When did you start taking care of your car?
- Thread starter Theroy
- Start date
I've always been a neat and meticulous person. My first car was an 81 Monte Carlo, Silver with olive green interior. Took very good care of it. Meguiars back then and Meguiars now. More variety of types of products on the Meguiars line and different tools, applications methods, frequency, etc. I'm definitely becoming more obsessive.
imported_NHBFAN
New member
I remember buying Classic car wax when I really couldn't afford it thinking I was getting the best for my car.
Now approximately 20 years later I'm still buying car care products I can't afford.
Now approximately 20 years later I'm still buying car care products I can't afford.
P
Patrick
Guest
I'm taking care of my car but I'm not quite as "detail" oriented in the rest of my life.
That pretty much sums it up for me.....
That pretty much sums it up for me.....
JHowell1976
New member
I'm 27 now and I always took care of my cars. My first was a 1978 Chevy pickup that my parents had spent a lot of money on to replace the entire body, and then have it painted black at my request (stupid me, I have since learned the hard way.) In that time I have had several cars including two late model Mustangs, a VW Cabrio, and a couple of others. Now I presently drive a 97 Infiniti I30. I also had a 93 Honda Nighthawk CB750, and now have a 2002 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R. Up until a few weeks ago I thought that spending 15$ on a bottle of wax (zymol) would make me look like a high roller. Then I was on miata.net which directed me to the link for this site. My a$$ got schooled with a quickness. After looking at the photos for a while, I realized that I had the patience and mindset to do the job, I just didn't have the right tools to get things looking their best. That day I spent 250$ on new products and microfiber. I have since given numerous bottles of Meguiar's Cleaner Wax and other assorted things to my brother in law.
madazskunk
New member
Theroy said:
I have a deal with my girlfriend I take care of her car she takes care of my apt. She is almost as anal about our apts. as I am about our cars. And we both think each other's car/apt. is always dirty/messy.
tkr128
New member
When I was 14, my mom got a new car. Being a new car, I wanted it to stay looking new. What basically got me started on everything was the sloppily applied tire dressing the dealer applied. I liked how it made the tires black. After searching for tire dressings, I started looking for wax (which is the good thing to do). Took me nearly a year for me to get the courage to wax the car (I thought I would mess up the paint if I didn't know how to wax it). After I waxed it, I got kind of obsessed with making it look better and my obsession started. After a few searches, I ended up here!
I started washing and waxing my Mom's station wagon with my Dad (1972 Ford Country Squire with fake wood paneling) and that was my first introduction to Armor All.
I got my own car when I was 17 (a 1971 Chevelle that I paid $400 for). At first, I had to take it to be serviced, but the car had front end and side damage when I bought it, and since as a high school senior I was too poor to pay a bodyshop to fix it up, I bought a front clip at a wrecking yard and swapped it on (paid about $300 for the clip). Once I found the hidden bolts, it was a piece of cake, took about 4 hours or so. I took a paint and body class and fixed the side also, but ran out of time before I could paint it, so my car was primer grey for about a year....and I still washed it every week!
I lucked into a great paint job. I was out cruising Central Avenue in Phoenix when some guy pulled up next to me and said he could paint my car for a reasonable price. Turned out his Dad owned a real high end body shop and he was grooming his son to take over eventually and was having him to paint and body while he went to college-which meant he had my car for almost 3 weeks, but he improved on the body work I'd done on the side and aligned the front end so the body seams were real tight and painted it with Imron and wetsanded and buffed it out-almost no orange peel on the car and it only cost me $600!
After that, I started on engine mods-chrome water neck and gold anodized valve covers and both leaked initially. I moved up to a larger 2 barrel carb then to a Holley intake and 4 barrel and headers. After that, I learned how to change the cam with a friend, swapped heads by myself, along with converting the points distributer to all electronic and added an MSD-6A. By the time I sold the car, I had put two engines in it, rebuilding one of them myself, swapped torque converters and rear ends (open 2.56 diffs suck at the strip), and even installed some bucket seats out of a Ford Granada (better than the bench seat).
I've done a 350 for 455 engine swap in a Cutlass, and headers on a Celica and Accord, etc. I plan on passing this along to my kids, but newer cars are so much more complex. A friend and I got the engine out of my Chevelle in 45 minutes flat (no a/c or power steering helped) and working with my Dad and younger brother (neither had even put an engine in a car), I had the engine in and running in 2 hours. No way could I do that with my Accord. Just doing the timing belt/water pump is a 4-5 hours job.
I got my own car when I was 17 (a 1971 Chevelle that I paid $400 for). At first, I had to take it to be serviced, but the car had front end and side damage when I bought it, and since as a high school senior I was too poor to pay a bodyshop to fix it up, I bought a front clip at a wrecking yard and swapped it on (paid about $300 for the clip). Once I found the hidden bolts, it was a piece of cake, took about 4 hours or so. I took a paint and body class and fixed the side also, but ran out of time before I could paint it, so my car was primer grey for about a year....and I still washed it every week!
