Finally got Lola washed
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| Lola (Loud.Obnoxious.Little.Abarth) |
Well, I'm still off work, not feeling great as I am gradually reducing the steroids each week.
Hopefully, once I start this new treatment, which is next week, in a few months, it will kick in, and I can get back to some normality.
Anyhoo, I have been keeping myself busy with little jobs here and there, and of course, doing stuff I enjoy: reading, writing, and messing with my guitar.
It must have been a good few weeks ago when I went to wash my car, my wee Abarth 124 Spider, 'Lola.' I got all the gear out: a bucket, a wash mitt, and the snow foam bottles. I have four of them—one for the pre-wash, another for the snow foam, one for the ceramic coating, and the final one for the alloy wheel cleaner.
I unwound the long hose attached to a reel on the side of our house and brought out the small Karcher, which my dad had very kindly bought me about 5 or 6 months ago. Plugged the Karcher in, turned on the water and..."Yer've got to be joking," the Karcher was dead, nada— nowt.
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| Little shitty yellow box |
So I went indoors whining, like I do when things aren't going to plan, swearing my head off about the Karcher and a woe is me, "All a want ta dee is wesh me car." Anyway, Ern comes out, checks out the little yellow shitty box of trouble, and he can't get it to work either.
Long story short, Amazon, who always seem to be good at accepting stuff back, just told my dad to pack up the Karcher, not to worry about its original box, and send it back. So Ern did as instructed, and within a couple of days, he was reimbursed—nice one.
Anyway, moving on, as you all know, the weather has been a bit naff lately, with rain and really strong winds, so my car has been sitting in the backyard, all covered in muck and leaves.
I got on to my dad saying, "Look, I've been online and read a few reviews about this jet wash, it sounds canny, but I think the bigger one is even better, as it has a wind-up reel on the machine and it stands up."
Ern and I had a look online and saw that we could get one at Toolstation. It was a Hawksmoor 160bar model.
Ern headed off to see if he could check out one or, if not, get one in stock. I agreed to put the extra £80 or so towards the machine, alongside the £50 he had got back from Amazon.
Oh, and I had also seen an ad on Facebook for a stumpy power wash gun. Top tip: I wouldn't buy from sellers on Facebook. If you see something you like, you can generally get it cheaper on Amazon. So I was off searching on Amazon and came across this funky-looking gun with various ends and fittings.
When Ern returned, he had a look, thought it looked canny, so bought it to fit on the new power washer when it arrived.
Adaptor from Amazon 
Gun to pipe adaptor
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| Canny bit of kit this funky stubby pressure gun |
The Hawksmoor High Pressure Washer 160bar, by the way, is a 100% improvement over the Karcher K 2 Horizontal, which I grew to despise. I just used it this morning to wash my car, and it makes the job much easier to get the thing out, use it, and then put it away.
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| Hawksmoor Pressure Washer 160bar |
My dad had fitted a longer hose on the Karcher, which was so stiff it was a nightmare to loop back up for storage. The hose pipe fitting to the machine always leaked, and even though I took great care of it—emptying it after use, putting it away carefully, etc.—the bloody thing broke way before its time.
The hawksmoor: Yeah, like everything else is made from plastic; however, it does appear durable, it's easy to move on its wheels, the hose is a lot more supple, so easy to move when you are going around a car, plus a lot quicker and easier to wind up and put away on the in-built reel.
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| The hose is flexible, and the reel makes it easier to put away |
The pressure is about right for what I wanted, and it's working well with my cars. I can't say what the original lance/gun is like because my dad fitted the new stubby gun, which is much better to use. It makes it easier to get under wheel arches, and I didn't have to fight with a long lance or worry about the hose scraping across the paintwork as I was washing.
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| Cool looking and works great |
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| Stubby Gun |
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| Stubby gun you can change the nozzles easily |
I know not much of an in-depth review of each item, but hey, if you are interested in any of this gear, you can do what I did and find loads of info online.
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| Wor Nev supervising |
Here is a link to the Stubby gun, which we got from Amazon. It comes with various ends that click in place to adjust the water stream for different jobs. Just click on images...
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| You can pop different nozzles in, really quickly and easily |
Oh, and I had to buy another electric snow foam bottle. When I went to get one of mine, I hunted high and low in our shed and thought I was going mad since I couldn't find it.
If you are going to get yourself an electric snow foam bottle, shop around as they are all at different prices; sometimes you can hit on a bargain. I think I only paid £8 for this one, but looking, they have gone up in price.
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| I have a couple of these; they work really well |
Ern revealed, "Oh, I borrowed it for one of my friends' dogs." If Wor Nev were that clever and would wash my car for me, I would even give him a bit of pocket money.
