gearhead
11-13-2016, 08:45 AM
After last years fiasco of hiring the jailbirds at the detail shop to clean and wax the 5th, and me having to re-do it, I had some more self inflicted wounds this year.
I decided to wait until the weather cooled a bit and tackle it myself. I attacked the roof first. Some dirt, but more mildew. A bucket of water with Dawn and a 1/4 cup of bleach. A long handled stand up medium scrub brush. Very little results. Add another 1/4 cup of bleach. No help. Tried Spic and Span, nothing. OK, I have some Mean Green mildew killer with bleach. That got it. All through the experiment with cleaners I told myself to keep the sidewalls wet so the white chalk wouldn't stick. Y'all know where this going don't you? Yeah the chalky stuff stuck. But just on one side. I think the fiberglass must have been hotter on that side. Oh well, I'll get to try out that new Porter-Cable polisher and the Meguiars Marine cleaner/wax. I put a white pad on and started at the front cap. Hmmm it doesn't want to come off too good. I did half the cap and had to use detailer to get it right. So I went back to my old stand by...Meguiars clean and wax in the dark red bottle. Finished the cap with it. Then went to the side with the chalk. The marine cleaner wax went on good but I couldn't get it buffed out with a 10" random orbit and microfiber on it. Back to the old red bottle wax. I did about 6 feet at a time in the late afternoons when it was in the shade and finished last night. But I'm not happy with it. I can still see the chalky water spots in a few places. The darling wife says "it looks fine, it's not going to look like your cars, no one can see it but you". Yeah right, likely true.
The strange part....a couple months ago I got some Deep Woods Off on the screen of a depth finder/GPS. Just about ruined it. I scraped it with a razor blade to the point where I can see most of it. I was telling that story to a friend at the hardware store and he mentioned that he used Off to clean things. So before I waxed one section on the 5th I tried it. There were places that were darker up and down the sides. Right where the framing would be...like both sides of the fridge vents. At first I thought it was like when you see morning condensation on the sides and the framing shows. So I rubbed some Off on a small spot. Immediately took the dark color off. So I did a little more and it looked good to me. I decided I wasn't going to spray the whole side of the trailer with Off but I might try it when I start getting black streaks again. Anyone heard of this or use Off to clean with?
So I guess I ended up with trailer wax grade of about "30". Looks OK from 30 feet away. I just waxed the cap and the one side, other side looks good. But I might get after that if I need something to do. What I need to do is hook up and go somewhere. But it's prime time fishing season here.
PS...I did a brake job on it. Self adjusters from eTrailer. Re-sealed and repacked the bearings. Went well, bearings and races looked good. Mobil1 synthetic grease again. O'Reilly house brand seals again. I got them about half burnished in. Need another 10-20 stops from 40-20mph. I might have over done it the first 10. I stopped to check them and smelled them when I got out of the truck. Drums were 300F. I can feel the brakes working with the controller set on 5.
Whew..long post. Need to fish this week. I pulled a 23inch trout out of Trinity Bay Wednesday. Has to be more in there.
I decided to wait until the weather cooled a bit and tackle it myself. I attacked the roof first. Some dirt, but more mildew. A bucket of water with Dawn and a 1/4 cup of bleach. A long handled stand up medium scrub brush. Very little results. Add another 1/4 cup of bleach. No help. Tried Spic and Span, nothing. OK, I have some Mean Green mildew killer with bleach. That got it. All through the experiment with cleaners I told myself to keep the sidewalls wet so the white chalk wouldn't stick. Y'all know where this going don't you? Yeah the chalky stuff stuck. But just on one side. I think the fiberglass must have been hotter on that side. Oh well, I'll get to try out that new Porter-Cable polisher and the Meguiars Marine cleaner/wax. I put a white pad on and started at the front cap. Hmmm it doesn't want to come off too good. I did half the cap and had to use detailer to get it right. So I went back to my old stand by...Meguiars clean and wax in the dark red bottle. Finished the cap with it. Then went to the side with the chalk. The marine cleaner wax went on good but I couldn't get it buffed out with a 10" random orbit and microfiber on it. Back to the old red bottle wax. I did about 6 feet at a time in the late afternoons when it was in the shade and finished last night. But I'm not happy with it. I can still see the chalky water spots in a few places. The darling wife says "it looks fine, it's not going to look like your cars, no one can see it but you". Yeah right, likely true.
The strange part....a couple months ago I got some Deep Woods Off on the screen of a depth finder/GPS. Just about ruined it. I scraped it with a razor blade to the point where I can see most of it. I was telling that story to a friend at the hardware store and he mentioned that he used Off to clean things. So before I waxed one section on the 5th I tried it. There were places that were darker up and down the sides. Right where the framing would be...like both sides of the fridge vents. At first I thought it was like when you see morning condensation on the sides and the framing shows. So I rubbed some Off on a small spot. Immediately took the dark color off. So I did a little more and it looked good to me. I decided I wasn't going to spray the whole side of the trailer with Off but I might try it when I start getting black streaks again. Anyone heard of this or use Off to clean with?
So I guess I ended up with trailer wax grade of about "30". Looks OK from 30 feet away. I just waxed the cap and the one side, other side looks good. But I might get after that if I need something to do. What I need to do is hook up and go somewhere. But it's prime time fishing season here.
PS...I did a brake job on it. Self adjusters from eTrailer. Re-sealed and repacked the bearings. Went well, bearings and races looked good. Mobil1 synthetic grease again. O'Reilly house brand seals again. I got them about half burnished in. Need another 10-20 stops from 40-20mph. I might have over done it the first 10. I stopped to check them and smelled them when I got out of the truck. Drums were 300F. I can feel the brakes working with the controller set on 5.
Whew..long post. Need to fish this week. I pulled a 23inch trout out of Trinity Bay Wednesday. Has to be more in there.