Karen Burkhart organized our destination at Griot's world headquarters in Tacoma. 6 cars showed up and they had us park on the concourse in front of the building.
3 NB's, 2 NA's and 1 ND were there. Before we got coffee and looked at the rotating car museum, we took a few photos in the 28 degree weather. However, it was super sunny!
We needed a donor car for the "teacher" supplied by Griots. We looked around and picked a red car. Carla Boyde was nice enough to let hers get experimented with. Her husband, Jim, rolled the car into the heated detail bay.
Almost instantly, Mark, our demonstrator whipped out his BOSS polisher and showed us all the steps to a great shine. Basically, wash, dry, remove gunk, polish, wax. Washing was done with a spray bottle car wash and an incredibly absorbent towel. Removing gunk was accomplished with a new clay bar substitute rag/rubber pad that worked awesome! Polish is shown here with Griots correcting cream. Wax was then applied with the machine and removed by hand.
New member Steve gives it a try.
Next was my turn, then Karen's. The key is to polish very slowly and thoroughly, overlapping about halfway on each pass.
After we cleaned up Carla's entire hood, a ragtop was needed. Karen rolled in her 2000 SE with the tan top. Mark had a special cleaner and horsehair brush for the vinyl.
He worked this in well. It was wiped off and then water was used to final clean. Of course, you would use a hose at home. The final step added a specially formulated protectant that was described as "wax for your convertible top".
Griots offered all club members a 15% discount on anything in the store. We went a little nuts and bought all manner of rags, waxes, sprays and brushes. Sorry, no-one purchased the $385 BOSS polisher. A less expensive dual action orbiting polisher is available for $149 which I think is the perfect size for the Miata.
The two guinea pigs.
After all the demonstrations, coffee and emptying of wallets, we headed over to Azteca for lunch. Griots may attend our spring clean at Mazda of Everett this May.
