April 29th 2006
Clean Machine | USAA Did What?
My new boss has an Alfa Romeo. Beautiful vehicle. He showed me last time he drove it into the office. As I was crawling around on the ground look under her, he asks:

"yeah, I wanted to get your thoughts and opinions on what you use to clean, wax, etc."

When I had the 912 and spent much time on 912bbs.org a member posted this article:

"Into a clean bucket pour 1 gal WARM water. Add a teaspoon of Ivory liquid and a shot glass of KEROSENE. (I won't tell you where I got this trick but it puts the oils back into the paint. TRY IT !) Put your "old" chammy in there and get it good and wet..."
Full Article

I actually tried it on the 912 and man did it work great. I never did wax it, but it shined as if new.

When I was working with Steve (not Stephen, Steve - guy I bought the C4 from) on details he had this wax that sounded pretty cool. I told him I doubted I'd use it so hold onto it. When I got back home and drove her daily for the first week I noticed the shine just stayed. Must be this stuff he used so I asked him about it:

"I've always used Zymol products on the car purchased from www.emmonscoachworks.com/. They also sell Zymol many places. Emmons website has good instructions and tips for using the waxes. I used HD Cleanse prior to waxing to remove old wax. I purchased a sample kit from them(no longer available) that included 3 waxes, the standard Carbon, Concours, and Destiny waxes. These were not full containers, but about 4 oz. Enough to do the car at least a few times. I know I still have the last two and I would be glad to send them to you. Looking at Emmons website the Concours and Destiny have gone way up in price. They list the Destiny for $486!!! You can look at instructions on Emmons. Destiny is the one that has such a high concentration of Carnauba that you have to melt it in your hands prior to putting it on the car."

He also goes on to suggest for the wheels:

"I also recommend P21s as a wheel cleaner. The wheels can be easily damaged with aggressive cleaners."

Good guy. It has been a real pleasure to work with him, which kills me that this next bit had to happen to him:

"I deposited the check Thursday, the day after you picked it up and the teller, after digging for a number at USAA, called one person first who could not verify the check and then spoke with someone who could. Fast forward to the following Tuesday when I asked at the drive in window if the check had cleared, it had not and they weren't sure why? They would check? They left me a message at home that they should know the next Wednesday. On Wednesday I stopped at the bank and asked about the check the teller went into an office and was gone for 30 minutes when she came back with a group and went into one of the bank officer's offices. After another long wait they called me into the office where I was met with somber faces and told that USAA claimed it was not their check and most likely fraudulent!!! They had faxed multiple copies to various people at USAA and for some reason no one would say it was a valid check. They hoped I still had the car title(nope) and told me to be prepared to contact the authorities to hopefully get the car back if it could be found. They kept calling people at USAA and were finally able to verify that you did in fact have a car loan. Everything ended up fine."

I mean, what a cluster. I felt terrible (still do). I've NEVER had any issue with USAA like the experience I've had trying to get this car. They rock, the bank rocks, their mortgage department rocks, insurance rocks - but man, trying to get this auto loan taken care of has been, well, quite the story to keep my pages on this site exciting reading.

Once again, thank you Steve for taking such good care of my dream car - and I am sorry for the pains.