How many of you have driven your cars in rain?! Just had my first experience

[BC69]

As I look back at my last 45 minutes today, I think it could be very comical, but believe me when it was happening I didnt think it was funny.
So I check the weather around 3 here and its 73 and partly cloudy according to weather.com, so no worries. I took the camaro 10-15 minutes down the road to my restoration shop to go over the electrical issues I have been having and the new stereo system. All the windows are down, nice ride, and all. I am there for about a half hour or so and weather is still nice as I leave.
Well, as God would have it, a nice stretch of road between the nice weather at the shop, and nice weather at my house was downpouring rain!!! My camaro has never seen rain and I am proud of that, I have never touched the wipers until today. So believe me I had some choice words and that 10min ride felt like an hour. I got it back in the garage as fast as possible, rannn inside, got some t shirts and wiped the entire car down, in and out, trunk, under hood, wheel wells, rockers...every drop I could see!! I think I broke out in a sweat doing this so fast!
I think I was afraid those rain drops were gonna be acid rain or something and eat my car alive! The funny part is, as I was at the resto shop, one of the guys was powerwashing one of the new restorations. His water wasnt hurting it, so maybe my first, and hopefully only run in with downpour isnt that bad after all.

So how many of you have been in the rain with your cars, and what was it like the first time??

Out of breath
Tim

[Steve Chryssos]

It happens. In fact it happened last week. Jim Mulvey (bought Shay's car) took my car out for breakfast. On our way to my favorite twisty road, the skies opened up. After drying off the shiny surfaces, I like to blow out all the nooks and crannies with compressed air.
I've had my car since I was 13. I'm never selling it, so I'm not concerned with resale. And I've rebuilt it a few times. So the way I see it, I'm willing to drive it into the ground and rebuild it again. ....And again.

That perspective is not for everyone, but it sure loosens up my outlook on driving.

[jannes_z-28]

Over here it rains very often. So if you go out for a drive you have to expect that you will see rain.

It is not really that bad, it's the same chemical formula we use to wash them in http://www.lateral-g.net/forums/images/smilies/smile1.gif

But what can be bad is road grime that comes with the spray from tires and other cars. It is better to get it washed away as soon as possible. The paint is made to handle that but our polished aluminum wheels are more sensitive.

As Steve I am not going to sell my car ever, so the value is not as important, except keeping its proper value insured. But it is of course always nice to keep the car in good shape.

One thing to keep in mind though, with a powerful engine and wide tires rain and wet roads can be really dangerous, aquaplaning can happen easily with our kind of cars.


Jan

[Blown353]

I don't mind driving in the rain. In fact, I love driving in the rain, as I get to practice drifting everywhere I go and it's easier on the tires than in the dry. :D

However, it's the cleaning up of the car after the rain I dread. You can never get the underside of the car as clean as it was before the rain, and cleaning baked on dirt/water off the headers is the worst!

It also doesn't help now that I've elminated my wiper motor for a cowl cold air intake.

Basically, what it boils down to is that if it's raining or there's a very good chance of rain, the car stays home in the garage. If it's supposed to be nice and I happen to get caught out in a shower, hey, whatever. I'll just spend hours under the car cleaning when I get home. :willy: I don't care about the topside much (except having clean glass), I don't think I've washed the topside of the car in over a year. :P

Troy

[Derek69SS]

Heck, I drove mine in a snowstorm once when my daily driver was down for a day. I spent about 2 hours freezing my nads off power-washing the bottom of the car off to get all the salt off...

Rain rarely ever stops me from driving it, except if I've just washed it... and that's just because I'm too lazy to wash it again :D

[zbugger]

My car is no show car. I always drove it in the rain, and after it's on the road again, it's gonna see rain again. I just live with it.

[Rick Dorion]

My car, too, is a keeper. I get caught occassionally in rain - it's like an instant 100 HP boost! I'm more interested in driving and enjoying the car so the rain doesn't bother me. I usually drive it to work if the forecast is 30% chance or rain or less.

[MaxHarvard]

I just drove mine for the first time in the rain, did i mention i didnt have wipers either?!

Yea, that wasnt fun... i had to pull over several times to squeegee the windshield off. :(

[clill]

I'm guessing Power Tour is not for you. Every year we get pounded with rain somewhere along the route. I just check the weather forecast and scattered thunder showers are predicted for at least the first 4 days of Power Tour. The car will never be the same but what a adventure...

[BC69]

I am with most of you guys...the car is never getting sold, had it since 14, and will have it forever, but I still dont want to drive it in the rain much.

I guess something like powertour would be fine in the rain, cause I know that hundreds of other guys are sitting in their hot rods just like me going, "damnnnn", but it could be fun.

Tim

[USAZR1]

I'm guessing Power Tour is not for you. Every year we get pounded with rain somewhere along the route. I just check the weather forecast and scattered thunder showers are predicted for at least the first 4 days of Power Tour. The car will never be the same but what a adventure...
You beat me to it,Charlie. My car got thoroughly "baptized" last year on the Power Tour. I will say this,though. 275 & 335 Kumho Victoracers are interesting tires in the wet. :yes: :D
Hopefully,the new Michelins will work a little better in the damp stuff.

[jannes_z-28]

We had our "Camaro Sunday Run" over here today. Unfortunatelly it wasn't any good weather, rain and so on. The destination was a small castle 1 1/2 hour from Stockholm. But we had a good time, some guys were afraid of the rain and stayed home, not me. My car is for driving. It got dirty but now its clean again. However tomorrow it has to be up on the jacks so I can clean it on the underside.

This is how it looked when I came home. Dirt don't show that good on silver paint though.

http://www.protouring.se/files/dirty.jpg


Jan