Kids do the darndest things to racecars...

My MINI may be a little less ready to rumble this weekend.

My kids volunteered to wash the car, which was greatly appreciated, because I am completely out of time. I got home today, and it looked terrific.

Figured I'd take it for a final shake-down run.

Power was fantastic, car leapt into takeoff, but then... wait... what the heck? Couldn't find traction at all. Wheels hopping all over the place.

Brand new set of V710's- I even heat cycled them and everything. Never spent the change before.

Then I realized- they were awfully shiny...

Yep. Tire Shine.

My nice sticky tires ride like they've been greased liberally with lard.

Guess I don't have to worry about blowing my clutch anymore.

(sigh) I love my kids.

Haha! At least they didn't shine your motorcycle tires!

Or did they.....?

A smoking burn out should take care of that!

When I was about eight years old, my sister's fiancé had a brand new Charger. I wanted to do something nice for him so I cleaned all of his windows inside and out,

With Pledge.

bgkast wrote: A smoking burn out should take care of that!

I've tried several. Not helping so far.

SVreX wrote:

bgkast wrote: A smoking burn out should take care of that!

I've tried several. Not helping so far.

Let me try...

Added to the 'slightly happy to be so alone' column

Some years ago I was at a race, and while walking through the pits noticed some young kid putting Armorall on the tires of his dad's Spec Racer Ford. He was only doing the sidewalls as far as I could tell, but I wondered how well it handled when he got out on the track.

In reply to SVreX:

time to get a 4" foam roller and a gallon of low-odor mineral spirits and start rolling it onto the tread...

Blame tire stores for shining the E36 M3 out of their floor models.

At least they didn't take a bottle of dark blue touch up paint and dab the hundred or so rock chips on the front of Dad's black '34 Ford Fordor......

Doofus cleanup kid at a shop I worked at armoralled the steering wheel in a Datsun 620 truck.

My sister in laws kid cleaned the snow off her van with a digging shovel.....

I worked at a transportation related company where I actually had to test a new tire shine product and document what happened when you shined the traction surface in various methods and used the tire in various conditions. We giggled a lot that day. Seemed like a silly thing to document, results were pretty predictable. Slippery stuff makes things have less traction!

Bryce

bearmtnmartin wrote: My sister in laws kid cleaned the snow off her van with a digging shovel.....

I actually cringed. I just assumed you were going to say broom like I always see people doing but wow a shovel lol.......

When I was a kid, I helped my Dad wash his 944. I guess I thought the inside of the exhaust/muffler needed a bath too and stuck the hose up the tailpipe for a couple minutes before he noticed what I was doing. Luckily he was able to fire it up and blow the water out, but he wasn't very happy with me. :)

I tried to help wash my parents car when I was little, fortunately they saw me and stopped me before I could get to the car. They didn't think the bristle brush from the grill was the appropriate tool for the job.

In reply to bearmtnmartin:

My fiancee's sister did that to her car the first winter she was away at college.

bearmtnmartin wrote: My sister in laws kid cleaned the snow off her van with a digging shovel.....

i keep a snow shovel behind the seat of my 87 GMC 3/4 ton just for this purpose... works a lot better at getting 2 feet of snow off of it than my brass tipped ice scraper and my hands..

Had a 96 F150 with vinyl bench seat and rubber floors. Make the mistake of Armour Alling everything the first time I cleaned it. First hard turn and I ended up on the passenger side. After that it was strictly open the doors and hose out the interior. Only fried the radio once, and that was an excuse to upgrade.

Why do u even have tyre shine on the property? Get rid of that crap! Its bad for everything.

They probably figured it looks really cool on their Big Wheels or bicycle, so why not daddy's race car?

does the little one like flatbrimmed hats? maybe he wanted to try out drifting

Simple green... That would be where I would start.

My sister Armor All'd all three pedals on my car once, trying to clean it up after her and her friends "borrowed" it while I was playing in a basketball tournament.

A friends' five year old son tried cleaning his '69 SS Camaro with a wire brush. Luckily, he just dulled a spot, but the nose had to be repainted.

Not kids, but my Grandmother was super poor when she was dating my Grandfather. She had never really been in or around cars. Her Mother let Gramps park his car at their house while he was away somewhere. While he was away, Grandma and her Mom decide to be really nice and wash his car.

With sponges and Comet from the kitchen.

They washed the entire thing from top to bottom and had no idea what they had done. Gramps didn't say a word.