Copied from the Off Topic section:
"I would like to do to make it perfect. When I first got her I used to clean the inside of the tailpipes with an old toothbrush and autosol metal polish. How sad is that!? 😅"

Any of you guys go this far with your cars?
Maybe it will reduce exhaust backpressure!

 

HAHAHA, Yep.

When mine got "dirty" as described (as if I ever really looked), which rarely happened, as we drove them way too hard, it was time for a Road Trip.

1500kms, usually took care of that little itch.

 

Sounds to me like part of the Concourse d'Elite crowd (I can name names) who never really Drive their cars but only want to Show Off their cars, cleaning the entire undercarriage (for the judge's mirrors) with toothbrushes and Q-tips.

As Grant says, Take the thing out on a 1000 mile drive and let it Kiss the Red Line a few times.
That'll take care of a Lot of problems... for Any engine.
(';')

 

And for the Driver too; works for me, that is for sure.

 

Used to work for me till the UK went camera barmy - you never know when the letter will arrive here anymore should you chose to 'kiss the red line' - it's really hard to give some cars the beans here now.

As for detailing - yeh I had that bug once - I cleaned a car interior corner to corner with a nail brush and high absorbancy cloths - and I mean interior - roof lining the lot. I also spent two weeks cleaning the engine bay of one car, lost count of the weeks spent detailing the paint of another, was obsessive cleaning the underside - paint brush and the like to get in the corners - grew out of it. My average wash day was two days - pre wet with hose, pre foam, rinse, foam, hand wash making sure to get inside the door shuts, window tracks, spoke brush ets to all wheels - which were of course removed and cleaned behind, rinse, rinse again, hand dry, clay, wax on wax off - then to the interior ...

Wasting entire weekends on the car got old - and expensive -

 

Ben
I think that such humiliating admissions are best confined to the confessional!

 

". . . it's really hard to give some cars the beans"
A little while ago I started compiling a US / UK dictionary.
This is one phrase I missed.
I wonder what the origin of this one might be?
Possibly, beans give us gas so do they do the same for our cars?

 

Would be interesting to figure out - like a crossword - like a lot of slang do we really ever know the actual origin, although some can be traced back to professions or otherwise there is slang that remains regional yet over time becomes a part of that regions language.

I bet the phrase would have very little to do with cars originally - if you ever can find out where that was - I like your suggestion - made me think immediately of the Blazing Saddles cowboy camp ....