Miatas, Muffins, McBee, Mcleod, Museum & Big Meats

Hard to believe that at one time I had two blogs and wrote in each every night. Plus for a while there I was posting a picture a night in a photo blog as well. Now if I write something twice a week I’m lucky, so for the second time in 2 weeks here is more or less a repeat of my rally wrap from the past Saturday’s MMC event:

Cars, front row from left to right, Dennis & Carol Mason, Mike & Shirley Dyer, Don & Kaye Boltz, Daryl & Sherri Shipman, Karl Splan, Hal & Trudy Scott, Tom Varallo and Brian & Donna Bogardus. Second row from left to right, Joe Varallo, Random Customer #1, Random Customer #2, Barrista and Trash Dumpster.


Donna and I were first to park at our breakfast spot and when Tom backed in next to us the first thing he said was, “You’ll have to put Joe behind you otherwise he’ll get lost.” “He doesn’t follow close enough and if we lose him he won’t know where he is.”

A little back story. Joe is Tom’s younger brother and every year he comes down to help with the Steeplechase (he is an Aiken Sertoma Club member) and when he came over to the tent last week we got to explaining what we were doing this weekend, he thought it sounded like fun, so Donna invited him to come along. Trouble is that Joe is about 6 inches taller than his older brother and would be uncomfortable in a Miata for that length of a drive. We told him we would be happy to have him along even if he was driving a white Chevy Blazer.

Joe didn’t want to interrupt our conga line of Miata and insisted, in spite of of what big brother said, to bring up the rear. The first and third thirds of the drive were on little trafficked 2-lane roads so he should have no issue keeping track of the 8 Miatas ahead of him, but the middle part was on busy I-20 and a stoplight filled US-1 around Columbia where it might get difficult.

We were all together at the exit getting on US-1, but sure enough, somewhere around the 5th traffic light we started to get broken apart. Because we would be on US-1 for for around 25 miles there would be a good chance that the group would come back together. About 10 miles after exiting the Interstate a lot of the cars pulled into a quick stop for the second rest room break. A couple of stragglers pulled in a minute or so later, but that left one car missing. Texts and phone calls were met with radio silence.

After about an uncomfortable 7 or 8 minutes of wondering what might have happened, our wayward driver checked in. Somewhere in a mass of traffic he got off course and before he realized it, his GPS had led him towards the Interstate.

Tom told us he’d just get on I-20 and meet us at the destination.

Pomp & Circumspect Stance

Donna told everyone at work that she was going to retire March 31st of 2017 back in December of last year. Now, what usually happens when someone retires is they bring in a cake and some soft drinks. All the front office/salary folks gather in a conference on that person’s last day, the plant manager gives a short little speech praising the retiree and how hard it is going to be at ASCO when they’re gone, they present the retiree with a watch and the retiree says a few words. Then, cake is eaten and stories are told.

Around the middle of March Donna gets a call from the plant manager’s assistant, and tells her that on the 31st we will have too many different groups of visitors in the the plant so there will not be a conference room open. Could we move it Tuesday the 28th? Sure she says to the assistant. To me she says, “If they are giving me the cake and watch on Tuesday, I don’t want to come back for the rest of the week.” “Fill out a vacation request for Wednesday, Thursday & Friday” She has about 2-1/2 weeks of vacation left that she’d get paid for after retiring, and we had that money earmarked for a small project, but we really didn’t need it, so I don’t blame her I wouldn’t want to either.

Not more than two days later Donna gets another call from the assistant, “Ahhh, we need to move it to Friday the 24th. That OK?” “Sure,” Donna says. To me she says, “Fill out a vacation request for Monday & Tuesday now too.”1 We are now set for 12 noon on the 24th in the HR Conference Room for Donna’s going away Soiree.

About 10 minutes before the start time of the get together I wander down to the conference room to see if the assistant needs any help setting up, she has things well in hand and tells me the saga of picking up the cake. The cake came from Grocery Store #1 because they are know as makers of great tasting cakes. Normally they include one of those plastic cake knife/sever things with the cake, but they have stopped giving them out. She asks can I buy one? They tell her nope, we don’t even have any of them in the store any more. So she stops into Grocery Store #2, which also does cakes, to ask if she can buy one of those cake serving knives. They tell her we don’t sell them, but, you can have one for free.2

At this point I look down and see that the sentiment on the cake reads: Congratulations On You Retirement Donna. I wait for the assistant to apologize for the error, but she never does. So I figure, A) she hasn’t even noticed in all the hullabaloo or B) is too embarrassed to say and is hoping that I don’t notice. So I don’t say anything because A) maybe no one else will notice and b) I don’t want to embarrass her.

