Neat Freak

That's me.

Some will argue, which really comes down to the fact that everyone has their own areas of cleanliness about which they are particular. Kitchen countertops and automobiles are mine. In other areas of the home, I can tolerate pretty high levels of grime, so it really depends on what your cleanliness hot buttons happen to be.

Since I'm holding off on further maintenance for the season, I am spending more effort on the cleanliness of the car. I sometimes half think that it would make a great concours vehicle (an actual contest where judges look at your car, and deduct points for dirt) at a local level. Usually, events will have some sort of 'display only' category, where you can clean it up, bring it to the show, set out the lawn chair, and spend the day and afternoon wiping it down while spectators ooohhh and aaahhh at the sheer square footage of pristine automobile paint. It would be fun for me, but I'm afraid that not many others in my social circle (especially my family) would enjoy it as much as I would, so I haven't had the chance to partake yet.

One great thing about this car - it takes very little time to do a basic wash and even wax. You don't need to clean the roof, and the body is pretty small. Today, a very detailed wash took only 45 minutes. I also have been wanting to clay the car. It's when you take a small brick of clay (duh) and rub it across the body panels (you also use some sort of cleanser to act as a lubricant). The clay picks up all of the microscopic crap that has accumulated (bugs, bird doo, road tar, acid rain) and leaves the paint clean. It sounds weird, and I was skeptical the first time I tried it. Trust me - it works. From this point, you can polish (to remove swirl marks) and then wax. I already polished it when I received the car, so it's really not useful to do it again, so once it was clayed, I just waxed it. I also spent some extra time on the rubber molding, because it was thoroughly disgusting.

Here's a shot after I was done (which looks so good, it's now at the top...)


Here's the cloth I used on the rubber. Gross.


Another shot of the shine...

That's all for now... Enjoy!