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Detailer tries to clean up coffee stain… with spray paint?!

Filed under: Etc.

spray paint detail job

There are some incredibly gifted people out there who obsess over automotive detailing. No paint swirl is too small and no interior crevice is too tight for this dedicated set. Others, however, call themselves detailers, but deliver sub-standard work when compared with the real pros. The staff at North West Auto Salon came across a particularly egregious example of shoddy detailing when a new customer pulled into their cleaning booth.

Choosing a cheaper competitor first, the customer sought to have a large coffee stain removed from his car’s floor. Some quality cleaning products, detailing knowledge and elbow grease should be in order, right? Not so for this “lucky” customer. It seems a can of spray paint was the preferred cleaning tool here. We’ll assume that the resulting overspray and still-visible coffee stain won’t result in a good review on the detailer’s Yelp page.

Head over to North West Auto Salon’s website to see a few more images of this not-so-detailed detail work.

[Source: North West Auto Salon via The Car Lounge]

Detailer tries to clean up coffee stain… with spray paint?! originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 16 Apr 2011 20:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Judge approves plan to clean up “Old GM” sites

Filed under: Government/Legal, GM

General Motors has been given the go-ahead to begin selling off the remaining old GM assets as part of the automaker’s restructuring plan. According to The Detroit News, a federal bankruptcy judge approved the plan after a day-long hearing. Judge Robert E. Gerber is expected to issue a written opinion on the matter within the next few days, and the sale’s confirmation date is set to be announced on March 31.

As part of the move, 610 million shares of old GM stock will be cancelled. Creditors have submitted verified claims of around $29.5 billion, and as part of the plan, those entities will receive $5 billion in new GM stock and warrants. That figure equates to around 15 percent of all new-GM stock.

In addition, Gerber moved to approve a $773 million environmental trust designed to help fund and oversee the cleanup of 89 former General Motors plants in 14 states. An additional plan is in the works to address additional environmental issues.

Those include an extra $536 million to cover cleanup costs and $300 million for demolition costs and property taxes.

Gerber’s decision means that the last remaining embers of the old GM are officially dying out. The Detroit News reports that the company should cease doing business by no later than December 15.

[Source: The Detroit News]

Report: Judge approves plan to clean up “Old GM” sites originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 05 Mar 2011 12:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: How not to clean up from the NYC snow storm

Filed under: SUV, Truck, Etc., Videos, Work

Tow truck and loader vs. parked Ford Explorer – Click above to watch the video after the jump

First, we’d like to go on the record as saying that we appreciate the people who keep our streets clean as much as the next guy. But let’s face it: working for a sanitation department doesn’t always require a finely honed intellect. Still, the incident caught in this video footage sinks to new lows.

With storms ravaging New York City and its surrounding areas, one rather large front-end loader somehow managed to get stuck in the snow and had to be pulled out by a tow truck, so city workers got to it. Just one problem: it was on a city street in between parked cars. But as you can see from the video, that didn’t seem to concern the sanitation department personnel on the scene, to the unfortunate destruction of one snow-covered Ford Explorer parked adjacent. Follow the jump to watch the cringe-inducing footage for yourself, just be mindful of the explicit language. Thanks for the tip, Stan!

[Source: YouTube]

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Video: How not to clean up from the NYC snow storm originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 28 Dec 2010 12:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Truckers upset over LA ‘clean rig’ legislation ready to take fight to Supreme Court

Filed under: Truck, UAW/Unions

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa pushed his “Clean Truck Program” as a way to improve the air quality in and around the Port of Los Angeles. And while a cleaner air is in everyone’s best interest, a Los Angeles Times report suggests that it could be truckers who are left holding the short end of the stick. Semi drivers have been encouraged to replace their beat-up, high pollution diesel rigs for much newer trucks with particulate filters that trap harmful gasses before they ever reach the atmosphere.

But while the new trucks are most definitely cleaner, they’re also far more expensive; often costing over $100,000 each. Truckers are leasing the vehicles from the trucking companies for over $1,000 per month, and they also have to spring for fuel and insurance and maintenance costs are said to have risen. Some drivers say that they have been driven to sleep in their rigs at night to save time and increase earning, and even after that after paying for the bills, wages can be as low as $7 per hour.