The plant manager can’t be there to do the honors because he is on a conference call with someone higher up the food chain and if he does it will only be for a second, as he is on his way out the door to an eye doctor thing. Next in the chain of command is Donna’s manager, so it should have fallen to him, but he has had unexpected doctor’s trip with his elderly dad. This leaves her supervisor for the remarks. “Donna has…how long you been with company?” Donna says “Thirty years.” Her supervisor continues, “Donna has been with the company 30 years and in this time…” This is about when I stop listening, but his remarks while totally un-noteworthy, were very brief. Donna’s words to the assembled were even shorter, something along the lines of, “I’ve enjoyed my time here, but I’m glad I’m retiring. Let’s eat.” One of Donna’s friends/co-worker and I cut and dispense cake to the gathered throng.3

We are about 20 minutes into the ceremony and there are only about 6 or 7 people remaining from the original 35-ish when the HR Manager comes in and announces, “Well, I guess I’m right on time.” I cut her a piece of cake and we chat a bit longer. There are about 4 of us left and because the HR Manager is relatively new, we are regaling her of retirement ceremonies past. I don’t know if someone says the word or it suddenly occurs to her, but the HR Manager goes, “Your watch! Let me go get it.”

The three women left are oohing and aahing over the the thing and babbling on about watches while Donna and I stand there, mute. Because inside we are both thinking the same thing, “Whooo-pee.” Donna doesn’t wear a watch, never has and probably never will, but it was explained to her, like they explained birthday gifts to Dr. Sheldon Cooper on the Big Bang Theory: it is a non-optional social convention. Donna and the HR assistant had picked the most expensive one out of the available choices with the thoughts of selling it on Craigslist.4

Now it is down to just Donna, myself and the plant managers assistant with a very large sheet cake that is three quarters gone. We wonder aloud what we should do with the rest of the cake and the assistant says, “You can take it home.” But this was impossible, because even on her last day at work Donna and I have ridden the tandem bicycle. “why don’t we put it in the cafeteria so anyone who passes through can grab a piece,” Donna suggests. We all agree that sounds like a plan.

It is now just Donna and I. I start to finish cutting up the cake into little rectangles before moving it and I spot the envelope of a greeting card with Donna written on it sitting next to the cake box. I pick it up and ask, “What do you suppose this?” Well, what else could it be but a Hallmark card that has been passed around for everyone to leave their well wishes in, that probably should have been handed to her sometime during the party.

Chasing Steeples Again

More or less repeat of my wrally wrap up over on the MMC website:

I don’t know what you were doing last Saturday, but we along with three other couples were enjoying what was basically a Division 1 college football tailgate party, interrupted by a six or seven horses whizzing by every half hour or so.

httpvh://youtu.be/S3JROluZ-_c

Not only did President Tom allow us the use of his rail-side parking spot, but he had a cake delivered to our tent that said “Happy Retirement Donna.” If Tom offers up his spot next year we’ll probably come again, we are not big horse racing fans, but it is a fun event to eat, chat and people watch. This year we hefty a few leftovers in our lunch sack, I threw the folding chairs over my shoulder and we walked the mile home unlike, last year where it took us over an hour just to drive the Miata for enough to get out side the venue’s gate.

Who’s Guarding The Fort?

My sister and her husband live in a gated community so to deliver her the breakfast bagels we reminded her to call down to the gate house and let them know we were coming to visit on Sunday. So, when we turned into the access road to Carriage Park I drove right up to the left gate to identify myself to the person on duty. To my surprise, at 8:30 AM, it was empty. Hmmmm, now what?

I backed up 50 feet to the call box and tried to figure out how to get to their name using a keypad and no scroll bar. Donna said, “Just call the house.” Ooh, that’s right, I have a smart phone of my own now. I call the house phone. No answer5, so I leave a message, ‘We are at the gate, but there is no one to let us in, what’s the code?’ ” As we are idling there waiting for any sort of response, another car pulls in the access road and stops a few feet behind us. They must not live in the sub-division either or they would have driven up to the right-hand gate where their little transponder would automatically cause the arm to raise letting them in.

As Donna and I are discussing our options the car behind me loses patience and whips around me in a big hurry and sudden stops at the gate house to display his anger at my inaction. About this time a resident pulls slowly up to the right gate causing the arm to start to go up to let them in. I throw it in first and time my run to hit the opening at the same time as the back end of the resident’s SUV. We’re in! Leaving frustrated man stuck outside, now possibly even more so.6

Acronym Smacronym

On this visit to Hendersonville we didn’t stay in our usual Holiday Inn Express, instead I figured we could save more than $20 by staying on the other side of the Interstate at the Mountain Inn and Suites. Sometimes, and this was one of them, you get what you pay for. The walls were thinner, the shower weaker and the TV was a tiny 24″ LCD wide screen model with no available HD channels.

