Just say WOW!

Welcome Tesaje of The Arleth Adventures! Go check her out & give her some support. Her poor Collie needs surgery. All of us that have pets know the care & dedication involved with this. She also has a Motorhome built from a Sprinter! She's done some amazing work inside of it. She gets even more intense than I do with her RV. She recently replaced her own refridgerator & fixed the vents to it.

Today's post isn't about Ellie (my MH) for a change. It's about my dear old van. I should have a bumper sticker that states "My other vehicle is a gas guzzling conversion van"..then place a donation box on the bumper! ;-)  We bought this van brand new in 1996. It was gorgeous. My two previous vans were used vans, but we could not find another good deal on a used van. We actually bought the NEW van for the same price as someone had a used van listed for! So we jumped into her & drove her off the lot! They took the old van for her. Well the old van & a note. Some kind of note stating that we had to make monthly payments. But she's long paid for by now.

That was 16 years ago. She looked tired. Her a/c has an issue & doesn't work right now. I thought her transmission was sick, so she sat in the driveway for 6 long months. Then I finally gathered up the courage to get her checked out. Had her towed only to find out that she was not nearly as sick as I thought. It was just a transmission relay part. Total cost $247. Oh, my bad. So got her fixed up, got her street legal again (new inspection & new yearly license sticker). So it was GREAT to drive her again!! Then I found out that I could replace the dead cigarette lighter myself. I did NOT know that, so I did that & now have a 12volt fan plugged into it so I can get some air circulation till I get the a/c fixed.

This weekend, I decided to give her a bath. And wax her! Well, it's not actually wax, so I guess I polished her and WOW!!! WOW!! WOW!! I could not believe my eyes! My eyes could not believe my eyes. My mind could not believe my eyes. I was impressed! I picked up a bottle of NuFinish car polish. Designed for old tired paint on old tired vehicles. Now we're all sparkly & shiny! Look out, you might need your sunglasses to view! Here are some during & after pictures. I didn't take any total before pics as I never expected the results to be this fantastic! It didn't fare so well over the fiberglass tire cover, but that was a test area for me to try. The fiberglass top, running boards & tire cover need a new paint job. Actually before I polished her, I thought the entire van needed a new paint job. WOW! I'm soooo impressed! WOW! Did I say WOW???

Note the area below the side window by the drivers door. Note how dull it is. The entire van was like that!

Now note how you can see the wash bucket & the rest of the driveway image on the side panel. You can barely see the bucket in the before picture.

Rear corner panel before.

Rear corner panel after.

Look at those dull, dingy back doors.

Now look at her shine! I think she's smiling!!!

OK, so after a long day of this stuff, I called it quits. Still needed to do the front headlights. But OW took over my WOW factor. I HURT! I took my poor battered body to the shower. Then I gave it pain pills & treated my poor foot with the TENS unit. That helped, but man-o-man, what a job. I think I should get a smart car! Bet I could do that little sucker in 2 hours!

So the next day, I did the head lights. I still have to clean up the chrome hubcaps & treat the tires. Maybe I'll armor all the rubber part of the bumper too. In my next life.

So here is how the headlights turned out! Very cool! Now I can blind deer at night again..oops, I really don't do that. Really.

I used the head light cleaner stuff that's for old yellowed headlights. Again, WOW!

Before

After

This van has taken me to the east coast & to the west coast. It's been a good van in all these years & still runs strong at 219,000 miles! I almost sold it a couple of months ago. Now I'm glad I didn't. I really need a vehicle to drive as I plan on opening a business in the future & will be needing the van to carry my supplies in. Too bad I can't tow it. But I don't want Ellie (RV) to puke out her transmission! That would suck. Then I'd be going oh wow...well, actually not. 4 letter words would be used then. ;-)

She also got beaten up once in a WalMart parking lot in Galveston. Someone side swiped her while towing a boat. So she does bear some cosmetic scars from that adventure...oh well.

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~