Auto Detailing for Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

County

Fond du Lac County

From our shop

~40 minutes

Local factor

Lake Winnebago

Peak months

February and May

Sturgeon season

For roughly two weeks every February, Lake Winnebago hosts the largest sturgeon spearing season in the world, and the south shore around Fond du Lac fills with trucks hauling shanties onto the ice and staying out there all day.

A sturgeon-season vehicle comes off the lake with the same contaminated slush as any ice-fishing truck — auger shavings, fuel from heaters, whatever the ice surface held — packed into the arches and underside, and then meets road brine on the drive home. It also comes off it with a cab that held people, gear and, sometimes, fish for a long cold day. It is a marine-odor and underside-contamination job happening in the coldest month of the year, and it is worth dealing with in March rather than letting it sit until spring.

The May lake fly hatch

Around Mother's Day most years the lake fly hatch comes off the Winnebago system, runs about two weeks, and depending on wind direction can blanket the south shore. There is a smaller second hatch in August.

The flies do not damage paint. The residue they leave does. It has to be washed off promptly rather than wiped, because it bakes on in May sun and etches clear coat within a few warm days. Vehicles that sat through the hatch without a wash arrive with a pattern of small etch marks across the leading surfaces that needs correction rather than cleaning.

Forty minutes, honestly

Fond du Lac has its own detailers and it is at the far edge of our area. The drive makes sense for the specific work — post-sturgeon underside and cabin, post-hatch etch assessment, or a full reset on a lake vehicle — and not for a wash. We will say which on the phone.