Sand Blasted to Hell...and Back for the sake of Beer
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From: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Sand Blasted to Hell...and Back for the sake of Beer
Hi,
Just got back from a 1000km weekend trip Riyadh to Bahrain and back...beer, must have beer...!!
(for those not in the know Saudi Arabia is a dry country, as in no alcohol and you can get flogged for being caught with it...and Bahrain isn't and consumption is virtually compulsory)
The road between Riyadh and the causeway to Bahrain is 500km's of motorway (if it can be called that) hell - mad Saudi drivers, insane speeds, no road markings, pot holes, camels and complete exhaust systems all coming together to form some sort of bizarre video game of obstacles being thrown at you. If you win the game you get to consume untold quantities of booze in Bahrain - if not, then you end up rolling your vehicle over several times before coming to rest in a sand dune...
Anyway, this time the obstacle in question was a sandstorm...and after travelling for 4.5 hours in it my Durango is stuffed and I mean totalled as in utterly creamed crackered...
the paint work behind the offside rear wheel arch is down to the metal, the spotlights are finished - the glass is sandblasted to oblivion, areas around the grill are down to the primer and worst of all the chrome alloy wheels look "dull"...
firstly, can the finish on the alloys be restored...?? no idea myself, first time I've come across this as an issue...
secondly, are there any tricks to protect the vehicle that I'm missing...?? the local Saudi's (now I know why) smear Fairy Liquid washing up liquid all over their vehicles. I kid you not, about one in ten vehicles looks like is been covered in green gunk.
I had my doubts about this - hell, if it can sand blast paint off a vehicle, destroy the glass on some spot lights and damage my chome alloys, then smearing Fairy Liquid over your car seems a bit hopeful to put it mildly...one for the Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel I guess...
maybe basic slowing down would help, I kept up a steady 130 km/hr (80mph) through it all - but on a 500km run, slowing down to say to 80 km/hr gonna put some hours on this already long trip...and be frustrating as hell...
Chris
Just got back from a 1000km weekend trip Riyadh to Bahrain and back...beer, must have beer...!!
(for those not in the know Saudi Arabia is a dry country, as in no alcohol and you can get flogged for being caught with it...and Bahrain isn't and consumption is virtually compulsory)
The road between Riyadh and the causeway to Bahrain is 500km's of motorway (if it can be called that) hell - mad Saudi drivers, insane speeds, no road markings, pot holes, camels and complete exhaust systems all coming together to form some sort of bizarre video game of obstacles being thrown at you. If you win the game you get to consume untold quantities of booze in Bahrain - if not, then you end up rolling your vehicle over several times before coming to rest in a sand dune...
Anyway, this time the obstacle in question was a sandstorm...and after travelling for 4.5 hours in it my Durango is stuffed and I mean totalled as in utterly creamed crackered...
the paint work behind the offside rear wheel arch is down to the metal, the spotlights are finished - the glass is sandblasted to oblivion, areas around the grill are down to the primer and worst of all the chrome alloy wheels look "dull"...
firstly, can the finish on the alloys be restored...?? no idea myself, first time I've come across this as an issue...
secondly, are there any tricks to protect the vehicle that I'm missing...?? the local Saudi's (now I know why) smear Fairy Liquid washing up liquid all over their vehicles. I kid you not, about one in ten vehicles looks like is been covered in green gunk.
I had my doubts about this - hell, if it can sand blast paint off a vehicle, destroy the glass on some spot lights and damage my chome alloys, then smearing Fairy Liquid over your car seems a bit hopeful to put it mildly...one for the Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel I guess...
maybe basic slowing down would help, I kept up a steady 130 km/hr (80mph) through it all - but on a 500km run, slowing down to say to 80 km/hr gonna put some hours on this already long trip...and be frustrating as hell...
Chris