Mike from Ohio writes:

"How do you train your "psyche" to overcome a sense of "giving up". This is hard to put into words, so my apologies. Best I describe what I'm referring to. I don't have your talent, skill and know-how to do what you do...but if magically all of a sudden I did have that capacity, I would get discouraged after spending so many hours/days on a car...I would get severely "bummed out" when I take the car out on the road (in the rain) and my perfectly cleaned/detailed car gets dirty again. Hope that makes sense. I'm afraid that is how I'd feel. You have obviously overcome that "problem". How do you compartmentalize your sense of satisfaction when time after time..car after car...dirt, road grime and pollen spoil what you've just spent an enormous amount of time and energy cleaning? Is there a mental trick to it?"

This is a great question, and I have had to reconcile a few things in my own mind to maintain my dedication to car care. The environment in my city is very challenging. The winters are long and messy, and the rest of the year is dusty with a real mix of weather. There are a few ways I deal with the stress and most of them are visible in the way I have designed my garage. Combating the relentless challenges of maintaining a clean car has been made easier by the fact that my garage is a full-service detail facility.  I can pull my car in on any day and everything I need to keep it clean is close at hand. My vacuums are easily accessible and I have a wide array of products that work in all kinds of different seasonal situations. By having all the tools and supplies I need at the ready, it allows me to use my energy efficiently. 

Also, I just love the process of returning a dirty car to pristine shape. Yes, it may be dirty within seconds after leaving the garage, but that doesn't negate the fact that I had fun making it look brand new again. It is also rewarding to know that the car is still in excellent condition, free or scratches and defects, under the dirt and grime. I am really paranoid about the salt and salt residue embedding in my paint and causing corrosion, so every time I get the paint clean, it gives me hope that rust and corrosion will never claim my current vehicle liked it claimed a few in my earlier years! So, in conclusion, I can keep going no matter the challenges because I have the proper facility and supplies, I like the process, and I enjoy knowing that my car's condition is still flawless under the dirt, salt, pollen, or whatever other menace the world is throwing at me.  

Now, if I had a black truck that I had to park outside like my friend, Bryan...that would be whole other story.  He gets all my respect!  

I am confident there is no place worse, no place more challenging, no place more frustrating to keep a clear clean than Calgary, Alberta in winter. Even with my garage converted into a detailing studio, I just can't keep up. But, I won't stop trying. Here's a video that demonstrates how I go about keeping a tidy interior despite Mother Nature's efforts to ruin me. 

A concerned YouTube viewer raised some concerns over my wheel hub collar. From the video, it appeared my collar was cracked. I was pretty sure it was just the design, but the user went to the effort of capturing a screen shot from the video and highlighting the areas that raised his concerns, so I decided to pop the opposite wheel off to investigate. It appears that Audi has carved some notches into this specific part for some reason. Maybe it has to do with weight reduction, but who knows. I want to thank David for taking the time to reach out and share his concerns. It is very nice knowing that people are looking out for each other. Here are some photos that demonstrate the notched hub design I am referring to.  

On May 31st, I pulled into the garage and as the door was going down the right-side spring snapped.  It was startling loud to be honest.  So, I panicked a bit and ended up calling a 24-hour garage door repair service.  They responded quickly by sending a two-man crew.  But, things went downhill from there.  The two technicians attempted to clamp the broken spring together.  I am no garage door expert, but these guys didn't seem to know what they were doing.  After an hour of messing around, they informed me they needed to fetch a part at the shop.  This was around 9pm.  I said to my wife as they were leaving, "They aren't coming back".  After an hour and a half I called the dispatcher.  He told me he would touch base and get back to me.  An hour went by, and no call-back.  I called, but my call went straight to voicemail and that was the last contact I had with "The Garage Door Company".  

​In hindsight, I'm very glad they bailed because I called Creative Door the next morning, and they had all the spring specs on file since they are the company that originally built and installed the door.  They custom-fabricated the springs on Saturday and a crew came out Monday morning to install them.  I have to give a massive shout out to everyone at Creative Door.  Just impeccable service and the $274 price tag was very reasonable.  

A recent spat of mild weather enabled me to do a thorough spring clean of the garage.  The floor wasn't too bad, but a lot of grime and debris was lurking in the vents of the Free Flow tiles and it was time to get rid of it.  The entire process took a few hours.  I put a video together that demonstrates each step of the process.  Enjoy.  

