I've never had my fingers in so many slots...

"The Opponaut formerly known as MattP123" (mattp123) 08/15/2013 at 11:48 • Filed to: PANTHURSDAY

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Decided to give the car a cleaning yesterday, and wouldn't you know today is Panthursday. Above is the end result. The body wasn't so bad, but those wheels... I spent more time fingering all the tight slots on those damn gorgeous, yet damn difficult to clean wheels than I did on the rest of the car. And they weren't even that bad. For reference, here is a shot of peak filthiness.

And here is how they started yesterday. Not too bad when the brake dust is equally distributed.

After some cleaning. Started with a wheel cleaner and a few brushes. Then I used the longer bristles of a broom to get the tighter spots a bit better (and the long broom handle let me stand up after a bunch of time squatting). After that I sort of flossed the spaces with a rag. This is how they looked.

But still not quite good enough. I might get a little OCD sometimes...

Yea, I used an electric toothbrush to get into the tight spots... Thanks Braun Oral-b!

All cleaned up and tire dressing applied. Pro-tip... I use Meguires Hot Shine tire spray, the aerosol kind, not foam, to keep the wheel wells nice and black. They're never really in the light so they won't look unrealistically glossy.

A final close up.

Also, if you know of any wheel cleaning product that you can actually spray on and rinse off like they all promise and get pretty good results, please let me know. I spent about a half hour on each wheel. I've tried wheel cleaners, brake cleaner, electrical cleaner, engine cleaner, diluted CLR, oven cleaner... Nothing works like good old elbow grease.

pdthedeuce > The Opponaut formerly known as MattP123 08/15/2013 at 11:51

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...finger...slots...

GreenN_Gold > The Opponaut formerly known as MattP123 08/15/2013 at 12:39

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Grandma is gonna love you when she see's her car!

(sorry, couldn't help myself)

The Opponaut formerly known as MattP123 > GreenN_Gold 08/15/2013 at 12:53

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Due to the notable handicap of being dead, that won't be happening.

But yes, this was my grandparents' car. And by that I mean they never knew how to drive so they bought it for my dad and his siblings to drive them around in. She would be proud though. She called the car Regina, which in Italian means queen. Driving and cleaning the car does bring back fond memories of weekend drives sitting up front in the middle between my dad and grandpa with ice cold AC blowing right on me.

Hooker > The Opponaut formerly known as MattP123 08/15/2013 at 12:56

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409 is good. Bad for your tires, but good for everything else.

I also used to use a product called 'Bleach White' which I think was used for the white walls on my Town Car. Either way, spray it on, scrub lightly with brush, rinse years of oil and shit off of it. Again, bad for tires. Dries them out and eats away at the rubber.

GreenN_Gold > The Opponaut formerly known as MattP123 08/15/2013 at 13:01

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Well I'm an ass.

The Opponaut formerly known as MattP123 > Hooker 08/15/2013 at 13:03

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Oh I would love a 409!

The Opponaut formerly known as MattP123 > GreenN_Gold 08/15/2013 at 13:04

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Nah, no reason to feel bad. I mean you would be right...

The Opponaut formerly known as MattP123 > Hooker 08/15/2013 at 13:10

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Hmm, so I think you're right... 409 is bad for tires :(

Hooker > The Opponaut formerly known as MattP123 08/15/2013 at 13:11

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That's a very good kind of bad.

GreenN_Gold > The Opponaut formerly known as MattP123 08/15/2013 at 13:40

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In a sort of similar but reverse story, my mom and all her siblings pooled some money to buy my grandpa a used car because his old Toyota finally died (I passed my driver's test in that Toyota!) and my grandparents were on a very fixed retirement budget. (This was long ago, and they've since passed as well.) Anyway, grandpa wanted something with low miles, and the lowest mile thing he could find in his budget was a Dodge Spirit. He didn't need much since his driving was basically limited to taking grandma to Walmart. He liked it well enough, and it outlasted him with no problems, although some trim pieces gave him a headache. (He joked that it will probably run forever, but it won't bring all of its pieces with it.) We have a big extended family, and he had a sticker on the back of that car for every single college the various grandkids attended. Grandpa was the best!

I don't know where I was going with that story, just started to reminisce for a second.