95ZR1#418

Hi All-

May 27-29th will be the 1st entry for #418 in the Big Sky Event in Bozeman MT. It will be the first ever for the car as well as myself. I have cancelled out the previous 2 years due to weather, it's obvious now I will never enter the car locally if it dosen't get wet(from rain)-sad to say. So I decided to go weather or not, ~ 200 cars(vettes to show).

I'm a neat freak so if I hit rain in transit(~200miles from home) just what should I spend my limited time on cleaning for the show? For example, I'm just not able to get the inner wheels clean without a jack or ramps which I won't have because just taking(driving) the car.

I don't care to look like some nurd either, what is acceptable to bring, I have the classic ZR-1 poster(records/eng description), as well as too much other collectible stuff (mags/bulletins/info/models etc). What about this picture book thing? I have a web site with all that on line, or is it customary to have the scrap book showing all the mods etc?

Question, I have custom made Turkish carpets made as seat covers for this car when I was vacationing in Turkey, do I want to have them on the seats or not when showing the car?? You can see them on my web link in Sig.

So how do I win this thing if I have to drive it & it gets wet??

TIA

Tims94

IMO, it depends on how much rain you go through. If its a brief drizzle, then I would use that detailing mist/ speed shine stuff that Zaino & Meguiar's sells. If you go through a 2 hour rain, you may be in trouble.

I have only entered one show when I had to drive my car through the rain to get there. I went to the local walmart and bought the car soap, bucket, etc. and just re-washed the car. If the wax that was on the car, it was pretty easy and fast to do.

Good luck in your show. I hope you win

95ZR1#418

Thanks for the reply, I do use Zaino & will have that with me. There will also be hoses & buckets avail Fri night before the Sat show which I intend to use when I get there Fri evening.

ZZZZZR1

You don't understand! Bob is talking about using Zaino on the UNDERSIDE of his car!

Good luck, Bob! Will there be any other ZR-1's in attendance that you know of?

A1990

I would try to talk to someone that has been to the show before. They can tell you how the cars will be judged. I've been to shows where the judges just walk around and do a once over on your car to other shows where they get on the ground and look underneath.

I took my car to an indoor show in January and the pavement was wet when I went. Needless to say, my fenderwells and tires were a mess. I spend roughly 4 hours cleaning the night before the show started.

I wasn't the only one either! Seemed like everyone was as **** about their car as I am.

Bottom line, don't worry about being too picky about how your car looks, just go, detail away once you get there (you won't be alone), have fun and don't take it too seriously.

The LT5 will get the biggest crowds and the most views, but to most judges it is a nice C4.

Meanmyz

For people's choice type shows:

I have been fortunate enough to win my class at more than a few shows. Unless they have been in the hobby for a while, I find that many people don't know a lot about the ZR-1. So, if you want to win, you may need to educate them. I will email you a display paper that I made up that I put on the inside driver's window. I use that along with a laminated copy of my window sticker.

Your fancy Corvette will get their attention, then when they see that this is ZR-1 #418 out of only 448 for that year, that this is one of only ___ dark red metallic ZR-1's with a black interior, coupled with a little history, performance figures, and the $PRICE of the car, they will know that they are looking at something special.

Meanmyz

This double posted. How do I eliminate this da%$#* post?

90 Corvette ZR-1

If you want me to I can post my procedure for waxing. It will take about 4 days to do it all.

Meanmyz

What, to send him your procedure?

xlr8nflorida

If you hit rain, you are going to be in trouble and should probably wash the entire car down at a self wash place using your own sponge. Otherwise, you use Meguires Quick detail spray and alot of soft clean towels starting at the top of the car, hood, rear cargo area, followed by the tops of the sides of the car, followed up by front and rear bumper and then the bottom halfs of doors and rear quarters (dirtiest areas last) If you are a zanio user, you can use their Z spray for final detailing. I actually use, a california duster before i start the process.
You can clean the wheel wells fine, you just need some spray bottles and alot of towels, because it can get nasty down there.

I'd take the window sticker and perhaps a mag or two.
Take the seat covers off the seats if you have nice seats, if you don't have nice seats leave them on. You have to check the rules, some classes allow seat covers some don't.

Your car looks really sweet so you probably have a good chance of winning an award. I say a good chance because some people are very **** and clean their cars for weeks before a show. You will also find out that the shows are very political. I once got points taken off my car because I had a tiny smidge of grease/oil down in the antenna hole. Meanwhile the guy who beat me and took first place was missing a 2 inch chunk out of his hood

I could write a 2 page document on how to clean the car but I am going to put the critical things that most people don't think of and where they lose points

- Headliner and Visors - sweep over with tape or cloth so the roof is clean. Tape can also be used on carpet
- Bulge in center console from the glue coming undone
- Push seats forward and backwards, cleaning everywhere
- No coins are allowed in the doors
- dirty interior glass and/or side mirrors
- Sometimes they pop the hatch - check the weatherstrip and rear halo especially if you replaced the weatherstrip and there is white goop there.

Exterior

If you have a 90, detail the entire black trim, detail all the side mirrors, and corvette emblems. Make sure you get the back lights, alot of grime gets stuck under the rear lights. Check the antenna plastic grommet for extra wax. Open the Gas lid and detail the inside of the gas lid. Also pop the back glass and clean up by the third taillight. Make sure to detail all door jams an sills. You can also loose points if you have visible grease on your door jams.

