I want to learn it all.”

He has a great mentor in McCoy, an admitted perfectionist.

"I am a perfectionist,” McCoy smiled, "but I try not to take it to the nth degree. I painted that dolphin four times before I got it the way I wanted it. It’s perfect. I always treat my customers' cars or airplanes like they are my own. But there’s a cutoff point where you’re losing money. After I clear coated it for the first time, and I wasn’t happy with the color, I would sand it and prep it in a couple of hours and re-shoot it.”

McCoy wanted the dolphin to look real.

"We tried to make it look realistic,” McCoy said. "I didn’t want it to look cartoonish. I wanted it to look like a real dolphin. We wanted to restore its dignity.”

Originally the customer wanted Island Automotive to do the restoration work on the dolphin, then send it off to be painted.

"We were just going to put on a primer and give it to an artist,” Pershing said. "But I called the customer and told him that they have to use automotive paint or it will peel like they all do. He said, 'Can you do it?' I said, 'John’s good enough to do it'.  He said, 'Okay, you do the artwork, too.’”

McCoy was happy the customer had a change of heart.

“When he decided to have us paint the dolphin,” McCoy said, "I really got a charge out of that. I had a chance to take it from start to finish that way.”

Pershing, McCoy, and Pettitt couldn’t be happier with the finished product.

“I’m really excited about it,” McCoy beamed. "We’ve been pushing it in and out of the shop for four months. Mike’s got a solid three months’ work on it.  I’m really pleased with it. I really couldn’t be happier. It came out exactly the way I wanted it to. Every now and then it’s like payday!”

"We used the best automotive paints,” Pershing said. “The most expensive automotive clear coat available, it's $1,000 a gallon. It really should withstand sitting out in the sun for five to 10 years. With some care, some shade, it can go 25 years and still be perfect. We rebuilt the base with stainless steel tabs. All the inner workings have been rebuilt. It has all the UV filters on it and it has a lot of clear coat on it.”

But how does the anonymous collector feel about his restored dolphin statue?

"He’s very pleased with it,” McCoy said proudly.

"It’s an artist’s interpretation of life,” Pershing said. "I think it’s pretty perfect.”