Sprouting Week 2! - I just noticed I posted this in the wrong place sorry

So we are into week 2 of our growing season and here is what we have:

This is my middle son's plot, with three rows of turnip and four rows of carrot.  The carrot are just sprouting and the sprouts are very thin so a bit hard to see but they are definitely growing!

Here is youngest sons plot, it has two rows of radishes which are growing well, then two rows of carrot and two rows of green onion.  All are now sprouting but the radishes are the easiest to see in the picture.

Here are my strawberries which are taking off as usual, on the left are a thyme and sage plant which I planted last year and survived the winter quite well.

There is a watermelon patch but it has been invaded by some other sprouts that I don't know where they came from..... probably from some rogue seeds.  The rpoblem is I don't know which ones to pull yet!  I have to wait to see the watermelon vines develop.  My oldest son also has a plot but so far he has not gotten around to planting anything.......

Kia - Best Loaner Car Ever!!!

So many of you will know my beautiful Kia Optima EX Luxury will be spending the next three days getting a repainted hood courtesy of Kia.  You can check out the details in my previous posts.

Kia also came across with a wicked loaner car, it has all the following features:

Roll down windows
4 tires (still winter ones)
push locks
steering wheel
Automatic Transmission (that goes into third and skips over D)
mushy brakes
Slightly cool air (but no A/C)
power nothing
and 4 doors.....


Here it is the 2007 Kia Spectra LE!!!  Would you look at that broken front bumper and bullet wound in the side!!!


And only 80,000 kms on her.  Needless to say I won't be driving it much........

2010 Ford Taurus.... it has new life!

Last week I felt the paint on my father's 2010 Ford Taurus and it was painful..... it was riddled with contaminants due to several factors:

1. Rarely being washed
2. Parked by the side of the road due to no driveway accessibility
3. Never waxed

Something had to be done!

I had the Ex-P to protect the paint and the TRIX to get rid of some of the surface contaminants but I needed more.  After checking with my buddies at autos.ca I figured I had to invest in a clay bar kit.  If your paint feels rough at all the clay bar should get rid of all the bumps and make your paint as smooth as glass.... I was sceptical.... I mean this paint was really rough.

So off to Wal-Mart I went and bought a Meguiar's Clay Bar Kit, I also joined their website members to try to scrounge up a few blog visits, check out my post: http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?54867-First-Post-check-out-my-beautiful-2011-Kia-Optima-EX-Luxury&p=504727#post504727

The kit cost $30 which seemed reasonable if it does what it claims, it comes with 2 bars, detailing spray, a cloth and a sample wax bottle.  These clay bars are SMALL but they do the job, it's kind of like silly putty.  You have to clean the car, spray the detailing spray, clay one section at a time and then wipe it all off and repeat... about 50 times to cover the whole car.

So here's how it all went:

Clean the Taurus with Turtle Wax Premium Ice car wash - about 20 minutes and 10 minutes to dry thoroughly.

Clay bar treatment - about an hour from beginning to end and I had a helper with the clay as I sprayed the lubricant and wiped off after.  One bar easily did my father's very contaminated car, I can still use it again, I used about half the detailing spray.  TIP:  DO NOT DROP THE CLAY, EVERYTHING STICKS TO IT.

So once we were done you could really feel the difference in the paint but I noticed the small rust like spots did not go away so I had to break out the TRIX.

TRIX - About 20 minutes to apply, rinse and dry

EX-P Sealant - 15 minutes to apply, 15 minutes to let set and 15 minutes to buff off.

Then I couldn't help but clean the interior and doors a bit with my turtle wax total interior care.


Look at er now!  Would you look at that shine.... and it wasn't even sunny when the pictures were taken!

EX-P Sealant in Action!

Check out this water beading!  Two coats of EX-P Sealant in action!

Extra Shiny Optima EX Luxury

I gave the Optima a second coating of EX-P Sealant yesterday, absolutely nothing sticks to the paint, it just kind of sits on top of it.  Water beads off like you wouldn't believe and it's really weird but dirt actually sits on top of the paint rather than settling into it.  You can just wipe away dirt with a dry cloth.

