We've been prepping like mad for hubby's bit trip to Irvine's "Spring Festival of LXs" (he leaves Wednesday). He has a list of things to pack, so that bit is under control and if you've been following my Twitter updates, you know I spent most of Saturday killing time at the mall waiting to pick up the vehicle from servicing (green light - all's well). The only thing left was to give the Mean Mary a kick ass cleaning and so we got to work yesterday.

After getting home from the early morning movie and after I had some excitement at getting my new toy, we headed off to clean the car. A good wash and dry and then on to the waxing. I've never waxed a car in my life and rather than get right into the 7 (or maybe it's 9?) step bar process we decided to stick to the easy, three step liquid application (my favorite brand too!): apply in small circles, let dry, remove in small circles, finish with clean microfiber cloth. The finished product is STUNNING:


That there is hubby with the supper shiny vehicle.

We also gave the car a super interior clean (including spraying of the seats). At some point, we must really invest in upholstery cleaning (especially of the roof - not sure how it got so dirty but my keen eye sure pick it up). While detailing the interior, I did notice something which gives me pause. Whoever cleaned the car before we bought it used Armor All on the plastic. Huge mistake. It's left streaks on the plastic and I can see exactly where they sprayed. I tried to get the marks off but they don't seem to be disappearing. Thankfully they're only apparent when the plastic is wet. If anyone out there has a solution for getting rid of them, please let me know. In the meantime, don't use that Armor All crap on your car. It does more damage than good. (Side note: worth noting that Armor all has a Charger on all of their bottles and even featured prominently on their website).

Finally, I also took some shots of the interior of the car. I didn't think to take any before pictures but essentially, it looked like this except that all of the brushed aluminum stuff was black. Hubby decided early on that he wanted to purchase a carbon fiber dash kit except that those things run well into the $140 range. Instead, hubby went the cheap yet spiffy alternative: stickers. We bought some carbon fiber auto stickers at Canadian Tire and hubby carefully cut and placed the entire center console, reading lights and the odometer and steering wheel accents. Throw in a very fancy new shifter (in black complete with carbon fiber design) and you have a finished look that looks like it cost a fortune but instead cost $40 and a little elbow grease.


I sure think it looks spiffy!

For more pictures of the interior and a few more shots of the super shinny car, head here.

We've also ordered some decals that didn't manage to make it before our install deadline so those will have to be applied when hubby returns from his trip. I'll post more when that's done!