I recent attended a showing of the latest Transformers movie (“Dark Side of the Moon“) and if you know anything about this series or of the cartoon of years gone by, you’ll know that the main characters are machines that turn in to robots. Most of these are vehicles, cars, trucks, semis and even military aircraft.
The car group included a lot of chevys this time, a Camaro which is one of the main stairs, an Impala and a Corvette (actually a representation of a prototype Corvette). The Corvette transformed into a rollerblading robot – which I thought unfitting of my favorite car.
There is the human hero and of course a hot model as his object of desire.
When the hot model was threatened or in harm’s way you could hear the audience get involved. But when an evil robot was about to execute the Camaro character the audience got really vocal. Kids cried at that images, thinking that the Camaro was about to get wacked, forget about the girl….just don’t hurt the car!!!
Yes we love your cars. Oh and the good cars – the Chevy‘s– saved the world again.
But that’s movies and you can just enjoy it with no lasting harmful effects..unless you are me or maybe it wasn’t me but the subliminal messages. I left wanting a Camaro, but not just any 2012 Camaro, but a yellow with black striped bumble bee Camaro.
It must be subliminal messages, I had the same desire after watching Will Smith zip through the empty streets of New York City in the 2007 Shelby GT500 Mustang in his move ‘I Am Legend’ yes the red with white stripes.
Let’s jump up 13 years from 1926 to 1939 and see what the numbers look like.
1939 shows Chevy in the lead for production numbers with 577,278 units produced. Ford is about 100k behind at 487,031 (half of what they were producing in 1926). The rest of the makers finished up like this:
Before I attempted to use the tire dressing, I washed the car and gave the rubber a good scrubbing. For the actual application I used an old sock. When I first poured the dressing on to the sock, it was a bit runny, but still has some consistency. Keep in mind the temperature, 105 degrees in my garage where I stored it and where I was applying it and about 108 outside. I was a bit concerned, because with two show cars (one, a trophy winner and white!!) and having the tire dressing flung all over the paint isn’t cool, which is exactly what I won’t use the Eagle One brand.
I gave 3 of my 07 Vette’s tires two coats and I have one 3 coats. Take a look a the results.
First coat:
First coat - not even - most likely due to the sock.
Another first coat
An additional note – these pics were taken in my garage with a less than optimal source light.
Now with the Vette moved out into the sun and two coats.
Two coats - pretty nice coverage.
I really liked the 3rd application.
3 coats created a good look
So know I’ve given each tire 3 coats and since I don’t do this for a living, the next test had to wait. I had a few ‘honey-do’ chores, before I took the Vette for a drive. So the car sat in the sun for about an hour – temp was about 108.
With the to do list completed, I needed to take the Vette out to toss some air in the tires. Yes…average guy tools = small compressor that doesn’t hold enough air to top off four tires..heck…it can barely do one…got to upgrade one of these days.
Here is where the rubber meets the road and hopefully the tire dressing doesn’t meet the paint, but first a note. I did in fact drip some of Griot’s Garage – Long Lasting Tire Dressing on my chrome wheels and sure enough it cleans off with moist rag.
Take a quick spin about 1.5 miles from the house and I don’t drive 30 miles an hour…the tires spun pretty hard the entire trip.
I’ll mention, again the temperature and I think that might have something to do with it, but really this wasn’t bad. The real test was whether or not it spread to the paint and since it’s a black car you aren’t going to see it as easily – it’s a clear liquid as well. So a quick swipe with a white showed me all I needed to know, it came back clean.
So I’m pretty pleased with how the product worked.
As far as the “long-lasting” part. I’m not going to be able to render a fair opinion yet for a couple of reason:
1. I just put it on
2. We don’t get much rain here in Southern AZ but it is the monsoon season so it has rained 3 times since the application.
So that will have to be in Part 3 later on.
I need to add a few notes as I always do when I review a product. (Some of that laws school was worth the $$$.)
I don’t work for Griot’s, my only connection is that I”m on their mailing list. This is the first product I’ve purchased from them.
I did see a tweet from someone related to Griot’s Garage commenting on this review, but don’t know the individual.
I’m not Consumer Reports or Consumer Digest. I only comment on products I use in my search for “stuff” that works well for me.
