Time for a Nova update!

I realized that it has been awhile since I did any updates about what is going on with my Nova. If you didn't even know that I had a Nova, you need to go back and read this post.

Since it has been pretty cold around here, I haven't been able to do as much as I would have liked to do, but when it is 30 degrees outside and your garage is barely making it past 55 degrees, there is only so much you can do. That is until my darling wife bought be a heater for the garage. In combination with adding a couple extra flood lights to the garage for both lighting and warmth, I am now up to about 60 degrees inside. And that has made a big difference in what I can do.

So what have I been doing you ask? Mostly I have been working on detailing. I went ahead gave the car a coat of polish to prep it for the wax. In case you didn't know, there is a difference between polish and wax for a car. If you really want to know, you can read about it here.

I also gave the inside dash and seats a good cleaning. And while the dash is still cracked pretty bad in a couple spots, it looks a lot better than it did when I first received the car. Since yesterday was a day full of sunshine, I pulled it out to take some pictures. I only wish that I would have taken some before pictures of the paint so you could see how much dirt was ground into the body. Oh well, at least I know how bad it really was.

Long side view of the Nova.

I love how it looks all shiny now.

I took of the hubcaps and gave them a quick polish job. I need to do it one more time and they will look even better.

I really like this shot, because the front end of this car is one of my favorite features. In fact, if you go back to my first Nova post you can compare the pics on there to the ones now. I think you will see a big difference. (At least I do!)

I would have loved to keep the old blue California plates on, but it wasn't working out.

The green interior has really grown on me. The photo doesn't do all the cleaning I have done to these seats justice.

As goes for the dashboard and speedometer cluster. The photo doesn't show how clean it looks. These were filthy and now look brand new! (Well, other than the cracks!)

In the next month or so I am going to be doing some serious cleaning in the engine compartment. The first local car show is in March I believe, and I want to have her all ready to go by then. From what I have heard from people who have seen my Nova, it sounds like it will do great in the Original category at the shows. Hopefully next month I will have some trophies to go along with her!

Making a Hobby Pay Off

One of the things that I absolutely LOVE to do is wash my car. Well, I guess I should expound upon that statement. I LOVE to not only wash my car, but to clean and shine the tires and wheels, (rims are on bicycles, not cars) wash the windshield and windows, lay a good layer of wax on the body, vacuum out the inside and wash the carpets and/or seats if necessary, clean off the dash, and slap a nice layer of protectant down on the dash and any other surface on the inside or out that need shinning. I know that to most people the thought of doing all of that yourself does not sound fun, but to me it is almost relaxing. You could say instead of gardening to melt away stress, I do it by detailing my car.

So go back about 10 years ago when I was working at B and B printing. Our graphic design guy was always jealous at how nice and clean my car always looked, and asked me where I took it to. When he found out that I did it myself, he insisted that I do his car too. And if any of you have read the Workin' for the MAN series I wrote a few months back, you know that I love making money. I was more than happy to detail Mark's car. I was a little nervous since I had never done a car that wasn't mine, but once I started I felt right at home. Of course Mark was amazed at the job I did, and every 6 months after that until he quit working there, he had me detail his car.

In the last few years I started shopping my services out at work. Every person that I have done a detail job for comes away impressed, and I have even been told that I did a better job than the person they had paid almost twice as much to do their car.

So this past week my boss sent me and email (She is on long term disability right now while she is treated for breast cancer. I am happy to say that she is done with treatment, and is close to coming back to work.) and asked if I could detail her cars for her. First she wanted me to do her Acura. It was the car that she had been driving back and forth between here and Seattle for her treatments for the last 10 months. Her grandchildren had taken over the back seat, and as Simon, Paula, and Randy would say, "made it their own." And now that she was done with her trips, she wanted it nice and clean again. The second car that she wants me to do is her Mercedes convertible that she is going to be selling soon. She told the guy that she wouldn't sell it to him until it was nice and clean.

Since Christmas is right around the corner, and it is always nice to have the extra money, I told her that I was more than happy to do this for her. This past weekend I did the Acura, and next weekend I am going to take care of the Benz. I am really proud at how nice the Acura turned out. Take a look for yourself:

The carpet in the back seat had 5-6 black spots from the grandkids. No problem for the Bissell. Looks brand new now!

Not to toot my own horn too loud, but as you can tell from the pictures I do pretty good work. And like I said, I love to detail cars because it is relaxing, and there isn't much that I appreciate more than a nicely cleaned car.

So if there are any of you in the Tri-City area who are thinking about getting their cars washed and waxed for the winter months ahead, and you don't know where you want to go, feel free to give me a ring. My prices are good, and I will put all I have into making your car look like it belongs in the showroom instead of parked on the curb.