Gearhead Grinds ☕

The car enthusiast's newsletter

Good morning everyone,

When someone tells you to rub a sandwich bag all over your paint:

Here's what's going on this week:

➡️ Watch an abandoned 600-mile C4 Corvette ZR1 get restored

➡️ Heavy D from Diesel Brothers got arrested because of the EPA

➡️ The kitchen item detailers used to test if they needed a clay bar (and why it's dumb)

➡️ more, of course 💬

This week's video 🚗

This week, I take you along for an interesting project on an E36 M3.

The objective: Make it shiny.

The hurdle: Do it without polishing the paint.

I share some pretty interesting tips that will help your car look awesome without spending dozens of hours on a paint correction!

Youtube

The kitchen item detailers used to test if they needed a clay bar (and why it's dumb)🏁

Back when we used to get all of our detailing info and advice from forums and books, there was a popular test to see if you needed to use a clay bar on a car.

The reason for this was that some people couldn't really feel if their paint was contaminated or not.

So the trick was to put a sandwich bag over your hand before feeling your paint.

It would heighten your sense of touch and allow you to feel if your paint was perfectly smooth or not.

It was stupid.

The problem is that the majority of paint jobs aren't perfectly smooth to begin with.

Plenty of cars come from the factory with solvent pop and orange peel - both things that you would feel during the "baggie" test.

So people would drive themselves insane spending all day trying to remove "contamination" with a clay bar that was actually just the rough surface of the paint.

Unless you've wet sanded the surface to be perfectly flat, you're pretty much always going to feel something with a bag on your hand.

So how are you supposed to know when you've done a good enough job with a clay bar, or when to even use one in the first place?

If you're going to do any polishing or coating, it's a good idea to do it regardless
Feel your paint with your bare hand after washing - if it feels rough, clay it. If it's smooth and slippery, it's probably fine.

Don't drive yourself crazy trying to chase perfection with a clay bar. You'll end up with nothing more than a sore shoulder and a wasted day!

The Gearhead Tracker: An all-in-one logbook for your vehicle maintenance

Organize your vehicle maintenance, calculate fuel economy, and create a detailed list of modifications with this Notion template!

This all-in-one digital logbook stores all of your automotive information from insurance to accident history, plus so much more!

Check it out:

Up to speed in the auto industry 📰

Taking a GT3 and R8 to get croissants in Monaco

Cars with Luke shared a video that reminds us that it's still possible to hold your attention with nothing more than beautiful cinematics and the sound of a flat 6 chasing a V10.

Heavy D from Diesel Brothers got arrested because of the EPA

He owed $844,000 in fines for tampering with emissions equipment on trucks. Apparently, a group of doctors purchased a truck from him and sent it to a lab to have its emissions tested.

You know it's rough out here when the doctors are the snitches you can't trust🤣.

How do you make the internet even angrier? Swap a BMW front end on a Supra

In one of the best examples of rage-bait I've seen in a while, this guy swapped a BMW Z4 front end on his MKV Supra. If you're not familiar with the backstory, everyone was mad at Toyota for partnering with BMW on the Supra (which was mostly a BMW Z4 under the skin).

People are gonna hate this, haha.

Watch an abandoned 600-mile C4 Corvette ZR1 get restored

Another great vid from Larry at Ammo NYC. His client got his hands on a barn find Corvette with less than 600 original miles so he cleaned it up, got it running, and celebrated by doing some heaters on the old tires. Love to see it.

You should probably buy a Porsche 996

As if I needed another reason to want a 996 Turbo, Vin posted this vid featuring Tommyfyeah and Larry Chen. What do those 2 guys have in common? I wish their cars were mine... and that's pretty much it lol.

Coming from a former 911 hater, I really see the value in these cars. Or maybe I'm just getting old.

Talk soon,

Tim Rempel

Founder of Canadian Gearhead

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