Trucking companies say that the drivers aren’t faring nearly as poorly as advertised, and they counter that the Clean Truck Program’s real aim was to unionize the drivers. According to the LAT, that was actually supposed to be part of the plan, as Mayor Villaraigosa intended for truckers to give up on being independent contractors in favor of becoming employees of the trucking company. Teamsters President James P. Hoffa justifies unionizing the employees, adding that the drivers are “slaves” to their rigs. Meanwhile, the trucking companies have taken the government to court in an effort keep the the city from forcing the companies to hire on the workers with benefits including health care. The industry promises to continue to fight hiring the thousands of port workers even if the case needs to go to the Supreme Court.

We’re not experts on government law or unionization, but it sounds suspiciously like the city of Los Angeles chose to draft and enforce new trucking laws without working closely enough with the companies that would end up footing the bill. The good news is that the air in L.A. appears to be a bit clearer, but the bad news is that the truckers appear to be the ones making the sacrifices.

[Source: Los Angeles Times | Image: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty]

Report: Truckers upset over LA ‘clean rig’ legislation ready to take fight to Supreme Court originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Senator Levin in favor of a bolder clean vehicle mandate to replace CAFE

Filed under: Hybrid, Government/Legal, Electric, Diesel

Carl Levin

Michigan Senator Carl Levin has been called the auto industry’s best friend by detractors who say he’s worked hard to obtain that title by defending the status quo. At the 2010 Business of Plugging In conference in downtown Detroit today, though, he made some comments that might put a stop to such name-calling. Levin said he wants to end what he sees as the small, incremental approach to cleaner vehicles the U.S. government is using today in favor of a huge and comprehensive program. “Our goal should be nothing less than making electric vehicles affordable and attractive to every American family,” he said.

Levin talked about seriously overhauling how the U.S. government promotes cleaner vehicles. He said there are three policy drivers pushing us in this direction today: climate change (which he said “is real, it is urgent and we either deal with it now or our children and grandchildren will have to deal with it later when the remedies will be much more difficult, much more expensive and much less effective.”), national security (i.e., oil independence) and the desire for a thriving manufacturing sector (i.e., jobs).

What has held the U.S. back from dealing with these issues in a coordinated way? Levin cited a fear of government support of manufacturing because that was considered industrial policy, what he termed “the kiss of death”:

While our government refused to partner actively with American manufacturers, our competitors were establishing partnerships and making investments to position their manufacturers for the future. The second impediment was the ability of oil-exporting nations to play like a yo-yo.

America made progress on fuel efficiency gains in the 1970s, Levin said, but OPEC knew how to set us back:

Oil ministers of those nations made it clear they would keep the price of oil at a low enough level so that alternative energy sources would not make economic sense and that distracted us from the fact that ending out dependence on imported oil in our long-term economic interest, beyond the need for environmental and security reasons.

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Senator Levin in favor of a bolder clean vehicle mandate to replace CAFE originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 13 Oct 2010 17:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Honda to abandon clean diesel development, focus on hybrids

Filed under: Hybrid, Japan, Plants/Manufacturing, Honda, Diesel

Regular readers know we tend to be big fans of modern diesel engines. All the past demons that had plagued oil-burners over the years have been exorcised, including rough running, nasty smells, loud operation and narrow power bands. But sadly, modern clean diesel powerplants have never taken hold in the United States.

According to the Nikkei in Japan (via Reuters), we can add Honda to the list of global automakers that have abandoned plans to move further into the diesel realm. Instead, Honda will continue to puts all of its eggs in the hybrid basket, developing a new system for use in larger vehicles. Currently, Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist technology is used in the Civic Hybrid and the Insight.

We can only hope that Honda’s next hybrid system will expand on its current IMA tech, which has been unable to match the fuel efficiency and performance of rival Toyota, by being able to operate on the electric motor alone for longer stretches.

In addition to halting development of clean diesel tech, Honda has also put the brakes on the new microcar plant in Japan that was to build future Kei cars for the automaker’s home market.

[Source: Reuters]

Report: Honda to abandon clean diesel development, focus on hybrids originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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