I have been blessed with the fine medical condition know as OCD. My car is only of of the many things that must remain clean and precise. Before each winter I spend a good 8-12 hours giving her a spa day. This year I decided to go a bit farther and do some polishing. I will be doing a major polish this coming summer.

I started off by soaking the car for a matter of 10 or so minites to really get the grime and road debit loose. As you can see the wheels are fairly clean even when the car is dirty...and yes this is about as dirty as my car gets.
Experimenting with my new Griots foaming gun... it didn't quite work out the way it should have.. later I removed a plastic piece in the tube meant for different water pressures and it started working better.While the car soaked I washed each wheel with none other than the 3 finger glove.. I literally spent about an hour on the wheels. Foaming the car several times during this process. I used both the Griots Garage BBS approved wheel cleaner and Griots Car wash and another small wheels cleaning tool on the wheels. After giving the entire car two bucket washes I moved to the engine compartment. I used the Griots Engine cleaner and it works great! Once the engine was done I gave the car a quick squeegee to remove 90% of the surface water. I then towel dryed the entire car using only the finest of towels made of super soft microfiber. Next I moved the car into the garage and clayed the entire surface. Using both Griots Clay and Speed shine makes for a fool proof way to clay your car. The paint was soooooo smooth!
I then taped off sections of my hood in order to begin the machine polish. I choose to tape off a line between the 3M clear bra as well. Its tough to see the results in these pictures but the Griots Machine polish did improve the hood nicely. This summer Im going to spend a few days Machine polishing and get this baby as perfect as I can! After the machine polishing I wrapped everything up and waxed the hood with Griots best of show wax! I also keep up on the waxing throughout the season with the Griots Spray on Wax which is a great way to quick wax the car after a wash.






















I hope you enjoyed to see my pre winter detail.. afterward she goes under a Noah Car cover and is kept topped off by a battery tender. I also put Griots Fuel Preservative in the tank and lower the pressure in the PS2s to prevent flat spots.

 

Good writeup...I was waiting to see what else was part of your routine. Do you by chance work at Griot's?

 

Ha... no I actually do not. Although I probably should. I really do love the griots products. There are a couple things I use that are not Griots but for the most part I enjoy there detail products...

In addition I did some interior work. Although my interior is already damn near flawless...it didn't stop me. I started by cleaning all the windows. Moved onto a light cleaning of the dash and all gauges. I have hoarse and boar hair brushes for interior dusting and cleaning. All the vents and crevasses were meticulously cleaned.

For the leather seats and doors I used Griots Leather Care. My floor mats are brand new so a quick vacuum and she was good to go. Wrapped it all up by dropping in Griots 1 Lb. Storage Desiccant Bag.

 

Just looked at your details pictures Moe... love to get my hands on some of that italian craftsmanship...

 

Looks great I really enjoyed your write-up.

I might make a couple of suggestions:

- flip your hose clamps in the engine bay so the smooth side is all that shows for an extra clean, detailed look
- hopefully you meant you inflated your tires for storage.?.

Again, nice work!

 

Yeah.. I should flip those clamps.

No I did de-flate the tires. By releasing pressure you increase the amount of rubber on the ground thus distributing the weight and decrease the potential for flat spots. From what I understand inflating the tires is a myth.

 

Doesn't Richard have a little matt for each tire to be cradled in when the car is being stored? It's yellow and claims to prevent flat spots.

 

Yeah he does. I'll have to get a set.

I never go under 20 PSI. Anything really low can put too much pressure on the sidewalls.

 

http://raceramps.com/flatstoppers.html

A bargain at only $260, lol.

 

Looking at your pressure washer, looks like it is a 3000psi Karcher. I think that your issues with the foam gun could have come from the excess pressure.

With a pressure washer that is that powerful, you need to make sure and take extra care when using it to wash your car. Some of the smaller pressure washers, 1000 or 1200 psi still have the potential to damage your vehicles surfaces, with one that is a 3000 it is only amplified that much more. So just a word of caution.

Still... a beautiful machine. Definitely still my favorite M5. Good to see that she is being cared for so meticulously.

 

Beautiful car the TLC you give it shows. One question you said you use Griots leather care have you used that for awhile and had good results? Someone was telling me to use saddle soap and then a leather conditioner. I'll be taking possession of a 911 soon with leather seats and want to do the right thing by keeping it looking as pristine as possible. The seats are older with a nice patina, but no rips tears etc, your thoughts would be appreciated?
Cheers