I've got OEM side steps with the black plasti-rubber surface on top. It gets rather dull looking when exposed to the rain, dust, etc. Easy enough to clean & shine, but most products that restore the black also make it very slippery. These don't work: Armorall (duh?), Mother's Back to Black, 303, etc.

Any ideas on detailing them?

:D How about convert that area to a nice Moss garden? Rain has returned..YaHoo

:shock: Slug

OOHHH silly me!

Here's something strange.. one of my boys stepped on a Orange peel on my truck running boards. That area was brighter than the reat of the area for some time and RAIN did not bother it. It took several months for it to dull to the rest of the boards.

Anybody have a clue why Orange oil would do this?

[quote:56706ad7a8=" "]:D How about convert that area to a nice Moss garden? Rain has returned..YaHoo

:shock: Slug

OOHHH silly me!

Here's something strange.. one of my boys stepped on a Orange peel on my truck running boards. That area was brighter than the reat of the area for some time and RAIN did not bother it. It took several months for it to dull to the rest of the boards.

Anybody have a clue why Orange oil would do this?[/quote:56706ad7a8]

dunno, but i did use orange peels to polish my trumpet back in high school

I see all the "orange" added to cleaners in the store -- thought it was a grease cutting method. Probably worth a shot.

Thanks. :)

P.S. It's a bummer to see that rain again after last weekend. But so it goes here. :roll:

...this is the time of year those pesky little "sugar" ants show up inside...everywhere. I remember once, someone I worked with complaining that she had paid something like $30 a month to a pest control company to spray to rid her home of them. Anyway... last Spring, some of the little rascals started showing up and in a fit of very un-Buddhist-like rage, I grabbed the first thing that was handy and sprayed them to ant heaven! It was a spray bottle of that Orange cleaner. Not a big brand name, but some off-the-shelf-cheapo stuff. Amazingly, not only did it dispatch the little buggers, but appearently a few of them got off a last gasp transmission to their headquarters warning of the dangers of trespassing. Since then, the few times I've seen even a few of them, I spray the area they used for entry (door jams, etc). Not only does it have a nice, fresh citrus aroma, but it also does clean! So...the uses of this and related products may yet to be truly discovered. Who knows, it may even work on the E's panels??? 8)

P.S. I love the rain!

"Ants...why'd it have to be ants?"

I have a story about ants and my old Colt. However, I have to mentally prepare to tell it. Ugh.

-brendan

have a story about ants and my old Colt. However, I have to mentally prepare to tell it. Ugh.

-brendan

Heh heh heh... brendan,bugs, and packin' a Colt! I gotta hear this! "Ya wear spurs when ya ride that pony, pardner?" 8)


P.S. Still raining... YAY! It IS Oregon, after all!

Short version.

-'89 Plymouth Colt.
-I park out behind my apartment. Notably, the Latin Market has a butcher shop and has some trouble keeping their dumpsters, including the rotten meat one, under control.
-Noticed a few ants on the exterior of my car over about a month period.
-This summer day as I pulled out, I noticed a couple walking across my windshield...hmm...on the inside.
-It was about 98 degrees outside.
-I drove about 20-25 minutes, heading from Arlington out 66 to the Nutley street exit.
-Car warms up.
-As I'm taking the exit, I notice an itch on my ankle.
-I look down.
-Other motorists see my car jerk back and forth. If they look closely, they see a madman screaming.
-I CAN'T SEE MY SHOES, AS A CARPET OF ANTS HAS BEEN DRIVEN FROM THE ENGINE COMPARTMENT DUE TO HEAT AND DESCENDED THROUGH THE FIREWALL TO THE COOLER AIR CONDITIONED INTERIOR.
-I calm down a bit, for safety reasons, noting that I'm not being bitten, but just tickled by the ants. No reason to drive into somebody.
-I drive on to the parking lot outside of the Microcenter south of 66. It has a CVS.
-Other people in the parking lot see my door open up and hear a stream of profanities at the top of my lungs as I get out and start stomping around the outside of the car.
-I calm down a bit again. Walk into CVS. Make some purchases. Walk out.
-I proceed to NUKE my car with 3 different cans of dangerous poison sprays.
-That was the first time I'd ever seen a waterfall (well, "RAID-fall") of ants streaming to the ground anywhere.

That was just one day. Finally I gave up and took the car to the professionals, Home Paramount exterminators. Three times, even. Each time they failed to kill the colony. The last time, they put the car in a big tent with a bunch of wicker furniture w/ termites, and pumped malathion gas or something through it for hours. Then did the standard crack & crevice treatment.

They only charged me once, so they still get my vote, even though I was without my car for about a week total. They said "yes, we've seen cars with this problem before, but they're always off-lot long-term storage used cars that have been sitting in a field for a while, and the car lot wants to get them ready for sale and find they've got ants..."

And don't even get me started about describing what the ants had decided to use the doors' weatherstripping for.

-brendan

:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

There are good days and bad days. This, apparently, was not a good one. I see now why you have to prepare yourself to tell that. Hey, at least it wasn't bees. ;)

Great story, brendan! I'm not sure I would have had the presence to remain as calm as you did! And it also begs a question about some used cars, eh? 8)

I'm trying to visualize Brendan doing the Ants-In-Your-Pants Dance.
I think you may need to recreate this moment in history at the East Coast meet.
We'll deam it the Great Gettysburg Reenactm-"ANT" and hold annual festivals where crowds are part of mass spasmic thrusting and swearing.
Should be fun :lol:

<GROAN>

-brendan :)

That is really freaky. I am not squeamish when it comes to insects. But I would have had the same reaction to a carpet of ants crawling on my feet in my car!