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A very thorough cleaning of a car. This dude does something mundane so thoroughly he turns it into fine art. Kudos to whatusername for the link. For the reco

A very thorough cleaning of a car. This dude does something mundane so thoroughly he turns it into fine art. Kudos to whatusername for the link. For the record, I think it is Hacker News. I'm a hacker, I find it interesting, I think other hackers will find it interesting. Hacker News.

whatusername 18y ago
"This dude does something mundane so thoroughly he turns it into fine art." I think this really sums it up. It's not very often you see something like this that is so focused upon acheiving perfection (or as close as possible). And I gained a bunch of respect for top flight car detailers.
biohacker42 18y ago
I am also a hacker, I like fast cars, I'm an avid fan of TopGear, and yet I don't want to see this here.
- josefresco 18y ago
  While I disagree with you, after spending 20 minutes reading his forum post, I clicked back expecting to see the homepage of AutoBlog.com and quickly realized "oh yeah, this was on Hacker News"
  - biohacker42 18y ago
    That's my point. While in fact I do like the content, I'd like to keep this forum more narrowly focused simply because with more generic content comes a more generic crowd and with that LOL cats. I can see that my mundane comment of polite disagreement above is taking quite the karma hit. I guess the crowd prefers a wider topic scope.
    - cstejerean 18y ago
      "I guess the crowd prefers a wider topic scope." That, and pretty much everyone is tired of "this does not belong on HN" comments.
- pius 18y ago
  I disagree with you, but I don't think you deserve all those downmods. Upmodded.
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
- davidw 18y ago
  I don't think stories like this are harmful. People read them, look around, comment and that's the end of it. That's not so much the case with the politics/economics stories, which are the ones I have a problem with.
froo 18y ago
I absolutely find it interesting aswell, even though I'm not a car nut by any stretch. I saw a very similar thread that was linked to me about 18 months ago, where the man in it was doing it to the nth degree - which I found very fascinating. One of the differences between the two was in this one he was taking measurements of the car and mapping it out on a laptop to work out the thickness of the paint. Quote from thread This showed that the roof panel was 155 microns at the thickest point compared to 120 at the lowest..... I asked Paul why this was so important and he explained that for maximum reflection you needed to take away the peaks in the clearcoat to a maximum point of the lowest trough microscopically which should flatten the clearcoat to a reading of + or - 2 microns across the board and take no more than 8 microns from the clearcoat for fear of clearcoat failure in the future.... from http://www.corsasport.co.uk/board/viewthread.php?tid=347865&page=1 http://www.corsasport.co.uk/board/viewthread.php?tid=347865&... Perhaps the Lamborghini guy did the same thing aswell which could be how he was talking about how many micrometers he was taking off. Maybe his measurements were based off experience. Hard to know really. For the record, I think this kind of variety can definitely be interesting every now and then. There's only so many Google Chrome threads one can take.
abstractbill 18y ago
As interesting as the cleaning, for me, was the fact that there is such a thing as detailingworld.co.uk Never underestimate niches.
- henning 18y ago
  It's like Gary Vaynerchuck says. Be the Gary Vee or Ze Frank of Lambo detailing, evening. Be the Ze Frank of Lamborghini detailing. 400 highly dedicated fans can give you more enjoyment and fulfillment than 25,000 anonymous Diggers. You can have it if you want it, you just have to work for it.
menloparkbum 18y ago
Cleaning anything for longer than 5-10 minutes seems like the exact opposite of hacking. Maybe that's the point, gawking at how peculiar non-hackers can be? If he did the exact same thing to a 1997 Ford Escort instead of a new Lambo he'd be mercilessly mocked.
- palish 18y ago
  Making love for longer than 5-10 minutes seems like the exact opposite of marriage. Maybe that's the point, gawking at how peculiar non-married people can be? If he did the exact same thing to an ugly chick he'd be mercilessly mocked.
- randallsquared 18y ago
  Hackers are usually driven by that which is interesting. Some people, however, are more driven by that which makes them feel that they've accomplished something. While boredom precludes my doing something like this well, I can admire the doing. :)
- neilk 18y ago
  If by cleaning you mean mindlessly sweeping a broom, sure. But this guy has all sorts of interesting tools, techniques, and strategies.