We put some of that money saved to good use on Sunday morning too. The free breakfast at the hotel didn’t start until 6:30 and we were up and ready to go at six. Figuring that the quality of the morning fare would probably be mirrored by the quality of the room, we opted to walk the 100 yards down the road to a Waffle House.

Because it was early, there were the night shift folks waiting to go home and day shift workers just coming on, so there were like six Waffle House employees in the restaurant and just two customers, Donna and I. We had snagged a Sunday Asheville paper on the way out the door of the hotel to enjoy as we were waiting for our breakfast to arrive and because I was reading, I really wasn’t paying attention to the conversations of employees, but occasionally I’d catch a snippet. One of them that stood out was when one of them said something like, “You know, like John says, ‘Tee Eye Em, Too Much Information.’ ”

You Can’t Get There From Here

We took a little trip up to North Carolina this weekend. The purpose of the drive was two fold, a few Motoring Challenge points and my sister’s 60th birthday.

Saturday’s goal was driving up to the top of the highest point east of the Rockies, Mount Mitchell. This was going to get us 1 point each for a sign with 8% (or greater) grade on it, famous road for the Blue Ridge Parkway and Mount Mitchell being one of Nature’s Giants. After an unimpeded spirited run up North Carolina 80 to the Parkway, we were surprised to see we couldn’t head south to Mt. Mitchell. The Road Closed gates were padlocked shut, leaving us no other option but to drive back down the windy road.

Turns out the last weeks’s winter precipitation still covered some of the parkway, never mind on the higher elevation of the mountain. This was a very minor setback as we had already snagged a few points for some other destinations, oddities and a random 1964-1/2 Ford Mustang parked in front of bar. The road block turns out to have been a bonus in a way as it means we have to take another run at conquering Mount Mitchel and having to drive the twisty roads on the North Carolina mountains.

Sunday was set aside for bringing bagels for breakfast to the birthday girl. We stopped in at Joey’s NY Bagels as it is right on the way to her house. We bought 4 poppy seed bagels, Diane and her husband Allan’s favorite and 4 plain for Donna and I. One each for the four of us and one each for later. After a couple hours of chatting around the kitchen table it was time for Donna and I to drive back home to prepare for the next week of exciting valve building.

I’ve got a couple other little stories of the trip that I’ll try and write about tomorrow and Thursday. Here is a sneak peek of them – 1) Waffle House & 2) Gate House. Until then, marvel in the weirdness that is two grown adults having their picture taken with a car and an object or scene holding up what is essentially and advertisement for a car parts business:

25 Years Ago – Spring 1992

WASH DAY

Each Spring we print our recommendations for cleaning and caring for your Miata. Since we have eleven thousand new members since last Spring, we wanted to update and reprint our procedures. If you remember last year’s article, skip to the glass and rubber sections which have some changes.

WASHING
We have found that a genuine sheepskin wash mitten works extremely well for gently cleaning your car’s surface. They are readily available at auto parts stores and hold plenty of water to help float the dirt off the painted surfaces.

Start with a three gallon bucket filled with cool (not cold) water. Add one tablespoon of baby shampoo to the water. Then add one teaspoon of salad oil (yes, that’s salad oil) to the recipe. The salad oil adds some lubricity to your wash mix helping the grit to slide from the surface onto the wash mitt. Drop in your recently laundered sheepskin mitten (wash in nonphosphate based detergent in hot water, rinse twice in hot water and machine dry.)

Place the vehicle in a shady spot, out of direct sunlight (but not under a sap-dripping tree!). Make sure that the body surface is not warm to the touch.

Rinse the car off with copious amounts of cool water from a hose and nozzle, making sure to hit the rocker panels and lower front and rear panels.

Check the water drop formation on the hood to verify your wax protection level. The droplets should mostly form circular shapes with well defined edges. If the water “smears” across the surface, you definitely need to wax the car.

Take your soaped-up sheepskin wash mitten and, starting on the convertible top,. gently wipe down the surface, turning the mitten often. Clean the soft window very gently while rinsing with water, then move to the rest of the car. Occasionally hose off the mitten with a hard stream of water. Then return the mitten to your wash mix for a fresh charge of soap and salad oil. By rinsing the mitten outside of the bucket, none of the car’s dirt will be introduced to your wash mix.

