Dunsfold Supercar Event - The Clean Up

The Clean Up Operation

Naturally when you have a lot of 'fun' there's always plenty of cleaning up to do afterwards...  Having spent a day at the Dunsfold Supercar Event and having picked up a stray cone with the front end there was lots of cleaning to do!  As I'm such a polisher, and the 'cone collection' was at low speed there wasn't any damage to the car apart from a scuff.

Cone collection wasn't part of the agenda!

The cone left a bit of scuffing on the near-side front of the car, which I thought could be permanent...

Scuff marks on near-side front of car due to cone abuse :-)

For those of you who have followed my blog in detail you'll probably assume I've got stacks of car cleaning products, and yes I do - for this job AutoGlym Intensive Tar Remover worked a treat!  As you can see below, a couple of minutes of elbow grease and the scuff marks were removed - phew!

AutoGlym Intensive Tar Remover worked a treat at removing cone scuffs

This is what was left of a practically new set of AVON CR500 rear tyres after the event...  With the front's also on their way out a new set was ordered earlier on this week.

Used and abused AVON CR500 rear tyres

It doesn't take a miracle worker to figure out where all the rubber from the rear tyres went... Plenty on the tarmac, some up in smoke and a sh1t load underneath my arches... 

Underneath rear arches were caked in molten tyre rubber

Seeing as the tyre rubber was in some hard to reach areas, around the watts link arms, suspension springs and so on, I thought it best to remove both wheel arches to get good access.  The picture below shows the amount of muck I had to deal with.

Rear wheel arches removed revealed just how much muck required cleaning off!

A quick rustle around in my 'cleaning products box' and the Meguiars 'All Purpose Cleaner' seemed the best product to use... I had it fairly well diluted, wetted all the grime, sprayed the cleaner on, left it for a couple of minutes and took the picture below - you can see it getting to work.

Meguiars All Purpose Cleaner getting to work on all the grime and rubber

Using a fairly soft bristled brush, I got into all the hard to reach areas, rinsed and dried the area and any final remaining bits of rubber/tar were removed with the AutoGlym Intensive Tar Remover product and the end result looked pretty much like new.

All dirt, grime, rubber and tar removed and looking pretty much like new again.

The underside of the wheel arches also needed a good clean, so whilst they were removed I removed all the debris, and gave the edge and inside of the arches a thorough clean.

Underside and edges of arches also needed a thorough clean.

Now that the wheel arches were also cleaned, it was time to put everything back together and as you can see from the picture below it all looks mint again - happy days!

Wheel arches refitted and everything looking in great order again.

The rest of the car was also meticulously cleaned, and I've put on the ZZR tyres (as the CR500's are dead) and seeing as the ZZR's are on - I was left thinking 'why not waste the opportunity of another good bit of weather?'... so I've booked up a track day at Donington Park for tomorrow.  Cool...!

All ready to go for some more track action at Donington Park tomorrow!

Not having been to Donington Park before (with the R500) I've decided to fit the RaceCo exhaust, and will take the carbon airbox just to ensure I don't get any noise issues - the limit there for this track day is 98db (drive-by), so I should be fine, but it's a long way to drive to be 'black flagged' for noise!

Naturally all fluids, pressures, suspension settings and bolts have been given a check over and I'm looking forward to more track action tomorrow!  Awesome.