Photoshoot Cleanup – Who Thought White Wheels Were a Good Idea?

If I'm being honest, I got pretty tired of having to clean up my E28 every time I pulled it out of the shop. Like a magnet, it attracts a layer of shop dust, and was always in need of a wipedown for any given car show or event. You can imagine my smugness when I ordered up a nice car cover after months of constant cleanups. I beat the system, or so I had thought....

As you may or may not know, earlier this spring I got new wheels for the old girl, plucked from Momo's new line of Heritage wheels. Modeled after their historic racing lineup from decades passed, they're a perfect fit for the '80s-themed race car build. Fittingly, I chose white... but foolishly, I chose white.

For the first time in a short while, I decided it was time to take the car out for a few photos with its new shoes. I pulled back the car cover, excited to know a clean car sat underneath, only to be met with the reality that there's no escaping car cleanup before a photo shoot. With brake dust accumulated not only on the faces of my new wheels, but visibly within the white barrels, I pulled out the Turtle Wax supplies from the shelf in the shop and got to work.

I used Turtle Wax's Exterior 1 Waterless Wash & Wax for some basic, easy cleanup. It wasn't until I began spraying and wiping that I realized just how dirty my wheels actually were. A dull gray turned almost black in appearance when it gave way to the clean white surface behind it. In for a penny, in for a pound: I had to clean the wheels thoroughly, inside and out, to be happy.

Proud of my cleanup, I stepped back, only to realize my off-track endeavors were catching up with me. Buttonwillow's kindly-donated dust coated the inside of my windscreen, and crept its way into the nooks and crannies of my dashboard. Dirt, grease, and grime from car parts, tools, and track equipment covered my clean white floor boards. In all, my "clean car" was increasingly not so.

Using Turtle Wax's Power Out! Fresh Clean All-Surface Cleaner, I doused down my dash and interior, top to bottom, and thankfully, after a wipe down, the car was beginning to look its part once again. I stepped back once more, ready to take photos....

But of course, it's probably wise to give the car a complete once over. With the ICE Spray Detailer, I worked to clean off what little dust had accumulated, as well as some of the rubber "boogers" left by the Nitto R-Comps on the bottoms of my fenders. And with that...

Finally, some photos of a sharp, clean car. It's a rare occasion I get out to shoot some pictures for my own sake. With no passenger seat, its even more rare that I take the E28 out and about, but for an afternoon, I had a blast scooting around once again. In many ways, I had almost forgotten about my car, tucked away under the black car cover at the back of the StanceWorks shop.

Maybe there's more to having a clean car than meets the eye. Having been so absorbed in building my Model A, I've been neglecting my other machines, and they need some love too. I'm eager for SEMA to pass, so I can get out on some SoCal mountain roads, and dirty this one up once again.

This is a sponsored post. StanceWorks is part of the Turtle Wax Shine Squad team, although the opinions and thoughts expressed in this article are entirely our own.