Horrible day yesterday!!!!

CaliPhotog

New member
Okay, so I get up at 6am in hopes of getting in a full detail by the time the sun got to a place where I could do nothing. Very nice day out. Birds chirping, slight breeze, and I'm detailing my car. Life is great! Dawn wash, clay, SSR2.5, SSR1, AIO, SG, windows with Autoglyn outside, Plexus inside, vaccum and treat leather. WOW!!!!! My car look amazing and I completed the project just in time to leave the house when I needed to. Wonderfull!



I get in my car, buckle up, crank the tunes and off I go. As I am leaving my area I see that there is a nice big puddle of water at the exit of the housing complex. No problem, I have time to roll thru it at .05 MPH and I can just take care of my tire later. I see the neighbor comming and it is in SLOW motion as he waves to me and splashes thru the puddle. Ahhhhhhhhhhh I turn around, run inside the garage, grab the hose rinse off and dry. Off I go again. This time I make it thru the puddle with ease and I am rolling down the block at 1mph to make sure I don't fling water everywhere. I make it about 2 blocks away and speed up. At the next light I get out to check the damage. Nothing... SWEET!!! Car looks great!



I am almost to my destination and of course it is located adjacent to a city street construction crew. Ahhh man, I know when I come out my black A3 is goingto be covered in dust. I go in, do what I gotta do, some out an hour later to find my car caked in dust. GO FIGURE. Ahh man, brutal. It's cool, It's goign to happen I'm over it. As I go to hit my turn signal somehow I hit the wiper lever which is on the opposite side of the instrument cluster and not only that, but I guess I somehow made it shoot water allover both my front and back windshield. YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!!!!! Nice, wet dust turns to a nice cake batter looking mixture and when it dries on a black car it is very sexy! Oh yeah.... :furious:



As I am contemplating what would be the best way to save the day I get drenched again by a passing vehicle. Mind you, it is 95+ outside in California where we have not had rain in months... where are these puddles comming from?



This blows! My frustration level can't get any worse...



Untill a rock flings up and hits the side, yes the side, of my car and puts a nice nick down to the primer in the rear passenger door. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh :furious: :hairpull



What do I do tonite?
 
CaliPhotog,



I feel your pain, you are not alone. I am faced with the same S#*T everyday! It never fails the day I detail my car, I go out for a ride and there are puddles at every intersection :grrr. Then with all the construction going on in SoCal, wherever you park, 30 minutes later the car is full of dust :grrr. Then I get on the freeway and some truck is spitting rocks all over the road- it drives me nuts- I already have some pits in the windshield and like you, a rock chipped the paint off the side of the roof- :grrr
 
rad21 said:
CaliPhotog,



I feel your pain, you are not alone. I am faced with the same S#*T everyday! It never fails the day I detail my car, I go out for a ride and there are puddles at every intersection :grrr. Then with all the construction going on in SoCal, wherever you park, 30 minutes later the car is full of dust :grrr. Then I get on the freeway and some truck is spitting rocks all over the road- it drives me nuts- I already have some pits in the windshield and like you, a rock chipped the paint off the side of the roof- :grrr





Yeah, that is WEAK!!! I am in Valencia, not too far away. If you ever want to trade detail tips or supplies I'm down. Send me an E-Mail or something.
 
Been there (black daily driver, I'm a glutton for punishment), and god is it irritating. This is why I really want DI water, so if it gets dusted/wet/etc, I can just pressure wash it down and be done with it, rather than having to wash and dry *very* carefully so that I don't induce marring or water spots.



You might want to look into Spray + Wipe, its single-handedly kept my sanity intact. With good MF's, marring is minimal or nonexistant on Audi paint (nice and hard, fortuneatly).



You might also want to consider switching from the K-twins to RMG/Souveran. It makes life a LOT easier, as small marring doesn't really show. If I used the K-twins on my daily driver, I would probably have burned through the clearcoat polishing already :).



P.S. don't drink it off tonight :). Last time I had a car day like that, I figured I'd have a few drinks and blow it off. I woke up the next day in my back lawn with no shoes on :sosad.
 
So I guess puddles in the middle of summer are common for california. Same problem here in nor cal. When ever I detail my car there is a puddle on the way to the place I'm going. Stupid city likes to over water and waste money. Most of the time I slow down to about 5mph on a 45, as long as there is nobody around. When there are people around it really sucks because then they fling water all over you! Water on roads suck!!!
 
Pontman43 said:
. Most of the time I slow down to about 5mph on a 45, as long as there is nobody around.



Heh, I do the same thing. Go from 10+ over the limit to a good 40 under whenever I see water/dirt. My neighbors all think I'm insane for it, but I guess thats just part of being an Autopian :).
 
CaliPhotog, I share your thoughts also. It's frustrating when you spend all that time on a vehicle and have it ruined by whatever. Just last week I washed the wive's bonneville and got it looking real nice as usual. That day she decides to go to a park which has gravel instead of pavement. Can you say dust issues? The whole car looked like garbage, not to mention the tires also.
 
Feel your pain. For an autopian to drive a nice car everyday is impossible. I tried. Spent all my time washing and waxing. Do yourself a favor buy a beater. Since I have I have a lot more time. I still enjoy cleaning my cars but only drive them on nice days. The beater gets the bulk of the mileage. It's clean too just not the point of being over the top.
 
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