I'm not sure how meanmyz1 wins People's Choices all the times.
My car has won at very big shows in a judged situation. It never does jack at a peoples choice. The car that typically wins that is a modified, wild paint job, chrome engine etc type of car.

Jt's Z has like 900 miles on it and he just placed 3rd place in a show. Give me a break

The best thing to do is clean your car up pretty good and then go enjoy the other cars and the people.

You never know who you might bump into

TommyL

I have Got to go to more shows!!!

88BlackZ-51

nice tan.

Meanmyz

I should clarify: With the peoples choice shows that I have competed in and won, there were classes for the different classes of cars. ex. '84-'90; '91-'96; and '84-'96 modified's; etc. And no, there weren't 3 cars in my class. One show that I did well at in the two years I went, Chevrolet considers a (whatever, whatever class show). I don't know the term, but meaning that it is big enough that Chevrolet showed up with some cars of their own. Two years ago it was the C5 Tigershark and the GTP mid-engined Corvette campaigned by Hendrick Motorsports in the mid-80's. Last year, it was a C5-R and Wendell Strode from the Corvette Museum also came.

I don't want to sound arrogant in saying that I have won. There are a lot of nice cars at these shows and to the people that own them, they are their "pride and joy". As I said in my earlier post though, sometimes it helps to have information on your car that helps educate the voters.

No, I don't always win either. I went to one show for the first time last year, finding out at the end of the show, that they only gave two awards-the "mayor's choice" award and 1 award for peoples choice. There were many cars there, and alot of them, I considered nicer than the car that won. Again, it was an example of how political these type of shows can be-meaning the person with the most friends or family at the show wins, which is unfortunate.

Also, when you have a lot of non-Corvette people who also can vote, you may find that even with your all stock 1 of 2 or 3 '69 ZL-1 megadollar, ultra-rare Corvette, that the guy 3 cars down from you with a bunch of sparkly thingy's on his car, a bunch of stuffed animals on the dash, on the seats, and in the rear hatch, with a model of his car on the air cleaner, wins peoples choice. Now those are the times it will really get to you. As I said earlier, it helps to educate the showgoers somehow. Xlr8, when people walk around your car, do they see a ZR-1, or do the see 1 of 23 competition yellow ZR-1's out of 3049 for 1990. Do they know that Chevy halted that color because of it's sensitivity to light and that it effects the durability of the paint in no way. Kerbeck even calls that color a COPO (Central Office Process Order) on the car they have at their site, and it may be. The point is, if you point these things out or educate, I believe that it helps alot.

You can do this with many a Corvette and if it is nice to back it up, you will get votes. Ex.= Let's take 1984. Maybe you have a display with a nice write up on how the '84 was the most advanced production car in the world when released. ...That at the proving grounds on revised suspension settings, it was able to corner at 1g, something unheard of then, and only becoming more common now! It was so racetrack orientated handling wise, that it was as if Chevy let "IT" out of it's cage on an unsuspecting public.

Here's an example of the politics at these shows. At one show, one guy won and it didn't have much to do with his car. He had the usual array of gawdy arrangements by his car, but the kicker was all the pictures he had of him with some old WWF wrestler. (He had the uncanny resemblance of George "The Animal" Steel and he tried to use that to his advantage.

In the end, do the best you can to prep you car, using some of the tips given by the guys above. Then go enjoy some of the other cars, and also the comraderie of the nice people you meet at the show. Hopefully, when they give the awards, your name is called. And if they don't, you at least had fun being there.

Cdn Z06 Mike

[QUOTE=TommyL]I have Got to go to more shows!!![/QUOTE

Jeffvette

Bob, the best advice I can give you is don't expect to win. Go out have fun, don't compare your car to any others out there. The instance you do, the fun factor disappears.

95ZR1#418

Lots of good info here, thanks everyone. I do the Zaino system so I'll just stick with that for now.

A1990

Not to open a can of worms...Zanio is a polish, not a wax. Of course, polish does a great job of making the finish of our cars look great but does nothing to protect the finish. Wax does that.

Let me throw something else into the mix. Today, I was using a quick detailer on my car, and as I was moving around the car, I noticed that the dust was settling on my car as fast as I was detailing it. Lots of wind today!

From my box of goodies, I pull out my Rejex. I mainly use this product on the back of my Z to prevent the soot that comes from my exhaust (Yeah I admit it my car produces black soot) from sticking all over the back. What I discovered was amazing! Where ever I applied the Rejex the dust would not stick. Reading the bottle it make the surface anti-static which I guess is the reason why.

If you ask most Corvette owners, they will say they use Zanio...I've tried it, but I've found that Groit's Garage's products and Stoners products work far better. Now I can add Rejex to my must have list.

check it out!

Aurora40

Polish is just what they call it. It's a synthetic sealant and it does protect your paint. Wax also does that. Polish typically implies some reasonable level of abrasion, which Zaino doesn't have.

xlr8nflorida

Of course, polish does a great job of making the finish of our cars look great but does nothing to protect the finish. Wax does that.



Are you hitting the jack daniels bottle?

95ZR1#418

How about the interior, dash etc. Do you just use a damp cloth to clean it? I get plenty of dust build-up on the dash also. I'm not talking about the plastic center council bezels, I don't think I will touch that, just the vinyl dash/door panels.


I use the Zaino Z-7(?) for final spray detail, has a UV prtectant in it. What is the Rejex? never heard of it, who's it made by?