Econmancer

I take a lot of photos while I am working on my SAAB 9-5 and I’m happy to share them with anyone who needs an image for a message board post or whatnot. I frequently run into posts by other people using my images to help someone with a car problem and I think it’s great.

I just want to make this formal invitation to everyone in case some of you felt awkward about borrowing the photos without explicit permission.

This is a link to my Flickr account.

I am in the process of changing the user rites and organizing the images, but I will put this post under the stickies on the front page so it can be found easy; feel free to bookmark the Flickr link for quick access.

Linking images back to this blog or my Flickr page are appricated, but not in any way necessary.

Our local “Family Dollar Store” sells washcloths that are perfect as shop rags. The washcloths are sold in $5 bundles of 25 + 5 “free” as a bonus. That is 30 new terrycloth shop rags for just 17 cents each! The washcloths are located on the aisle with the bath towels (not with the kitchen or automotive items). They come in tan or light blue and are about a foot square in size.

A photo of these towels

This is the best deal for towels in the store, cheaper than their standard red shop rags in the automotive aisle.

These towels do a great job of wiping away bird droppings, cleaning brake dust off wheels, checking fluid levels, cleaning the engine bay, drying windows, and any other place you might use a towel or shop rag. But I wouldn’t throw out the nice detailing towels yet; these washcloths are very thin, very linty, and are of a very horrible quality.

Theoretically they can be washed and reused. I haven’t dared to stick them in the washing machine yet. Heck, at 17 cents, just soil the usefulness out of the rag and pitch it.

I have a sort of “cleanliness hierarchy” inside my mind. I use a new rag for drying the windows, then use it to clean bird poo and bug splat, then clean the wheels, then use it to soak up spilled fluids, finally throwing it in the trash. That doesn’t have to happen all in one day, I keep several piles in various states of soiled-ness and grab from the pile that I need.