Anyone else obsessed over car care?

My Camaro is usually pretty clean. I dont wax it with a buffer, I just use that wipe dry wax stuff, seems to work ok. Its garage kept I do need to work on the leather though, its starting to crack.

My daily is too much work to keep clean, too many crappy pine trees outside and russian olive trees. I wash it a couple times a year.

 

I have to have clean windshields (probably OCD). For the interior windshield I just use a few drops of dish washing liquid and water which seems to work better than Windex and clears the grime. Windex seems to smear the grime. For the exterior windshield I use RainX. The rain water beads off with this product. Impressive.

 

these are a few jobs Ive done in the past...painted my brothers motorcycle about 5 years ago for his christmas present. didnt even paint it in the paint booth. after wetsand and buff it looked like glass, painted this one to match his f350 super duty






truck I done about 8 years ago, first real buffing, it had overspray with some kind of paint that nothing would remove from clay bar to laquer thinner...ended up wetsanding the factory paint and replacing all the textured plastics, some reason they did not want to remove the tailgate emblems though, lol...looking back at this, I could have done a better job but the owner loved it and it was the smoothest factory paint around on a new truck, lol







lights on my fleetwood, they were hazy, scratched and looked dated, 1995 so they have age, lol

one sanded, and other a quick polish to make sure I have no flaws


cleared


installed looking better than new


its a lot of work but so worth it in the end, just wish people would stop running into mine and worse leaving with no info

 

Mirror finishes, impressive! Good job man!

 

My vehicle preparations before making the trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas roadtrips (300 miles each way) include;
1) topping off air in my tires, including the spare tire
2) changing wiper blades
3) bringing tools, portable air compressor, 1 gallon water, spare radiator hoses, belts, etc.
4) cleaning my windows inside & out
5) topping off fluids (ie, engine oil, power steering, transmission, and especially windshield washer fluid for bug splatter)
6) bringing empty half gallon reclosable bottles (to pee)

 

I keep this $75 ViAir portable air compressor with me at all times, aongl with a small floor jack, cross bar, tools, etc. This air compressor is pretty powerful.

 

Good to be prepared!
Great price, no need to adjust for inflation!

My emergency kit includes tons of survival candy...Nerds, Starburst, Jolly Ranchers
A candy for any emergency!

RICHARD

 

Not obsessed, but do take care.
Use Zano Brothers polish which is amazing stuff.
Keep up the scheduled maintenance.
10+ years and 150,000 miles and looks better than some vehicles only a few years old.

 

That seems to take me to the care kit but not the repair kit.

 

At my age, I have more important things to worry about.

 

Yes I am. Just bought some pinnacle natural brilliance crystal mist detail spray. Thought I'd give it a try. Just bought a new used SUV. BTW, I highly recommend to avoid those screwed up head light plastic lens from going bad to have protective film put on them. I did on my 08 infiniti and they still look like showroom. I will be doing that to my SUV.

 

When I was 16 I worked in a used car dealership. It was one of the sleazy buy here-pay here type places where they'd buy crappy cars at auction and then I'd be responsible for getting them in showroom condition. I loved that job and would bring my own car in after hours at least once a week and do my own showroom-clean detail.

If I had a garage I'd do the same now, but I can't do much more than a basic wash where I live now.

 

Ran the whole gambit this morning - finally nice weather here

Interior glass, vacuum, trim cleaned, leather cleaned and conditioned, mats washed (i keep the rubber mats in year round so just power washed them)
Exterior washed, clay bar'd, paint correction where needed (chemical guys v34 this time), sealant (chemical guys jet seal - 30 minutes to apply, 20 minutes to cure) and finally glaze (chemical guys black light - same 30 minutes to apply, 20 minutes to cure)

5 hours later... exhausted, lol - but the variable speed buffer makes one hell of a difference - so much time saved with it and I have never felt a car so smooth.

Need to buy some touch up paint I think - noticed more then a handful of chips in the paint Looks amazing otherwise though

 

As soon as corrosion appears on my battery terminals, I disconnect it and sand or wire brush the terminals to re-establish a clean contact.

 

once done, a bird shits on it and it rains, lol...

lets see some pics, orbitals and buffers are a great tool to have. my orbital at work weighs about 15lbs, so you dont have to apply pressure, doing the side of big vehicle, it will wear ya out lol

 

when that happens its usually from cheap lead used in todays batteries, happens for other reasons too. after you clean it, they make a spray, its red and sticky but it protects it and prevents it from doing it again

I dont know if this works or not but a guy at ford swears by it, he says to clean the battery and terminal, when putting the terminal back on, place a penny on top of the battery post and tighten it down, he swears it will never do it again...

 

It's hard to get super close will a cellphone - the leather conditioner is probably my favorite - adds just enough gloss to make it shine but not be greasy

Even with an overcast (please don't rain, lol) can see the houses pretty clearly in the reflection

 

nice, hard work pays off, and like i said its a little expensive to pay someone, but if you are patient you can do it yourself, look into xpel clear wrap. it protects the paint from chipping and best of all, after all them hours polishing, you dont have to do anymore. wrap the whole car and enjoy.

and yes for non greasy interior, every now and then we get a car where the owner puts silicon dressing on everything, its terrible

 

have the same compressor in my Hummer

 

i'm at the age where i can sit back and make this the most important thing to worry about