The Big Clean

[Kafn8td]

My wife says I am OCD when it comes to the exterior of vehicles. I used to show cars and detail some show cars for customers, so I have the procedures down pat.

I washed my X over the weekend, and looking at it today thought I should clean some of the caulking and throw a coat of wax on it. I started on the rear passenger side and pulled out the first bottle of wax that I grabbed. hmmm Meguire's NXT. I'm not a big Meguire's fan, but what the heck.

I used my Porter Cable and an a fairly aggressive pad to apply the NXT. It goes on great with the PC. NXT is a synthetic product so it comes off easily by hand, but also doesn't last that long. Passenger side was completed in about 30 min and looks pretty good.

Worked my way to the front and started with the NXT. The NXT will not work to my satisfaction. Too much oxidation. Hit it with some cleaning compound and still not happy with the results.

Tomorrow I'm pulling out the big guns and am going to clay bar the front. Since I'm going through all of that, I will also switch products. Then I'll do the drivers side in another different product and the back in a fourth. I've done this test before with a bunch of different products to see which shines the best and lasts the longest.

My favorite on cars is a product called Zaino, but I'm not sure how it will do on the XT. More to follow...

[Kafn8td]

Well I got sidetracked today. I headed out to start the clay bar, but stopped by the mailbox on the way. Inside I found my red neck outside AC. A 20' section of patio mister.

Started thinking about how I was going to mount it and the next thing you know I was on my way to the hardware store. I picked up the necessary pieces and headed back to start that project. I hooked it up to the outside shower, ran the hose up the awning arm and the misting nozzles in the slot on the awning.

Works awesome. I can control the flow and it works equally well on city water or on the pump. Using one in the past, I know it will drop the temps 20 to 30 degrees in dry heat and a little less in humid conditions.

Clay bar tomorrow...