Tag: Windshield

My Condolences To The Bug Families Involved

before-and-after-auto

We learned something about bugs on this 2,862 mile cross country jaunt. There are lots of them. Their carcasses are often more than windshield wipers and windshield wiper fluid can handle.

If you look back at my driving videos you quickly notice the carnage. There are spots and streaks everywhere.

With every fill-up I went to the well available at every gas station to scrub and squeegeed the windshield. What a skill to have!

Most stations had liquid that seemed fresh and clean. Most, not all. It does make a difference.

From personal observations I’d say Ohio through Nebraska had the heaviest bug concentration with an Indiana/Illinois/Iowa peak.

By the time we’d run low on fuel, visibility had already been severely impaired. This is especially true when the Sun is low on the horizon and glare at its peak.

How do you folks in Florida deal with it?

Actually, I’d probably rather not know.

Past the Rockies the bug problem tapered quickly. Amazing. It had mostly disappeared when we filled up in St. George, Utah and again in Barstow, California.

I cleaned the windshield thoroughly every time we gassed up. The rest of the car was a different story.

This morning we hit the car wash near the hotel. It’s never been needed more.

A Clean Car Is Almost A New Car

“You should get it detailed,” Helaine suggested a week ago. She wanted her car ‘spiffified’ too and getting mine done too might have had some psychological value.

I remember the day I got my current car. It was pretty exciting. I’d been driving a nondescript Toyota. I was moving up to something a lot sportier. My little two seater convertible turned heads.

It still does though it’s 11&#189 years old now.

Even a Mercedes can be a practical purchase if you’re willing to drive it forever. It’s been mine free and clear for years. The state has even stopped charging its yearly property tax on it!

“You should get it detailed,” Helaine suggested a week ago. She wanted her car ‘spiffified’ too and getting mine done too might have had some psychological value.

I called Leroy, one of the guys I work with who runs a side business bringing cars back to that new car look. All I can say is “Wow.” For Helaine’s car “Double Wow.”

You can easily judge a car’s relative condition the same way a woman judges a man’s relative condition–by the shoes. My tires are back to the tough, hard, semi-glossy black they were before the road and brake debris got to them. The body is fully glossy. Inside the carpets are clean and fresh and the dashboard supple. The engine block looks just as it did when it was first shipped to America.

If it weren’t for the 11&#189 years of dings and pits on the hood you’d never know this car wasn’t just off the lot! That goes doubly for the windshield. I need a rock to hit it so I can get a new one (Please–don’t help me fulfill my wish in this regard).

There is one problem which has so far evaded repair. I’m only posting it here with the thought that one of you might have an idea. A few years ago I left some change on my dashboard. As I drove and then braked it flew into the little slot between the windshield and body where it now lives. The slot is too small for me to reach. Now every time I make a sharp turn I hear the coins moving across car!