Wipe one quarter of the car at a time and rinse immediately afterward. Soap drying on the paint can cause permanent spotting. Work from the top portions of the car to the lower areas where there is the most dirt. Don’t forget your headlights.

Lightly rinse the mitt, and wipe the wheels and tires down. The brake dust will load up the mitten pretty quickly, but another hard stream of water will rinse it clean.

If you have any tar or bugs to remove, do it now. Use one of the over the counter products or a mixture of 25% Kerosene and 75% water on a cotton terry cloth rag. These areas will need to be re-waxed. For hardened bug and bird dropping stains, try rubbing with a gentle paste of baking soda and water.

For drying, many enthusiasts like to use a chamois or some new-tech cloths (i.e. The Absorber), these work fine. Just make sure to launder them often. Otherwise, find some thirsty, all cotton beach or large bath towels that have been through the wash many times (no lint) for drying the car. Use the same laundering procedure for these towels as was recommended for the wash mitt. We like to start with the glass areas first, before they spot. On the soft rear window, simply blot the water so as not to scratch the surface. Do not rub hard while drying the car this will scratch the paint.

For an alternate drying method, many old-timers like the following trick: Take the nozzle off your hose end, and hold the open end close to the body surface at a shallow angle (almost flat to the surface). Using just a gentle water flow, the surface tension of the water will pull almost all the water off of a well waxed surface, leaving no droplets behind! It is the gazillion tiny drops that a nozzle makes that creates the need to chamois a car off. Try it. It works for most.

Wipe down the door jambs and under the trunk lid (unless these areas require serious cleaning). If you do this at each washing, you will never have to deal with permanent stains in these areas.

Never, under any circumstances, use a “drive through” car wash for your Miata (or any other car if you can avoid it). Even the “brushless” types can scratch your car’s finish and will definitely damage your Miata’s convertible top. Even with a hard top in place, don’t do it.

GLASS CLEANING
For small road debris that gets caught in your glass (they do, take a look), use a razor blade held at a very shallow angle to the windshield (nearly flat against the glass) and gently scrape any pieces off. Be careful not to scratch your glass or to cut yourself.

When washing your car, sprinkle some Bon Ami household cleaner on the glass. This cleanser is gentle (“Hasn’t Scratched Yet”) and will remove all the road scum that chemicals can’t get off. Using a wet rag, clean the glass as you would a sink or other surface. Then rinse the glass thoroughly with water, and continue to rinse until all trace of the Bon Ami is off your body surfaces. Do not attempt this with any other brand of household cleaner. They might contain heavy abrasives or bleach.

Touch-up Glass Cleaners
Mix one third white vinegar to two thirds water in a spray bottle.
OR
Mix one ounce of Westley’s Clear Magic to seven ounces of water in a spray bottle.

For either mixture, use old newspapers crumpled up in your hand to wipe the glass clean. Turn frequently until dry. Use a glove if you don’t want your hands to get dirty. Make sure to clean the insides of your glass as well (the plastics in your interior release a gaseous agent as they age. This is why even non-smokers get scum on the inside of the windshield).

WAXING
To begin with, you do not need a “cleaner”. type wax. Your Miata’s paint should not have any oxidation to “cut down,” so stay clear of these type of waxes. These will leave tiny scratch marks in your paint that reduce its shine. You want a pure polishing wax, such as one of these we have experience with:
Meguiar’s #16 Professional Paste Wax (or any other of this brand that are not “cleaner” types)
OR
Zymol (smells like coconut tanning lotion!) Liquid Glass (way popular with the concours crowd for many years)

Make sure to apply any of these waxes in the shade and that the surface of your Miata is not hot. Use an old t-shirt or other clean cotton rag to apply the wax. Put it on lightly using swirling motions. Polish the wax once it dries to a white haze (except for Zymol: do not let it dry) using a clean cotton rag. Liquid Glass requires two coats.

Follow directions on the can. Turn the rag often and occasionally shake out the waxdust. Use an old toothbrush to get into crevices and joints. Make sure to wax your door jambs, etc.

Waxes generally last about six months. Check your water beading during washes to see where you stand on needing another application. Some members have had great success with Liquid Glass acrylic polish which seemed to last a little longer.

