Saturday, March 8, 2014
3 months of road salt
Inspired by Tom Gowans' talk about cars and the warm 44 degree F (7 C) weather after non stop below freezing temps for the last ninety days I figured it would be a good day to get three months of road salt off the cars.
You really can't tell but under all the grime it is black
A bucket full of suds
A bit of scrubbing
Ahhh ! ! ! happiness is a clean car.
The truck also got a scrubbing, and I even managed to hose off 5 gallons of road sand from the driveway as well.
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If they could, I'm sure your autos would thank you! :-)
ReplyDeleteIts really the first time in about 90 days it has been warm enough for water not to freeze solid on to the cars. Just got done grilling some swordfish outside to celebrate and it is bellow freezing again.
DeleteNice cars. The Jetta is such a practical car. In 1991 I took a Mk II Jetta Synchro (4WD) in part exchange at my dealership. It was brilliant so I kept it for personal use. I remember going to the European Grand Prix which was held on a typical English summer's day at Donnington Park. Parking for spectators was in local farmer's fields and the farmers were charging ten quid to tow cars trapped in the mud. 'You'll never get out' said this farmer as he watched me climb into the jetta. 'Tell you what' says I, 'here's my tenner, if I don't make it, I'll pay you another tenner for a tow, if I do, you pay me my tenner back plus another ten'. I drove out ten quid richer!
ReplyDeleteI gave it to my mother who continued to use it for many years.
Yes, over all we am happy with it. For a relatively small car it has the feel and ride of a larger luxury car so typical of modern German engineering. The 2 liter engine is a solid machine and easy to work on, even though not as good on mileage as my older Golf. The gearing must be slightly different. Bought it used with 45 K miles for 9 grand. We wanted the diesel but those command twice as much used with 100K mi on them, so we went with this the gas engine instead. There was some stupid 1980s tree huger law forbidding the sale of new diesel cars in the state that was not reversed til about 4 years ago. So until recently they were only available on the used market brought in from other states and commanded a lot of $$. We have had ours for about 6 years now with no major repairs at all. Even the stainless exhaust system is the original. Around here with road salt and frost heaves mufflers usually don't last more than 2 or 3 yrs.
DeleteMan, people come up with some odd laws. Ralph Nader was the guy who came up with some real bizarre ones with unintended consequences like the minimum ride height (which meant a lot of cars had to ride higher or at least fit higher bumpers. This resulted more pedestrians involved in low speed collisions being run over rather than bouncing over the bonnet.
DeleteYes that's the trouble with so many of these left wink kooks that think they are going to save the world. They just know so much that isn't so. Raph Nader and his "Unsafe At Any Speed" book was the father of Tort Law in the US. He created the practice. He ranks among one of the biggest self absorbed assholes on the planet. He sued GM over the Corvair. His argument was that it flipped over at an alarmingly higher rate than any other vehicle on the road. A total fabrication as when you went to the junkyards and accounted the numbers they actually suffered less flip overs than any other car around. But a navel gazing, hand wringing nanny state jury bought the story and awarded him shitloads of $$$. In later years Nader admitted to going after GM only because they had the deepest pockets. He sated, had it been FORD he would have gone for them instead. No different than Al Gore and his global warming BS.
Deletesince the great lakes are frozen over, our city is filled with seagulls. just after washing my car yesterday, a flock flew over and let loose on my black car. disgusting!
ReplyDeleteYes Jaz, I am sure as soon as we take it out on the road for Sunday evening grocery shopping it will look like crap again, the whole state looks like a construction site with three months of road sand. The 40 degree weather however short lived, was a nice respite. It was nice to bask in the warm temps for a couple of hours. Even though when you think about it, it was no warmer than the temp inside our refrigerator. For a short while there I was down to my shirt sleeves.
Delete-15C here this morning but we have a 3 day thaw coming up this week with rain. I hope to get the road salt off my truck this week as well. The night stars say spring is coming evening if the weather doesn't
ReplyDeleteHi Dan: +7 Celsius here today again and we got enough of a dusting of snow last night to see the possum tracks and throw my back out scraping the deck off this morning. Felt like I got hit by a baseball bat in the small of the back and had everything I could do to keep from falling down. Cramped up wicked bad and having a hard time breathing. Persistent cough from a 3 week old bout of the flu does not help either. Weatheman promises up to a foot of snow on Wednesday -Thursday. I am sure the slop will be headed your way come Friday-Saturday. Cars are all muddy again.
DeleteHope you back is better soon, I had a bout with a virus in December that left me mostly deaf. Life can be tough at times but it could be worse. I can still see.
DeleteUFF Dan, that is a tough one. I suppose if I'd have to chose I'd rather keep my sight. Any chance of regaining some of the hearing loss over time? Back will get better, it just takes time.
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