It's probably the most common question I get; is a RaceDeck Free Flow floor system a good idea for people who endure winter? The answer is dependent on a number of factors, but my short answer is "Yes". The Free Flow tiles provides a crucial layer of protection from the dirty water that constantly pools on garage floors during the winter. Some of the muck that drops off the undercarriage dries to the top of the tiles, but that is easily dealt with by a shopvac and mop. I can walk around my garage in my socks minutes after pulling into my garage. Another thing I appreciate about the RaceDeck is that I am not grinding gravel into an epoxy finish every time I pull into the garage. Right now, the floor of my garage is a total mess. I have a few months of compiled crud on the floor, but it's all hidden below the tile floor. I know it's there, but I don't have to do anything about it. When the next heavy chinook hits, I will perform a thorough clean of the floor and tiles. In the meantime, here's a quick little vid I posted on my Instagram account. You will hear the crackle of gravel and debris as I walk on the tiles, but the mic on my iPhone is making that sound much louder than it actually is. Just imagine doing this on an epoxy-coated floor.  

The RaceDeck Free Flow system has been my saving grace since its install six years ago. Some maintenance is required, but there is no floor that will keep itself clean during the winter. Let me know if you have any questions about my floor by shooting me an email here.  

It's been quite a while since I updated this blog.  The holiday season was a whirlwind with family staying with us, and winter's tight grip on the city has been keeping me busy. After about a month of freezing temperatures, the mild weather arrived so I have been doing my best to combat the salt and mud that the nice weather generates. Keeping the exterior clean is a hopeless endeavor, but I will never let the mess infiltrate my interior!  

I have two sets of all-weather interior mats. One set by Husky and the other by WeatherTech. I can't say I am in love with either of them, but they are what I have so I make the most of it. It's nice having a second set at the ready for when the other set is caked with salt residue and mud. The Husky's don't fit as well as the WT's, but they do offer more protection. The WT's have a lower profile which allows water to escape and stain the carpet. I had to remove some salt residue that had dried into the carpet. I used my Mytee Steamer and Rupes iBrid as you can see in the photos below. I used Griot Garage's Carpet Cleaner and used my steamer to open up the carpet fibres. I worked the cleaner into the carpet using my iBrid. The slideshow below should give you a good idea of the various steps I take to maintain a clean interior. I have had to perform this job numerous times in the past month or so.  

I have not been able to perform a full maintenance wash of my floor this winter.  Each day, my car is dragging in mud and slop and it ends up falling to the floor and seeping through the cracks in the Free Flow tiles. On particularly bad days, huge chunks of debris fall from the undercarriage and wheel wheels and compile on the tiles.  I use my shopvac to clean up the mess and finish with a quick mop. It is not a particularly difficult job, it just takes a bit of time. I am waiting for some really mild weather to hit so I can actually drag the floor out to the driveway and clean the mess off the garage floor.  As it is now, there is a lot of mess under the tiles, but the tiles themselves remain clean as long as I mop the floor. The slideshow below should give you a good idea of what I'm dealing with.  

It took me two full days, but our cedar garage door has been stained, and very pleased with the result.  The builder used a stain/paint and we never really liked it.  I sanded it down for four or five hours and then applied a coat of Cabot's Australian Timber Oil and it brought out the character of each board.  The sanding process left me with a lot of cleaning in the garage.  I had to clean every inch of the garage, but that is all done and things have never looked so great.  Here are some photos that will take you through the process of getting this door to the point it should have been when we moved in.  

We've owned the SQ5 for 2.5 years and it is still on the brakes it came with.  The only issue we've had is with some corrosion around the rotor hats.  So, with the help of my QuickJack, I put the car in the air today and hit each hat with a coat of high-heat paint.   The job took two hours.  ​Here's a slideshow that demonstrates the steps I went to.

The title says it all.  I finished applying the high gloss acrylic sealer to the aggregate driveway.  I do this every year to combat premature aging due to the sun and the salt on the winter roads.  Here's some photos that illustrate the process.  

