I spent 3+ hours the other night out in the barn with the Jaguar, doing some Spring Cleaning. The very rainy GTTSR last year left the car’s obscured bits VERY dirty. It has been embarrassing to open my bonnet. The E-type sort of opens like a clam, revealing ALL when the bonnet is opened; engine, suspension, everything. Mine has been splattered with dirty water for miles on end, and like all dirt, it has managed to find and fill every available space, nook, and cranny. There was even a splatter line inside the headlight area!
So I put the car on the lift, pulled the wheels of, covered all the sensitive bits with plastic bags and went at the major accumulations of dirt with the pressure washer. Don’t worry, it was a light spraying and never on the outer parts of the car. Mostly up under the wheel wells where there was a thick layer of dirty crud… almost like an undercoating. Next I took the wheels outside and really went after them good with the pressure washer, along with some wheel cleaner, and shortly had them sparkling.
Next came the hard part. I got out a bucket, some soap, and some little scrubber pads and brushes, cleaning by hand the area all around the driver’s side front wheel. The splash guards, the fender, frame, suspension, etc. Just scrubbed and brushed until things were good and clean. Got out the grease gun and squirted some goo into the zerks while I was in there too. So after three hours I had one corner of the car cleaned up, and three more to go.
Mind you this is not “Concours d’Arrogance†clean, down to the q-tip level. This is just “Chuck won’t be embarrassed to open his bonnet†clean. Good enough for me.