I lucked into a great paint job. I was out cruising Central Avenue in Phoenix when some guy pulled up next to me and said he could paint my car for a reasonable price. Turned out his Dad owned a real high end body shop and he was grooming his son to take over eventually and was having him to paint and body while he went to college-which meant he had my car for almost 3 weeks, but he improved on the body work I'd done on the side and aligned the front end so the body seams were real tight and painted it with Imron and wetsanded and buffed it out-almost no orange peel on the car and it only cost me $600!
After that, I started on engine mods-chrome water neck and gold anodized valve covers and both leaked initially. I moved up to a larger 2 barrel carb then to a Holley intake and 4 barrel and headers. After that, I learned how to change the cam with a friend, swapped heads by myself, along with converting the points distributer to all electronic and added an MSD-6A. By the time I sold the car, I had put two engines in it, rebuilding one of them myself, swapped torque converters and rear ends (open 2.56 diffs suck at the strip), and even installed some bucket seats out of a Ford Granada (better than the bench seat).
I've done a 350 for 455 engine swap in a Cutlass, and headers on a Celica and Accord, etc. I plan on passing this along to my kids, but newer cars are so much more complex. A friend and I got the engine out of my Chevelle in 45 minutes flat (no a/c or power steering helped) and working with my Dad and younger brother (neither had even put an engine in a car), I had the engine in and running in 2 hours. No way could I do that with my Accord. Just doing the timing belt/water pump is a 4-5 hours job.
togwt
The Old Grey Whistle Test
When did you start taking care of your car?
~One man’s opinion~
First, let me say I am no stranger to automotive detailing. I began detailing Mercedes-Benz / BMW at my Father’s dealership as well as his Jag collection back in the 40's, And as such are used to a large number of high-end new and used cars. The one thing I learned (and still have that last 98% to learn, mind you) way back then still holds true today “ It’s the surface preparation that makes the difference, not the product�. I brought an Jaguar E-Type at an action, bodywork was bad (that’s the polite version) but mechanically it was sound as a bell I used what I learned on my first ‘real’ classic car and entered /won concourse with it. Since reading / learning from forums like autopia I realize that there is so much more to learn about detailing. One more important thing I’ve learned; an “old dog can (and does) learn new tricks� thanks to people like you guys who’ll share there experience.
Experience unshared; is knowledge wasted…/
justadumbarchitect
~One man’s opinion~
First, let me say I am no stranger to automotive detailing. I began detailing Mercedes-Benz / BMW at my Father’s dealership as well as his Jag collection back in the 40's, And as such are used to a large number of high-end new and used cars. The one thing I learned (and still have that last 98% to learn, mind you) way back then still holds true today “ It’s the surface preparation that makes the difference, not the product�. I brought an Jaguar E-Type at an action, bodywork was bad (that’s the polite version) but mechanically it was sound as a bell I used what I learned on my first ‘real’ classic car and entered /won concourse with it. Since reading / learning from forums like autopia I realize that there is so much more to learn about detailing. One more important thing I’ve learned; an “old dog can (and does) learn new tricks� thanks to people like you guys who’ll share there experience.
Experience unshared; is knowledge wasted…/
justadumbarchitect
JAGOWNER1981
New member
Since day one on the 03 C320. Took it home with the white shipping plastic on the car, applied Zaino Z5 that night. Still shines great and swirl free to this day!
Accumulator
Well-known member
Been detailing 'em since my first car in the mid-'70s, and was always detailing my bicycles before that (used Johnson's paste floor wax and LOTS of chrome polish, with gasoline as my primary solvent). Heh heh, like NHB Fan, I remember using Classic before discovering "real" products, at least it was a lot easier than Simonize and Blue Coral. And yeah, I AM as meticulous about everything else.
GearHead_1
Long Time Member
Accumulator said:
Blue Coral, I remember that. It was the best thing around back then. Those were the days.:xyxthumbs
I've NEVER been much of a "clean freak", which is why this Autopianism is kinda weird for me. I've also never been much for washing and waxing my cars, either. I sorta started doing it the Autopian way a little over a year ago, discovered how easy it is and how rewarding it is, and now I do it to relax.
Tom
Tom
madazskunk
New member
Scottwax said:I used to have a blast cruising Central and that is where I met a couple of people who taught me how to change cams, heads, engines, etc. Met quite a few girls out there too...
Hey were you into lowriders. If you were you're talking some seriuos paintjobs there. I've cruised it once or twice when we went to the lowrider shows up there. I heard It was supposed to be the place to be before the cops started shutting it down.
BlueDragonZ
New member
I was brought up to take care of things that you own. My. dad always gave me the chore of washing his car at least every weekend when I was like 12 years old. Ever since then I've always taken good care of my vehicles including my first car, a late model Toyota Tercel. And what do you know, this has now became my obsession.