Truck's nearly 6 years old now (2001 Dakota club cab 4x4).  From a
distance, when clean, shiny and well-cared for.

Closer up though, she's starting to show her age.  Orangepeel everywhere
(cept where we had the bumper fixed in October), scratches and swirls
that no quantity of scratch-X will take out.  I tell myself that's just
the character of an older, well-used truck... but it still bugs me.

Is orange peel just one of the ravages of age?  Is there anything that
can be done about it?

The water here is incredibly hard.  So hard (How Hard Is It?  broke a
glass once when the faucet dripped! <g>), and it's so hot, that water
drops are nearly instantaneously burned into the finish.  I have to go
over the entire truck with detailer or scratchx after drying in order to
get the water drops that were faster than I am.  Wondering if there's a
trick to keep this from happening?

If I wanted to get the covering of not-fine-enough-for-scratchx
scratches out, how would I go about it?

Can you tell I've just come in from washing the truck?  Sometimes I miss
the Chevette.  Didn't take nearly as long to wash :)

Hope you're all enjoying your Northern Hemisphere spring.  Here, we're
enjoying the fact that Autumn finally and suddenly arrived last week,
and here winter's only about a month away.  Now it's all the way down
into the 70s during the day.

jmc