Miker

Stupid Brilliant Black.

Love it in the summer after a Zaino treatment or even a hand wash.

Hate in now that Toronto has been introduced to snow and road salt.

It's a freaking mess. One hand wash will make it good for three hours. Then more aerodynamic evidence of slush on paint.

What do you guys do with winter vs. the RX8?

Easy_E1

iTrader: (2)

I just break out the "California Duster" and dust her off. It was 70 and sunny here to day.
Sorry.

toxin440

haha bastard - the high here was 30 and im in freaking DFW Texas... its been fucked here for the past few days, ice, snow, rain, freezing all the time. blah

I wish it was 70. I hate cold

jones75254

iTrader: (2)

No *****, im in DFW area also and this weather freakin blows! I lived in L.A. prior to moving here a year ago...ah how i miss NEVER having to deal with road salt, sleet and ice wear on my car. I am from Ohio born n raised and i couldnt imagine driving my 8 in that weather. Would have to swap out body kits and wheels for the winter.
I have the Nordic Green, so i know how it is, looks great when clean, but the slightest dirt shows alot.

early 30's crisis

Man I hear you... I washed it, nice chamois dry and everything... went to the gym the next day (28km round trip) and it looks like I went 4x4ing... copper red meets rush hour brown.

On the flipside, its quite interesting some of the patterns the flying mud/slush mix makes? Perhaps we should check for faces of those famous, and take pictures and sell on ebay to fund our massive carwash budget...

Renesis_8

If you got coats of zaino on it, its already a lot easier to get the dirt off. Before i used zaino, dirt would really stick to the car, now it just comes right off with a damp towel.

What i sometimes do is get a bucket of warm, not hot water, and just clean the car inside the garage, when i cant stand it, real quick, like 15mins. it wont be as clean as after you applied zaino, but ull be the cleanest on the road in this weather!!!
________
Cumswallower

dying_here

28km! thats nothing! I washed my car yesterday, and by the time i got home ( ~ 2.5 km one way) the side of my car is already White from the snow/salt (instead of Cooper Red)

early 30's crisis

Damn! You win!

eug

iTrader: (2)

We should start posting pics of the 'dirtiest' 8 here. See who takes the [dubious] prize

volk

resting peacefully in the garage.

StealthTL

iTrader: (1)

It had been a long time since a wash when I met another '8 at the dealers. He stared at my car like it was from Mars...."You must have just come back from a long road trip...."

....."yeah, road trip. That's it, a long road trip!"

Pictures withheld to protect the grungy.

S

dying_here

I'll start

herbert

^ ^
That is dirrrrtttyyy. My 8 never gets that dirty. In fact, I don't even let my '92 MX-3 get that dirty!!

Neo

It's impossible to keep cars clean in the winter. Unless of course you live in downtown T.O. Where they don't use salt or sand. Hell, snow melts even before it starts to accumulate!

Out in suburbia, different story.

I can't remember the last time my car looked Carbon Grey... Stupid winter!!!

DaveCM203

Great! Now I am going to have nightmares about my 8 being covered in salt and sand.

LiTTleRX-8

An old picture, but you get the point...It gets dirtier than in this picture, heh. My 8 is almost never clean in the winter, just last week I spent 6 bucks at the pressure wash, and the very next day it snowed -.-"

Everytime it's dirty I tell myself not to wash it, but I always give in...

Miker

I live at Yonge and Davisville and have a fifteen minute drive to Yonge and Dundas and my BB looks like Rocco Siffredi has had his way with my 8.

Just disgusting and there's a place on Laird that does sweet hand washes but it'll look like Andy Warhol's bitch when I get to work.

Hint: Get a brilliant black for the summer....silver for the winter. Or two silvers for the crash replacement.

rotten42

hahaha....I know this problem well. The only solution I have is that in the winter I wash my car 3 times a week on average. At the hand wash place near my house I have it down so that it only taked $3 per wash.

rotten42

MY car never rests. I didn't buy it to rest it.

LiTTleRX-8

holy...three times a week!!?

GoesLikeStink

Mine is never dirty (or if it is, only for a few hours at most).
The key? Condo living
We have a full pressure washer and vacuum in the lower level of the parking lot. $2 gets 6 minutes.

My g/f thinks I'm crazy but anytime we are out and it gets dirty I drive past my space and onto the pressure washer bay. A quick few minutes and she's as good as new (keeping her zainoed every couple of months speeds up the process). "her" and "she" being the 8 of course, not my g/f

early 30's crisis

I present to you 133km of Alberta highway, a la Copper Red...

I am going to the car wash right now....

dying_here

damn you win, even i couldn't get my tail that dirty

eug

iTrader: (2)

With our previous cars we used to just drive them through the Esso touchless washes during the winter, because it's just too damn cold outside to wash by hand, and the DIY wash bays around here are still pretty much at the same outside sub-zero mark.

With our new cars I had some more reservations about the touchless washes, so they've been pretty dirty this winter. I was about to take a pic to show my winter brilliant black, aka flat grey.

Then I noticed something: every time I start the car in the morning, our garage (we have a house, not an apartment) ambient temperature reads somewhere between 6 and 10 degrees. i.e. not below zero... it was like she was telling me something... "it's not that cold in here!"... so this afternoon I did something I've never done before: wash a car -inside- our garage. Crazy. Like sleeping with socks on.

But, like someone else said here, a clean 8 is a happy 8. So she's happy now. Until tomorrow's commute, that is. *sigh*.

Justarius

Why must people from warmer climates post in the Canadian forum about how nice and clean and warm their cars are? I guess cruelty is human nature

My brother in Vancouver does the same thing although this year he is ominously quiet.

Anyway, for those in the GTA. Anyone recommend a good hand car wash/detailing shop? i.e. One that will apply Zaino or something like it by hand possibly? Preferably in or near Mississauga.

I have outdoor parking this winter which is killing me and no access to any of my hand wash products nor a location to do it properly. I've been using Touchless carwashes but after that last one... There was a lot of ice on the hood/roof and I couldn't get it off without fear of scratching. I picked the extra hot/extra long soak option at the touchless wash but I think the guy screwed me and just set it to a normal wash. Anyway, the ice didn't flinch... until I got to the big blowers at the end (for drying) at which point a HUGE sheet of ice suddenly flew off my hood, smashed up and over the car followed by a huge sheet from the roof which smashed down over the trunk. And I'm talking fairly thick. thick enough to survive a hot car wash with very little melting.

I near broke some teeth from gritting too hard! Big big big mistake. I should have gone to one of those manual car wash stalls but it was minus 4 trillion out and I can never find one. Anyway I don't see any obvious scratches but damn this winter is going to do some damage, I'm sure of it.

Hence a good coating of high quality wax applied by a pro would be excellent. Any ideas?

Justarius