not shared much about my TSX after acquiring it cross-country in Feb; mostly because it’s an excellent car with no need for mods (or money) and just works and is already good. so not a project. I did spend my weekend making it shiny though
over two days I did all the sort of cleaning that a used car deserves. intricate cleaning of all the buttons and grooves in the dash. removed all the decals on the windows that have been there since delivery (does anyone think thieves actually stop and read that little sticker an think “gorsh, better not steal this one, it has fancy keys and an alarm!”, vacuumed properly in and behind things, treated the leather, etc etc etc.
Most evident (to me) in the above picture is that the wheels are silver again. The paint is ok, so I don’t think the previous owner/s ran it through a brush auto-wash, but it clearly never got any actual attention. The wheels were well caked in brake dust and were noticeably (to me) orange when you looked at the car. Removing brake dust is something the auto-wash is just never very good as as it requires special products and some diligent agitation.
Went that extra step and even gave the tyres a shine, which I usually forget to do.
Suckered my daughter into washing the cars by letting her do all the pressure washing. Which meant I got well soaked as I did all the agitating with foam and brushes and such while she essentially continuously soaked the car/me. But it did actually speed things up.
but back to the TSX, it’s not a real new-to-me car until I’ve removed the seats and found the truth that a typical lazy pre-sale vacuum had hidden.
In this case I found some lost poker chips (of no value), 1 dime in the rear seats, a quarter in the trunk, and two dimes up front. 55cents!
A small collection of Detroit diamonds were scattered between the front seat and beneath the centre console/arm rest, so I assume a broken driver’s window at some point. Happily no other surprises presented themselves.
But this is still easily the cleanest used car I’ve taken apart. I suspect an older and kidless prior owner.
I dislike leather seats, they are too hot in summer, too cold in winter (although I have seat heaters because I’m the bourgeoisie); but at least partially I dislike them because they look tired more quickly than fabric, and don’t hold up to the daily abuse, and require more diligent ongoing maintenance than fabric seats. Mine are in great shape, again I think because no one ever sat in the back seats, and the front passenger is essentially new. So the previous owner was likely an older, kidless, loner? The driver’s bolster is of course showing the most wear, and the driver’s seat sucked in at least three times the conditioner of the other seats. Thirsty and dry. But looking better and feeling nicer after some love.
Removing the seats and bringing them to my living room really allowed my to luxuriate some time on rubbing them down as my family watched The Hobbit, so I had a free 9 hours or so to massage my leathers.
Also we modded nerf guns: out with the air restrictor
in with an extra spring
and now they suitably hurt when we nerf battled.
And that is all. Carry on with your lives now.