Once again I’m humbled by both the quantity and the quality of the cars that showed this year. Considering WaterWërks is a new show (one that will fill the void WaterWagens left in the VW/Audi community in the Pacific Northwest- something it succeeded at) I feel incredibly honored that my car was chosen best in class.
Preparation was not unlike the previous year. I did not pre-register as I was not sure if I would show or not until a day or two before the actual show. Once I made up my mind, I downloaded the judging sheet to give me a clear idea on what criteria the judges would be following and then worked on the car accordingly. I honestly knew it would be challenging to even place on this show considering the class was GTI/GLI rather than Jetta/GLI and traditionally GTIs are more common and more prone to be owned by an enthusiast versus a Jetta which decreases the chances of a GLI placing.
The detailing routine began as usual. I skipped the clay since the paint is still rather clean and went straight to polish/glaze/sealant with the Porter Cable. I must have started around 10:00AM and did not really finish detailing everything until around midnight. That included making sure every single corner of the car was free of dust and grime, including every visible and reachable square inch in the engine bay, wheelwells, wheel barrels and portions of the undercarriage reachable with your arm (I would have done the whole underbody of the car but I don’t have jackstands at the time).
I was only satisfied with the appearance of the car until I parked on the show grounds and began dusting again. The dust that had gathered on the way to Cheney Stadium alone took about two hours to be completely removed from the wheelwells, wheel barrels and engine bay. Thankfully I did bring my thin bristle brush to give all those small areas a once-over. I was finishing up micro-detailing the car when the judges came over so got to show them around the car, and gave them a quick synopsis of everything that has been done to it thus far.
Overall, I feel the effort paid off. As much as I enjoy detailing my car on a regular basis, spending over 12 hours at a time is grueling work. Yet, it feels good to receive recognition over maintaining a spotless car. And while my car was certainly not the one with the most attention-getting modifications, it scored high enough to earn 1st place again.
Thanks to Joel Parker and Mike Gilbert for some amazing photos! See you next year!
(Image below is huge so click at your own risk).
Published under: Miscellaneous
