My alarm went off at 3:00am this morning. It took until 3:30 before I finally shut snooze off for good, and by 4:00 I was on the highway south of my hometown. Crossing the US border was shockingly easy this time around. The guard didn't even open my passport, simply asking "do you race this thing!?!" I replied with a "not yet, but after the photos are done I will be." She didn't even ask me where I was going, or for how long, just a "have fun" and I was in the U.S. The drive down was through the rain, and when I arrived in Lynnwood it was off to find a do-it-yourself coin wash to clean the car for the second time in 13 hours.
Now, I suppose I should pause for a moment to explain that "washing the car" to me usually means some dish soap, a sponge and the hose...and done as quickly as possible. About a year ago I switched to proper car washing soap, only because it was on sale, but drying to me has always been either air-dry or with a beach towel. Quite frankly I've never owned a vehicle with a finish nice enough to care.
But here I was, bringing my car to Northwest Auto Salon, a buddy Blake's detailing shop. NWAS is regularly voted Washington's top detailing shop, and every time I'm there its jammed with Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Porsches and Classics. Blake's shop, especially the back storage shops, and his neighbour Cat Exotics are the places to be to find the weird, rare and wonderful. LM002? Two colors to choose from. Diablo? pick your model, flavour and color...they are all here. Countach? Do you prefer early no-wings, or late crazy 80's style? It doesn't really matter, as they are all represented in multiple choices. That's just the Lambo selection! Anyways, you can imagine that bringing the lowly beetle is a bit humbling. Not to mention that
any vehicle I've ever driven there has been embarrassing...at least on Blake's scale. Now, he did start off with cheap Audi 4000's and rust bucket Audi-90's, so he's paid his dues. But take his Riviera for instance, you can't find a flaw on the entire car...and trust me, I tried!
Before Blake arrived I washed the car, polished the bumpers and tail pipes, cleaned the wheel-wells and swapped the street tires over for the rally tires.
When Blake did arrive, he was quite impressed with the build...which, for me, is like getting approval from someone like Jay Leno. To have Blake, who deals with insane cars on a daily basis, check the car out and show genuine enthusiasm was pretty rad. My wash job was even determined to be acceptable, though apparently the Chamois I used is no longer "in style" and I need to switch to microfibre cloths for drying. My windows, however, were a complete and utter failure.
I own seven different metric wrench sets, but seem to think that blue-shop-towels are all you need for detailing a car. Blake whipped me through window-detailing 101 and taught me the techniques for crystal clear windows, right to the edge of the rubber. I had no idea that one would need three cloths, special steel wool and the eyes of a hawk to do the job right...but after seeing the finished product I'm totally sold. There was no time to move onto other lessons, so Blake matte-waxed the hood and engine lid to remove water spots, and I vacuumed out the inside of the car.
Another friend, Andrew Holliday, showed up...and the car was rolled back into Northwest Auto Salon's photo studio. Blake gave the car one final check under the lights...
...the curtains were closed and Andrew went to work.
The rest of today's story will need to be told at a later date, but the important part for now is that "the studio shots" have been done. I no longer need to worry about stone chips, thus the gravel tires will be used this week! Not quite sure where yet, but I am definitely getting out for some testing :-) For now, however, I'm completely bagged. 17 hours after I left this morning, I am back home. Almost fell asleep on the highway, had to pull off and sleep at a Starbucks for an hour. Following the nap I had a double shot of Espresso followed by a double-shot Mocha while driving. Needless to say, it's sleepy time.
-Dave