Miata Washings

No postings here tomorrow as we are spending the night in a motel in Beaufort, SC. We are heading that way with a few of the Master’s Miata Club folks to meet up with a bunch of Low Country Miata Club folks to go to the drive-in there. So you can share in some of my furor, I’m going to let you in on the two movies we will be seeing tomorrow: The Adventures of Shark Boy & Lava Girl in 3-D, followed by Madagascar. Damn, I’m all a tingle with excitement.

As I do for any Miata gathering I participate in, I wash the car before so it will look nice. Afternoon showers were popping all over the area, so I tried to time my washing just right. I almost made it. I had at least finished washing it before the next shower passed through. I was under the awning in the driveway that is for the MSV and drying the car off when it started raining. The top, hood and trunk were dry, but the sides kept getting wet down with the splashes of the heavy stuff. I waited a bit and when the rain intensity slowed some, I quickly backed out from under the awning and drove into the garage where I finished drying off.

Took the afternoon off to do some car stuff. First up was to try and get rid of my gingling sound when going over bumps. I removed the brake caliper, its mounting bracket and the rotor. This was as far as I had gone before and sure enough the noise was still there. Here is where I ran into a bit of trouble. The next thing that needed removing was the nut on the axle, I don’t have a wrench big enough to tackle the job, plus once I got it off I would have totally exhausted my knowledge of car guts. What the heck, I have all afternoon, buttoned it back up and took it back the the local tire store which caused the noise and let them have it. I took one of the technicians for a ride and pointed out the sound. When we got back he pounded on the tire with his fist and could get it ringing, he said, “Give me a few minutes” and disappeared into the shop. 20 minutes later he came back and told me that when the last guy replaced the lug he didn’t get a shim in the right spot behind the bearing and it could move around causing that noise. He fixed it up and now I am noise free again.

After I got back from the LTS I washed the car. It wasn’t real dirty, but there is a Master’s Miata Club event tomorrow and I couldn’t show up in a dull car. I had intended to wax the car after the last washing a couple of weeks ago, but didn’t get to it, so today I did. As it happened at the end of December when I last waxed with Black Magic Wet Shine Liquid Wax it went on real easy, but came off a lot harder. When I was using my old skool paste carnuba wax it came right off with a towel. I’m actually thinking of getting a random orbital buffer to take this new fangled stuff off. The gurus over in the Car Care Products section of the Miata Forum swear by the Porter Cable 7336 which is about a hundred and a quarter. A can of paste wax would be a heck of a lot cheaper…

I got so worked up yesterday about getting the sort of late flyer from Mazda that I forgot to blog about the car washing. On Friday I washed the car, vacuumed the inside (even trimmed some of the stray fibers on the coco mats) and washed the windows. I had good intentions about waxing the car today, but the promised afternoon rain arrived in the morning canceling that endeavor. I know better than to attempt to wax the car inside, there just isn’t enough light to do a good job.

This evening, after the line of storms had long passed we went out to eat with some friends. I was pretty sure it was safe, but a passing stray shower left enough behind to leave tiny little water spots all over the horizontal surfaces of the car. So, maybe tomorrow, I can find a couple hours of afternoon to spot clean (pun intended) and then wax the car.

Washed the car this afternoon. It wasn’t real dirty, but it was covered with water spots from the rain of Thursday, mixing with the last of the pine pollen. I parked under the awning to keep the oak pollen clusters that are dropping off the big tree near the driveway from falling all over the car as I cleaned it. I had just finished drying it off when Donna came back from the store and announced the MSV needed gas, so I needed to take it out and fill it up. While I was out I should take her downtown for ice cream for good measure.

I left the Miata where it was and took a little trip. When we returned about 30 minutes later, I moved the Miata into the garage, so the Civic could get it’s awning back, I noticed there was a fine layer of pine pollen already collected on the hood. I thought that stuff was through falling…

In case the pictures I’ve been posting here aren’t enough to satisfy your hunger for new MX-5 info, you can see a streaming video of the launch at the Geneva Auto Show. Go to the registration page, enter your email address and this code: id5499a2. You will get a login and password back in your email which will allow you to watch the stream on Monday. You will also be able to download later a promotional video, which will include some of the launch stream as well as other stuff the following day.

Decided to go ahead and wash the car this evening instead of waiting for tomorrow. All nice and shiny again, which will last until Sunday, when our next rain is predicted.

I was middle 60s and sunny today, so I took the opportunity to wash the car. First, being a good son-in-law, I washed the MSV (Mom’s Civic.) Then I did the Miata, it wasn’t real dirty, but there was a layer of road dust that needed removing. After the top had dried I sprayed it real good with some 303 convertible top protectant. The car is sitting in the garage now letting it dry and giving off a nice little chemical smell. The smell will disappear when the protectant is completely dry, which they say should take 24 hours in 70 degree weather. It will take a little longer because we aren’t going to be that warm. I washed the car and did the top because the forecast this morning for Aiken showed no hint of precipitation that they were calling for earlier in the week. Well wouldn’t you know it, the possibility of wet weather for tomorrow is back in tonight…

After much consternation, on Tuesday, I went ahead and ordered the fake Japanese license plate from AutoGeek. Brown Santa will be here on Monday. Now I guess I better start designing a mounting bracket. Rspeed has one they import from Japan for $50, but seeing as I work in a manufacturing plant I can draw something up, find a piece of scrap metal and make that sucker for free.

I really need help on this whole Help! movie thing as I didn’t realize it is OOP. I wondered when I went to Amazon.com the there was no “Add to Cart” button, can’t buy it new because it is Out Of Print. I can but like new ones that have been imported from overseas for around $20. If I would like a brand new MPI official 1965 copy, they sell for around $200. Yikes. I’m thinking I’ll be waiting around for a re-release.

Took advantage of the warm weather to wash and then wax the car this morning. What kind of wax does Mr. Miata use you are asking yourself. Because if someone who has a blog based on life with his Miata and registered the domain name mr-miata.net he must use a special 7 step waxing regimen using the finest ingredients that money can buy. Well, not really. I finally used up some Mequier’s paste wax in a can I have had for about a decade the last time I did some touch up waxing in September. The other week when I knew I was going to be waxing the car I bought a bottle of some Black Magic Wet Shine Liquid Wax, cost, around eight bucks. Wax is pretty much wax to me. This stuff went on super easy, but a bit more difficult to get off. Plus if you didn’t get a couple of good passes with a clean part of the towel the color of the paint underneath looked streaky and kind of subtly two-toned. Once you got all the wax off, the car really looks good, I would swear it looked more red, less dull maroon, under today’s cloudy sky.