Car Wash

I took Maxwell to a car wash today.

Many people might not understand what that means to me and how hard it was to do. I'm a hand-washer. I always have been and would prefer to die that way. However, thanks to our level four drought response declaration I no longer have a choice. I finally decided (after months of not washing my car) to head down to my local Carnett's. One of the few things that I could imagine being worse than this is dropping you child off for daycare for the first time. It was awful.

Anyway, the folks at Carnett's are super-nice and helped guide me through the process of getting what I wanted done. I basically wanted a thorough wash, NO waxes or sealers, and a hand dry. That's pretty much the "Full Service" wash package. They took Maxwell away, vacuumed his innards and then into the tunnel he went.



It must have been two minutes of hell in the tunnel but it seemed like ten.



In any case, the machines did a pretty reasonable job. At first I thought they had scratched the finish on the back of the car, but then I realized it really just didn't get all the dirt off the boot. I can't really fault the machine, I'm sure is geared more toward the average sedan. The back of a MINI accumulates more road grime than any car I've ever had. It's insane. It will be dirty tomorrow after I go to the store to buy a chicken.

I cleaned the boot by hand manually with a spray bottle and a microfiber towel. It came out pretty well. I then went all around with a coat of Z-5 and then a coast of Z-2 with Z-6 in-between all applications (Zaino is LOVE BTW.) Then the seats got some Z-9 and Z-10 and the tires a nice coat of Z-16. The only thing better would be some sort of dirt-repelling force-field.

Then I topped it off with a shiny new NASCAR sticker.



All-in-all it turned out pretty well. I think next time I'll try Carnett's Indian Trail location which is a hand-wash only facility. That might do a better job on the boot. My other option would be to just let Sweating The Details come do the whole thing... Zaino and all. I'm not quite there yet... I still like doing some of it myself.