Whenever I write about a product I try to follow the instructions provided and always give any variances or events/conditions that might impact the outcome.
From time to time I check out a product that I hear about, in this case, from a repetitive mail from Griot’s garage. This is a catalog of sorts, with a lot of merchandise and everything you need to spruce up your ride.
Thier “Long Lasting Tire Dressing” is the first item I’ve tried.
If you recall I did a review a while back on a tire gel here is the link: ” Like and Don’t Like – Products (Tire Gel) and Tools (Thread Chasers)” http://wp.me/pKHNM-aJ
Now before we start, the bottle you see in the video has instructions and to be fair, I’ll give you any variations.
The direction say, roughly, clean the tire, apply with application pad and that a light application will give you a shine and subsequent will increase the luster. Not much there to go on.
Now you need to know that I applied the dressing with an old sock. Most manufactures always try to sell something extra and kt, which is an “applicator”, the magic potion and a terry cloth/micro fiber towel. I normally don’t go for that sales pitch. So that was the only deviation.
A couple more variables:
1. The dressing was stored in my garage. The temperature in there today was about 105 degrees. I applied the dressing while the car was in the garage.
2. The temp outside was about 108.
3. As you will see my Corvette’s tires have small sidewalls and a lot of small raised text and logo.
Ok so here are a couple before pics:
Before, notice the off-color
More of the discolor and you can see there isn't must sidewall.
After removing the seat track I had to remove the seat stops.
There are two and easily removed.
Next I started removing the upholstery wire. These pliers hook inside the wire and separate them for removal.
Removal
Here are the wires removed. They can be reused if you want to straighten them out.
Wires
Mostly removed.
Part way off however one small deal to handle
Thinking I was on the down hill side with the removal of the old upholstery, I ran into……the …..tuck!!! This consisted of a wire running through a cloth sleeve and the wire is attached to the springs with the hog wire.
Top Arrow is the cloth sleeve with the wire running through it. Bottom arrow is the hog wire crimped to the springs underneath.
Basically the tuck is how they separate the bottom of the seat and the cushions edges, which with vinyl that helps keeps you backside in the seat during those high-speed maneuvers.
Ok, this was the learning seat. I was too busy learning to do too much photography so I’ll to more with the back to this seat and the next.
BUT…………………………..here is my very first seat bottom..completed.
Sorry it’s been more than a couple days…a week plus actually. But hey, it 115 degrees in my garage.
So I removed the seat and inspected the underside.
Again this was my first upholstery job, ever. So removal of the old upholstery on this first seat was a learning experience so I didn’t get too many shots.
Here is a shot of the seat out of the car.
Seat Out
You have to remove the plastic covers for the hinges and the rest of the hardware to separate the bottom from the back.
Just a couple of screws to remove the covers, hinges and hardware
Here is the underside of the seat with the track hardware still attached.
Back removed the track still in place.
The track is remove with 4 star bolts. Be careful use the proper socket, I happened to have just purchased a huge set of tools (a bit more the ‘average guy’ might have) that had the necessary socket set. If you don’t have those, find one of those universal sockets that ‘form’ to bolt.
4 star bolts hold the track to the frame of the seat bottom
There is a lot of emphasis on numbers for production when it comes to collector cars and I get that, who wouldn’t what a low product something or other.
So I got to thinking about production numbers and thought it would be interesting post some up from time to time.
Now in 1902 there weren’t many cars being produced but there were 8 makers.
I have a co-worker who from time to time has mentioned his Pontiac project and we’ve ‘bench restored’ a few times. But I’d never actually saw this car , nearly a picture. But thanks to our first real rain here in Southern AZ since last year I think, and the fact that we don’t do our monsoon season any other way than “harsh” my co-worker’s (we’ll call him ‘Mike’…’cause that’s actually his name) neighbor had a tree that suffered enough wind damage it and to be taken down. So Mike had to move the car, parked it behind his daily driver. Got up this morning and decied..heck, I’ll drive it to work.
And that’s how I got the pic of the 1949 Pontiac Silver Streak Delivery Van, all original and get this…..his family is the only owner the beauty every had. His grand father purchased it new. More to come on this one but here are some pics.
1949 Pontiac Delivery Van
Back Side of the '49 Silver Streak Delivery Van Pontiac style.
