Car Analogy

There is a select group of S2000 royalty. Billman, that guy in Chigaco that drives top down year despite weather (blizzards even), and the king of all, Siguria Uehara.

There are others of course as well. And now you've been added to that list.

Congratulations! Amazing achievement.

Now, could you elaborate on the fabic softener sheets degunking process. Do you drape them all over the surface, and leave them there for a while to soak in, then hose off? How long? Do you wet it down with hose first?

Or do you just use the fabric softener sheets like cleaning wipes?

Perhaps most interesting of all, how to come to learn this technique? Betting a good story there...

s2000Junky

Ditto

00S2K01S4

On my bucket list of things to do, but not in an S or maybe... Thanks for sharing.

jugger23

rrounds

I think the S is a great road trip car. We can stuff our S with all we need for a week or two months. We have a trip comming up in a few weeks that will have Cindy getting her chemo 3,000 miles from home, we already set it up with the other hospital on the other side of the country. That is the only place we have to be at a certain date, the rest of the trip is one day at a time with nowhere to be but where we want to go. We did this back in '13 in the S and put around 8k miles on it in three weeks and that was one of the funnest trips we ever took(and we have taking a few in 40 years).
Can't wait to see whats down the road for us.

Thomas, Thanks for the post and pic's
Rod

Thomas Guide

Thanks for all the positive feedback! I have copious amount of stories to tell, I'll start working on the next chapter.

To answer some of your questions, I took about 3000 pictures, most of which were actually driving, and with my AAA membership picked up free maps at any of their offices that I stopped in at, so after every leg I would highlight the routes I took.

Cost wise, it really depended, I did have to hunker down for the winter and just made the nicest last week in Yellowstone before the snows hit. So $3-$5k per month depending on what part of the country I was in. Really the only cost you have to worry about is lodging and food. I found it best to use Orbitz, or the google map when I rolled into town before the sunset (I hardly ever drove at night, sun up to sun down) to see what hotels were offering a deal since they will give rooms away dirt cheap at the last minute to stay booked. I never made a reservation in advance except for a few Air BnB cabins but those were pretty last minute as well.

@Car Analogy I'm honored, you've put me up there with some heavy weights, but do feel Soichiro Honda and Shigeru Uehara would be pleased. To answer the fabric softner question, I have to give some more background. After using a power washer twice with those nylon brushes, I thought the bug carcasses had etched into the paint over time. Almost 2 months had passed between washing, from Michigan north to the UP, out to Montana, then back down to Arizona. I tried Scratch Remover and Turtle Wax Swirl remover, Stoner Tarminator and even WD40 (it actually is safe for paint) and nothing worked. In my online search stumbled upon a Mustang enthusiasts forum where a fanatical owner swore by this, saying he would never recommend something that would harm his fellow 'Stang owners. I had nothing to lose, so I grabbed a Bounce fabric softer sheet, got it sopping wet, and then very gently (tiny bit of pressure with two fingers) went over the areas with caked in bug blood and it just came right off! I simply could not believe it, but it's true and it works and I've demonstrated this to other friends who thought their SUVs were a hopeless mess, and within 20 minutes were totally clean. I'm not sure how or why it works, but I think Griots garage (edit) Chemical Guys has a product that works on the same premise, it's some kind of meshed cloth and bug splatter comes off. I think the wax in the fabric softner coupled with the weave of the paper has some effect. I haven't detected any paint marring or issues, but at that time I was not heavily waxed and protected, I would suggest trying it in a small spot to see if it takes off any protectant you have. But I have not noticed any issues with it (again I don't have a show car, but it has since been detailed and paint corrected).

AZS2KDancer

Thomas Guide,
People have commented to me that if you wrote a book about this trip and all, they are willing to buy it. It would be snapped up. Think of the book "Touring France with the Honda S2000" by Chris Bradley of the UK for inspiration. You have a potential best seller for the S2000 world.

zeroptzero

What a fantastic story, I am too risk averse and conservative to ever take a plunge like you did, mad respect for what you accomplished. You lived more in 18 months than many people might in a lifetime. It all sounded great with exception of the grasshoppers, I don't ever want to drive through grasshopper regions no matter how cool they may be lol. An entire thread of pictures would be a cool follow-up.

When I took my S2000 to the dragon a couple years back it was a 12 hour trip one way, I was at the location for 3 days, and I had the s2000 completely jammed with what I thought were necessities, not a single square inch to spare. Damn, I couldn't imagine taking stuff for an 18 month trip, wow.

B serious

fukken epic, bruv

cosmomiller

So you never camped out then? It seems you gave a pretty caustic view on every detail for items you packed and tents and / or sleeping bags / cooking stoves were not part of it.

I always thought (although my wife is becoming less and less likely to agree) that neat little campgrounds the S fits into perfectly with a tent option are such a nice way to go. Campfire, stars exploding in the night sky, crickets chirping, perhaps a stream nearby, and all is well in the world.