The annual process of sealing my garage floor and driveway is in full swing.  I removed the RaceDeck floor and pressure washed the concrete.  I allowed it to dry for a few hours and then took my Master Blaster Car Dryer to the cracks to ensure all the moisture was dealt with.  I started by using a 1" brush to apply a liberal coating of sealant to the cracks in the pad.  I really let the sealant seep down into the cracks and fill up the little gaps.  Then, it was time to apply a thick coat of the sealant to the vulnerable parts of the pad.  The stuff dries relatively quickly, so I will be pulling the floor back in soon.  At that point, I will shift my efforts to completing the driveway.  

Sidenote: The sealant went up in price from $119/pail last year to $168.  Robbery!  

Here's a slideshow showing my work: 

This virtual tour should give you a great sense of how things are laid out in my garage.  I have to say, things are approaching perfection.  It's just a matter of fine tuning the little details at this point.  I hope you enjoy. 

I had a few hours to myself today, so I decided to give the floor a thorough clean.  This meant removing every RaceDeck tile and power washing the entire floor underneath.  Moving items in the garage is a breeze with the RaceDeck floor, so its a relatively easy process.  Here's some shots of the big event.  

I had big dreams of picking up a Kranzle K1122TST pressure washer, but I wasn't comfortable spending well north of $1000, so I picked a much more reasonably priced one at Lowes.  It' s the KPW2000 2000 PSI 1.4 GPM Cold Water Electric model by Kobalt, but it is manufactured by AR, which is a pretty decent manufacturer of pressure washers from what I can gather.  

I had an opportunity to assemble and test it out this morning, and it is far and away superior to the Kärcher it replaces.  While it may not compare in build quality to a Kranzle, it did a fantastic job of spraying off the SQ5 and driveway.  

The moisture takes a heavy toll on my garage door rails during the winter months.  By Spring, the rails are corroded pretty bad, so I took an hour or so sprucing them up.  I used sandpaper and my dremel to remove the corrosion, and applied a coat of my darkest grey paint.  Here's a quick before and after shot.  

We've been experiencing a mild winter this year, which equates to a messy winter.  The temperature was a balmy plus-6 degrees Celsius today, so I was able to tackle my floor after months of watching the dirt and debris compile.  The process has been captured in a video, but here is a little slideshow to show you today's process.  This is the dirtiest the floor has ever been, but all is fine now.  

Every couple of years, I seal my exposed aggregate driveway, but I have never actually sealed the garage floor.  This year, I decided to do it first.  I am using the same sealer as I use on the driveway which has a high gloss finish.  This will make my garage floor quite slick, which I don't mind since my RaceDeck FreeFlow floor will sit atop of it.  The sealer should help protect the floor from the damaging salt that the city lays down in the winter as well as aid in rinsing and cleaning the floor.  The sealer goes on with a basic paint roller and the entire job took about 2 hours including the time it took to power rinse the floor and dry it with my Metro Master Blaster Car Dryer.  After allowing the sealer to cure for 4-5 hours, I will pull the RD floor back in.  Here is the finished product:

I can't believe I'm doing this, but I am going to show you the ugly side of things in the garage.  The slope of my slab forces water out the left-hand side of my garage (when looking out), and with all the water and snow that gets tracked in during the winter, it causes me a bit of an issue.  As you can see in the photos below, the garage door track rusts.  It's not a big deal to clean up, but it is a job I could live without.  You can see the calcium chloride residue that likes to cake itself over everything.  Winter is rough. 

As you can see from the pics, the calcium chloride clings to the tiles and the floor and looks pretty gross.  

During the winter months, a lot of my time is spent trying to keep my car and my garage space clean.  Given the weather conditions up here, it can be a monumental chore.  The City has introduced a new road salt product that is disgusting in every regard.  It is a calcium chloride mixture and this stuff is nasty.  It clings to everything and is a real pain to remove from floors and car surfaces.  I'm thankful that my RaceDeck Free Flow floor allows the water to pool beneath the floor tiles, but the run-off contains so much of the substance, that my floor inevitably becomes coated with the crud.  The City claims it is "environmentally friendly", however the findings of a 2000 Environment Canada study examining the impact of de-icing agents would suggest otherwise.  It concluded that calcium chloride is toxic to the environment, and I can say that I've noticed huge dead patches of grass in the Spring in the areas that my garage run-off drains to.   

I've been doing some quick cleans, but I really need the weather to warm up so I can do a more thorough job.  I keep my garage door an inch off the pad to allow the water to drain out.  I am very jealous of my garage buddies who live in more hospitable climates.