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Hemmings Motor News Blog

Hemmings Motor News has been around since 1954. We're proud of our heritage, but we're also more than the Hemmings full of classifieds that your father subscribed to. Aside from new editorial content every month in Hemmings, we have three monthly magazines: Hemmings Muscle Machines, Hemmings Classic Car and Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car.

While our editors traverse the country to find the best content for those magazines, we find other oddities related to the old-car hobby that we really had no place for - until now. With this blog, we're giving you a behind-the-scenes look at what we see and what we do during the course of putting out some of the finest automotive magazines you'll ever read.

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Detailing Your Car Like a Pro

Posted August 28, 2012 9:00 AM by dstrohl
Pathfinder Tags: detailing

There are few things more pleasurable than admiring - and driving - a freshly cleaned vehicle. Whether your collector car of choice is indeed a car, or a truck, a motorcycle, van or tractor, the effort that it takes to "detail" a vehicle is certainly rewarded by the results.

Consider the area in which you'll do your cleaning; you won't end up needing to move the vehicle in the middle of the process, and you won't be straining to reach it with the hose or extension cords. Even shade will keep the paint cool, and an artificial light source that can be trained where it's needed and doesn't require hand-holding is also helpful for working in foot wells and under the hood.

Detailing a vehicle can be a time-consuming procedure or it can be a quick and simple task; determining how much attention your vehicle requires and what you plan to do are the next steps. If it's a daily-driven classic or is stored outdoors, there may be bird droppings or sap on the paint, and you may find tar on the lower panels and brake dust on the wheels. The interior may be dirty or stained and filled with wrappers, receipts and more. If it is a weekend driver or show car that is covered and garaged, the paint and brightwork could be clean, yet dusty, and these surfaces may exhibit swirl marks or scratches.

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#1

Re: Detailing Your Car Like a Pro

08/28/2012 5:39 PM

There are few things more pleasurable than admiring - and driving - a freshly cleaned vehicle.
Oh c'mon....
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#3
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Re: Detailing Your Car Like a Pro

08/28/2012 10:42 PM

being a cat I suppose you'd prefer to walk across the paint leaving foot prints & then curl up in the car seat & shed some hair isn't that what cats do LOL

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#4
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Re: Detailing Your Car Like a Pro

08/29/2012 3:24 AM

Yup, puking up a fur ball on the back seat works too
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Re: Detailing Your Car Like a Pro

08/28/2012 10:41 PM

"There are few things more pleasurable than admiring - and driving - a freshly cleaned vehicle."
Give me few hours and I will give you a list of several hundred things that I would find more enjoyable, pleasurable, purposeful, or useful than that. A clean vehicle is a sign that either you have way too much free time on your hands or you may be in need some level of medication.

I have heard that cleanliness is next to godliness but really if you think about it didn't he make this whole planet out of dirt? So do you really think he wanted things to be clean? The design and operation of life itself seems to say otherwise.

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#9
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Re: Detailing Your Car Like a Pro

08/29/2012 5:56 PM

Just cleaned my desk. What do you think?

That's about how my pickup looks too.

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Re: Detailing Your Car Like a Pro

08/29/2012 6:26 PM

I can see your phone, your keyboard, and your monitor all at the same time.

Over achiever.

I was going to clean out my old work shed on the back of my old house when we moved it to make room for where we are building the new house.

Instead I took what I wanted then moved the house away form the shed then bulldozed it into a pile and burned it.

Seriously I did! Burning it down and building a new one was the easier way to go.

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Re: Detailing Your Car Like a Pro

08/29/2012 7:27 PM

Well, okay, so that nuk wot came up with "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" prolly can't find her bluddy car keys half the time and never considered the Cold, Hard Truth lies smack beneath our feet, in which case my daughter is semi-divine. lololol

I'm convinced Little Miss has a Mess Gland. Daz right. And it's on Warp Drive most of the time. Hoyle's old continuous-creation theory wot was an early competitor of the Big Bang theory? He must've met her in a previous life (she's only 10) because I swear she creates messy matter faster than the Universe can adjust.

And that Higgs boson? It ain't gots nothin' on Little Miss. She prolly invented the damn thing, the way she drags her feet when told to clean up after herself. lolol

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#5

Re: Detailing Your Car Like a Pro

08/29/2012 7:58 AM

Really?

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Re: Detailing Your Car Like a Pro

08/29/2012 7:35 PM

During part of my misspent youth I had a jacked up 78 Chev full size 4WD. All we had was desert to play in, but it was fun when it rained!!!!!

What detailing????????????

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Re: Detailing Your Car Like a Pro

08/30/2012 10:17 PM

With my pickups and my wifes car detailing is when I lift up one end or the other with the tractor and pressure wash the underside.

(Don't tell her that I pick up her car that way though.)

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#14
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Re: Detailing Your Car Like a Pro

08/30/2012 10:28 PM

My wife is much more cooperative. She jus' lifts the car up an' hoses it down with the other hand. Easy as pie.

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Re: Detailing Your Car Like a Pro

08/29/2012 9:12 AM

Pulling out of my driveway in my spotless hemi Challenger leaves little else to be desired.

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#7

Re: Detailing Your Car Like a Pro

08/29/2012 9:17 AM

C'mon you guys. Can't you appreciate the finer things in life? The pride of ownership, the enjoyment of doing something where you get to see and appreciate the results, the knowledge that what you are doing will help maintain the resale value should you ever decide to part with your prized possesion (trust me - clean & shiny cars sell much faster & for more than dirty ones, just ask a used car dealer!), and on top of that what you are doing will likely extend the usable lifespan of that vehicle?

Also, there are lots of people that do enjoy thetime & effort spent on this, just like some enjoy going for a hike or swim, playing a musical instrument etc!

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#8

Re: Detailing Your Car Like a Pro

08/29/2012 10:29 AM

It's your thing

Do whatchu wanna do

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Re: Detailing Your Car Like a Pro

09/13/2012 9:26 AM

"This video is no longer available because the uploader has closed their YouTube account."

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