Time is a precious commodity in our busy lives, and probably more so if you’ve been successful enough in your business life to buy a C8 Corvette, which takes just 2.8 seconds of it to reach 60 mph (96 km/h), or 2.6 seconds in Z06 trim. But if you are lucky enough to own something like a C8, there’s something really satisfying about taking the time to go to town on it at the weekend and detail it yourself.
Let’s be honest, there’s nothing so technically unusual about the Corvette that means it needs its own detailing video. And compared with some other detailing tutorials on YouTube, this one from Chevrolet itself, which is part of the brand’s Chevy MyWay series, is relatively light on, er, detail. It mostly plays out like a commercial for Adam’s Detailing cleaning products (available from local Chevrolet dealer, kerching!).
But if you normally delegate cleaning duties to the local car wash and haven’t washed a car since 1994 when you completed you last yard chores and still think it’s okay to douse your car in a bucket of Dawn dish soap because you ran out of shampoo, there are some useful pointers for you here.
Hosts Billy Konsoer and Dino Stramer also seem to think these tips will help you make sure your local detailer is cleaning your Corvette the right way if you prefer not to get your hands dirty, though don’t blame us if you get a blast of high-pressure hose to the head for trying to tell the guy how to do his job after watching a five-minute YouTube vid.
Related: GM Confirms AWD Hybrid Corvette Coming In 2023, Fully Electric Version To Follow
Anyway, back to the tutorial. Before you even think about dragging a sponge over your C8’s glossy paintwork you need to hose it down with water. That will loosen the worst of the dirt and lessen the chance of you scratching it. Chevy recommends de-ionized water for this part of the clean because it’s less likely to leave water spots on the paint.
Other tips the Chevy guys pass on include using a high pressure air hose to blast out the water from places like the mirrors and fuel filler cover where it might collect and drip out later ruining your hard work, and rubbing steel wool on the glass (but obviously not anywhere else) to remove stubborn sap. The rest of the information imparted in the video is just plain common sense, but still gets an “amazing!” exclamation from Konsoer.
By the end of the video you’ll be itching to get out there are prep that Corvette for the summer show season. All that’s left to do is come up with the $61k (or more like $100k with options and dealer mark-up) needed to actually buy a C8, and another $300 to turn your garage shelves into a convincing facsimile of an Adam’s Detailing section of your local autoparts store.