Interesting story of the day.... I was picking up some mulch at Canadian Tire and an older gentleman walked up to me and told me how nice my car looked.... what he said was it is easily as nice looking (elegant he said) as a car three times as expensive like a Jaguar.  I told him I agree totally, and thanked him for the compliment.  I think it was the second coat of EX-P that did the trick!


Thanks

2011 Kia Optima EX Luxury - 3 Month Update

So I am right around the 3 month mark now with the Optima.  I have my appointment on May 22 to get the paint fixed, the details of which can be found in an earlier post : http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7360975230803083142#editor/target=post;postID=4628185626183962233.

I don't have any complaints to report at this time.  I am consistently getting 10 L / 100 KM on each tank and that's not driving overly conservatively but not really aggressive either.  I still find it very comfortable but haven't gone on any long trips yet, probably will the summer though so I can update the road trip feel once I do.  I still think it is the best looking mid sized affordable sedan out there, and as I have often detailed, the options for the money can't be beat.  I am really liking the heated steering wheel in the mornings.

I decided not to keep the Sirius Satellite radio, I just find it cuts out way too much and after listening to the hair metal station a few times it's easy to tell they have a short rotation list.

Tomorrow it is supposed to be nice outside so I am taking the day off work and applying Sealant coat #2 to the Optima, so it will be super duper shiny!

I have also taken on a new project which is restoring my dads 2009 Ford Taurus paint job to new condition.  There is no off street parking where he lives so the paint feels like really rough sandpaper due to it being riddled with contaminates on a regular basis.  I gave it a good wash last weekend but will have to give it the clay bar treatment before waxing and applying the sealant.  I have never used a clay bar, apparently it takes a lot of elbow grease, I'll let you know how it goes!

Car cleaning solutions!

Ok, so I ordered the TRIX iron deposit remover from eshine.ca and here are the results, you can refer back to my yellow car spots post for the lead up to this.  This is from my better half's driver side door.

As you can see the iron deposits are totally gone, so it worked very well.  The hazard warnings on the bottle were a bit scary but I got past it and put on some gloves, stood back, sprayed like a mad man and the results are clear.  You just shake it up, spray, wait five minutes, wipe it with a damp sponge and then rinse thoroughly.  I used about 1/3 of the bottle to do the whole car and there are still a few spots left here and there but hardly noticeable, great deal for about $10.    Here is a picture of the stuff in action:

Even more impressive, the rocker panels were covered with tons of tar along with iron deposits so I gave them a treatment of TRIX and Turtle Wax Tar Remover and it worked beautifully:

So if you have iron deposit problems buy yourself some of the TRIX from Eshine.ca and you won't be disappointed.  Tar problems then go get some Turtle Wax Tar Remover.  

Today after I did a second pass with both deposit removers to make sure I had everything, I put on a coat of Turtle Wax Ice Synthetic Polish and then followed up with EX-P Sealant and that is now one fine looking Mazda 3..... pictures coming soon.

Paint Problem.... the Verdict is In!!!

So I just got a call from Kia and they have agreed to give me a paint job to fix the boo boo, no questions asked.  May 22 is the appointment, getting the car back on the 24th.  They say they don't have any loaners available but I think I can talk my way into one, I'll let you know how it goes!

Wow, I am starting like Kia a bit more now...... good service on item #1.

Hyundai Back into Leasing in a BIG way! Or are they???

I was doing my normal scan of interest rates with the change of the month and found something really interesting at www.hyundai.ca.  They have 0% lease rates on Elantra, Accent and Sonata up to 5 years!  I thought that seemed to good to be true.... and as always is the case with car deals indeed it is.  The 0% rate with the Elantra is for the Elantra base model in manual.  The decent models have 3.59% for 5 year leases and 1.9% for four year leases, still not bad but not 0%.

So as usual watch out for the small print if you go looking for a car deal and do your online research before setting foot in a dealership!