whatusername 18y ago

"This dude does something mundane so thoroughly he turns it into fine art." I think this really sums it up. It's not very often you see something like this that is so focused upon acheiving perfection (or as close as possible). And I gained a bunch of respect for top flight car detailers.

biohacker42 18y ago

I am also a hacker, I like fast cars, I'm an avid fan of TopGear, and yet I don't want to see this here.

josefresco 18y ago
While I disagree with you, after spending 20 minutes reading his forum post, I clicked back expecting to see the homepage of AutoBlog.com and quickly realized "oh yeah, this was on Hacker News"
- biohacker42 18y ago
  That's my point. While in fact I do like the content, I'd like to keep this forum more narrowly focused simply because with more generic content comes a more generic crowd and with that LOL cats. I can see that my mundane comment of polite disagreement above is taking quite the karma hit. I guess the crowd prefers a wider topic scope.
  - cstejerean 18y ago
    "I guess the crowd prefers a wider topic scope." That, and pretty much everyone is tired of "this does not belong on HN" comments.
pius 18y ago
I disagree with you, but I don't think you deserve all those downmods. Upmodded.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
davidw 18y ago
I don't think stories like this are harmful. People read them, look around, comment and that's the end of it. That's not so much the case with the politics/economics stories, which are the ones I have a problem with.

froo 18y ago

I absolutely find it interesting aswell, even though I'm not a car nut by any stretch. I saw a very similar thread that was linked to me about 18 months ago, where the man in it was doing it to the nth degree - which I found very fascinating. One of the differences between the two was in this one he was taking measurements of the car and mapping it out on a laptop to work out the thickness of the paint. Quote from thread This showed that the roof panel was 155 microns at the thickest point compared to 120 at the lowest..... I asked Paul why this was so important and he explained that for maximum reflection you needed to take away the peaks in the clearcoat to a maximum point of the lowest trough microscopically which should flatten the clearcoat to a reading of + or - 2 microns across the board and take no more than 8 microns from the clearcoat for fear of clearcoat failure in the future.... from http://www.corsasport.co.uk/board/viewthread.php?tid=347865&page=1 http://www.corsasport.co.uk/board/viewthread.php?tid=347865&... Perhaps the Lamborghini guy did the same thing aswell which could be how he was talking about how many micrometers he was taking off. Maybe his measurements were based off experience. Hard to know really. For the record, I think this kind of variety can definitely be interesting every now and then. There's only so many Google Chrome threads one can take.

abstractbill 18y ago

As interesting as the cleaning, for me, was the fact that there is such a thing as detailingworld.co.uk Never underestimate niches.

henning 18y ago
It's like Gary Vaynerchuck says. Be the Gary Vee or Ze Frank of Lambo detailing, evening. Be the Ze Frank of Lamborghini detailing. 400 highly dedicated fans can give you more enjoyment and fulfillment than 25,000 anonymous Diggers. You can have it if you want it, you just have to work for it.

menloparkbum 18y ago

Cleaning anything for longer than 5-10 minutes seems like the exact opposite of hacking. Maybe that's the point, gawking at how peculiar non-hackers can be? If he did the exact same thing to a 1997 Ford Escort instead of a new Lambo he'd be mercilessly mocked.

palish 18y ago
Making love for longer than 5-10 minutes seems like the exact opposite of marriage. Maybe that's the point, gawking at how peculiar non-married people can be? If he did the exact same thing to an ugly chick he'd be mercilessly mocked.
randallsquared 18y ago
Hackers are usually driven by that which is interesting. Some people, however, are more driven by that which makes them feel that they've accomplished something. While boredom precludes my doing something like this well, I can admire the doing. :)
neilk 18y ago
If by cleaning you mean mindlessly sweeping a broom, sure. But this guy has all sorts of interesting tools, techniques, and strategies.