We spent about 4 hours today working on the car. Got a new pair of rear lift cylinders to replace to old ones which weren't holding up the rear hatch any more. Gotta love Advance Auto parts and their online $25 coupons!
After installing the new cylinders (while trusting my son to hold the broom handle in place to keep the hatch from slamming down on me), we started to clean the exterior.
I showed him how to use the clay bar and detailer to clean the crap off the paint. The car was surprisingly clean compared to when we did the black paint on my daughters Impala SS a couple years ago. That car was a mess. Then we waxed the car and polished the rims.
Times like these are priceless especially after spending all those hours waxing and primping the black paint to have my son then look at the paint and say:
HEY, WHAT IS THIS! THE CAR IS ALREADY DIRTY AGAIN AND WE HAVEN'T EVEN DRIVEN IT ANYWHERE!!!
I replied in best fatherly tone:
"Welcome to the wonderful world of owning a black car, my boy."
He was not amused.
Here are the after detailing photos. My wife, who usually doesn't notice anything more than the fact that her car was washed, actually noticed quite a difference in the shine from yesterday.
And parked next to the old bird. My son asked if we could move his great-grandfather's 1971 Lincoln to the house garage so he could park his car next to my Firebird and his great-grandmother's 1975 Firebird.