WHEEL CLEANERS
Your Miata’s alloy wheels are painted with a clear coat to keep the aluminum from absorbing stains (as untreated aluminum does). Most reputable aftermarket wheels are clear coated as well. The thing to remember is that this clear coat is similar to the paint on the car’s body and needs special care as well. We have had great success with just the sheepskin mitten used for the regular wash job, but if your custom wheel has intricate details, you may want to use a spray chemical to help things along. We can recommend two products:
Eagle 1 Special Finish Factory Mag Cleaner
OR
P21s Wheel Cleaner

For either of these products, spray them on the wheels BEFORE you get your car wet. If you have some stubborn spots, use an old toothbrush to loosen the dirt. Make sure to thoroughly clean your wheels each time you wash your car, and you can prevent a nasty buildup of brake dust that may never come clean. The brake dust actually contains glue that is used as a bonding agent in the pad manufacturing (like particle board). This glue will set up on your hot wheels and form a permanent stain if not removed every week or so.

We DO NOT RECOMMEND THE USE OF DUST SHIELDS that install behind the wheels and keep the wheels clean of brake dust. They also block airflow that is essential to brake cooling, especially on a sports car. Save them for your dad’s Oldsmobile.

RUBBER TREATMENT
You should treat your tires and weather stripping (around doors and trunk) with some sort of a protectant each time you wash. This is particularly true in Southern California where the bright sun and smog can tear up a car’s rubber in three years. The cheapest way is to apply pure glycerin (available at pharmacies) or silicone to these areas.

There are many silicon based protectants on the market, the most memorable one is “Armor All.” Others include STP’s “Son of a Gun,” Meguiar’s #40, etc. All of them tested out to be the same as far as longevity goes.

We have one rag dedicated to putting protectant on tires. Once a rag is “seasoned” it will not absorb as much protectant. The end result is that you use less protectant, and thus save money. It also serves as a quick “clean-em-up” dust magnet rag for the interior when we do not have time for a complete spray down.

There is a new product on the market call ed “NO TOUCH” which sprays on with a foamy consistency. As its name implies, you do not have to wipe it down. They recommend two initial applications, and we agree the first “coat” will be a little splotchy. After the second coat was seasoned overnight, the appearance was excellent. When tested against the traditional tire treatments, NO TOUCH was found to retain its sheen longer as well. Use it only on your tires.

INTERIOR
We suggest wiping down the interior with one of the cotton towels you used to dry the car with, assuming it is still damp and relatively clean. If you have a spot or residue on your vinyl, use a mild soap and water mixture making sure that you rinse the area well.

Use a typical protectant (Meguiar’s #40, Armor All, Son of a Gun) for a final dressing on your interior vinyl surfaces. Use a Q-tip around the switches and knobs of the dashboard.

Special Edition owners should use Lexol cleaner and Lexol treatment for their leather seats.

Your carpet needs to be vacuumed with a strong machine, not the dust-buster variety. There is a lot of sand and small rocks hiding down in the pile of your carpet, and it acts like sandpaper to the fibers. If you have a place to store it, get one of the two horsepower shop vacuums from Sears, and use the crevice tools to get behind and under the seats.

If you develop any carpet stains, first try to rinse them out with a little bit of water on a rag or sponge. If the stain is stubborn, use a mixture of one third Westley’s Clear Magic to two thirds water to gently rub the stain out. This mixture also works well for stains on the Miata’s doth seats.

CONVERTIBLE TOP
We have had good luck with Armor All and Meguiar’s #40. However, both of these products will leave a slight residue on your quarter panels after a rain where the product is washed off of the top. Use either product sparingly on the top to reduce this down-washing. Be careful not to lower the top while it is wet or if you have just treated it with a protectant.

REAR WINDOW CLEANER
Once you have washed the soft rear window and dried it, use Meguiar’s #10 Professional Plastic Polish exactly according to directions to clean up any hazing or scratches. Do not rub hard or you will scratch your window. To reduce usage scratching, never lower your top without unzipping your window first, and lay a cloth towel on the lowered window before laying your top down on it.

ENGINE COMPARTMENT
After a few thousand miles, your engine compartment may begin to get a little dirty. We recommend using Gunk Spray Engine Cleaner on a cold engine. Follow directions after putting a plastic baggie over the intake snorkel. Don’t neglect this import area of your Miata’s appearance.

CONCLUSION
Some tips in closing: 1) Do not tailgate (stone chips on your Miata’s nose and chips in your windshield); 2) Do not park under sappy trees; 3) Remove bird droppings immediately, no matter how disgusting; and 4) Repair nicks and scratches immediately (dealers have touch up paint).

Since the Miata is mostly too reliable to tinker with, consign yourself to keeping it clean. Go ahead and spend the few dollars to get the right materials and the job will become a labor of love. It is much easier to keep a new car clean than to reverse even one year of neglect.

Copyright 1992, Miata Magazine. Reprinted without permission.