(Author note: This is not a detail instruction - but instead an account of an emotional experience.)

Ahh ... I love spring - and today was the first Saturday in Chicago where ...
.
a) It wasn't rainy
b) It was warm
c) I didn't have a soccer, baseball, band, bar mitzvah, etc. event to attend.

So, time for some love time between me and my -8 in Stew's Garage Mahal.

Got up around 7:30 AM, made a big pot o' coffee, poured a cup and took the car to the local u-spray it wash for a total wash up - up, down, under, engine bay, etc. Then dried it off in the lot there, getting lots of the requisite attention that an RX-8 inevitably draws.

Brought it home and had breakfast while it dried a little further and cooled off (there's always a little water in those body seams and things).

Then, about 9:00 AM, I was back in the garage, my classic rock playlist cued up on my iPod plugged into the garage stereo (you do have a garage stereo don't you?)

I started on the finish regimen: Clay bar to smooth it, Malms ultrafine polish using my orbital buffer, and then Malm's pure Carnauba to finish it.

Did the inside too - vaccuum, dust, wipe the seats with Lexol, shampoo the mats, airgun the dust out of cracks and crevices.

The last touch was a mechanical walk-around, which I do every Saturday AM - check the oil, add a bit, tire pressure, other fluids.

Finally I was all done, so I went for a long, slow motor around town and enjoyed the stares. And then I pulled into driveway and parked it in the sunshine, pulled out a lawnchair and relaxed with a diet Coke while she gleamed in the sun.

Ahh baby, I love our special time together.

 

I'd pay for someone to give my 8 lovin' like that.
I have no time

 

the satisfaction you get when your car looks amazing is definitely worth all of the hard work.

too bad its supposed to rain today. keep it in the garage.