Cob Jockey

I have a reminder on my calendar to wash and wax my trailer once a year in September. September is always a beautiful month here, very little rain and decent temps (though this year - ugh - we haven't had a good rain since June and my pastures are literally dying, so I would take some less beautiful weather, please and thank you).

Hank showing off my hay field, which is naturally in better shape than the pastures since it's not fenced and doesn't get grazed.

Buuuuut in 2022 and 2023 I just...didn't. Depression, not showing much, blah blah blah. So anyway, there was 3 years' worth of...stuff...to chisel off this trailer.

I'm happy to report that Wash Wax All still did the trick even with it being extra dirty. I washed and waxed the whole thing with 2 gallons of water and six towels. I do also have wash mitts on extension poles, but I mostly only used those on the roof. I didn't find that it saved me much time, and I do like getting up close and personal with the trailer skin once a year, so that I can closely inspect any new rock chips, etc.

 

In some places, I started with the slightly stronger Wash All from the same company, which contains stronger degreasers and doesn't contain wax. Mostly, this was just because I was lazy and didn't want to have to scrub that hard. Then I followed it with Wash Wax All to give it that protective wax coating.

A fairly obvious before/after of the skin on the nose

 

Really, it felt good to take care of it. I still adore this trailer. I've had it 7 years next month, and it's been nothing but good to me. I also took the opportunity to spray UV protectant on the rubber seals, and silicone lube on the window tracks.

Before

 

After

 

It's also just one of those chores that makes my brain itch, seeing that dirty trailer sitting there every time I walk to the manure pile, feeling that little twinge "You should be doing this and you're not." A lot of things around the farm are like that for me, which is why I'm grateful that my boarders have agreed to a fall clean-up day later this month, when we're going to knock out the "need to get to that" chores all at once.

7 years old and you can still see your reflection in the paint. My work here is done.

You could consider this revisiting a past product review today, since I washed and waxed my horse trailer last weekend with Aero Cosmetics again. Reminder and perhaps also a guilt trip, you're supposed to wax your horse trailer 1-2x a year, especially if any part of your trailer is fiberglass (many roofs and some trailer skins are). You do not want that stuff to oxidize and turn chalky!

As a reminder, Wash Wax All is a waterless spray all-in-one wash and wax product originally developed for the airline industry since, you know, sending a plane through a car wash is logistically challenging. It's safe for all surfaces you'd encounter in the average plane/vehicle/trailer and biodegradable.

I let my Shadow go a little longer between washes than I like to this time, so I had some legit black streaks, which Aero Cosmetics will tell you isn't something Wash Wax All will be able to remove alone. Wash Wax All is more of a light duty surface cleaner and UV protectant than a stain remover.

Before on the right, after on the left. I have to move my mom's donkey from Illinois to Tennessee later this week and I decided I couldn't stand looking at this bug spattered nose for 12 hours.

So this year, I also tried Wash All Degreaser, which is their recommended product for black streaks, and I also used the Aero Scrubber more broadly on the entire trailer (rather than just on the ghosted trailer decals I originally bought it for).

Shown: Aero Scrubber (it comes with a handle but I prefer to use it as a sponge) and Wash All Degreaser. The Aero Scrubber is like a very gentle Brillo pad. Tough enough to take bugs off of your paint but it doesn't leave scratches or swirl marks.

Working in sections, I would first spray Wash All Degreaser, then use the lightly damp Aero Scrubber to agitate it. This removed all the grit and bugs from the paint.

Next, I would take a dry-ish microfiber rag and wipe that section down to remove the debris the Aero Scrubber lifted. When Wash All Degreaser is used by itself, the rag is supposed to be totally dry and you're supposed to wipe the Wash All off before it dries, but because I was following it up with Wash Wax All, I found it didn't really matter if the rag got progressively a little less dry. I did switch it out fairly often though.

Next I would spray that same section down with the Wash Wax All from my original post, and finally I would take an actually dry rag and vigorously rub that section in circles until it was dry.

Like any wax product, vigorous rubbing helps it bind to the vehicle and gives you that smooth, touchable, glossy look. And boy was it glossy and touchable. I couldn't stop rubbing my hands over the finished sections, which were straight-from-the-factory smooth.

Before/in progress

After

The combination of the Aero Scrubber really getting the road grit off of the paint and the Wash Wax All left the trailer surface feeling like I'd taken a clay bar to it (which is a time consuming process in which auto detailers use a firm piece of clay to lift grit and other surface contaminants that don't come off with normal vehicle washing).

This was about the level of black streaks all over the trailer before I started. Not horrible, but not something that would come off with a light wash.

 

Every last black streak is gone, and it looks new despite being four years old.

This process doesn't take less time than washing alone, but it takes WAY less time than washing and waxing does. It took me 3 hours start to finish, and that was taking my time and obsessing over it. Doing a coat of paste wax would take longer than that by itself! 

There are some cases where you will need a proper coat of paste wax, but if you keep up with it, something like Wash Wax All is all you should need.

My audience was bored

 

You may remember that my trailer began life as The Raffle Trailer:


I can't fault them for trying to get free advertising, but I would have taken those red letters off myself if the raffle winner hadn't done it before she even listed the trailer.






But when you remove vinyl decals like that, you're often left with "ghost letters":




If you google "How to remove ghost letters from trailer" you'll get a lot of responses, from using a heat gun (risky) to a razor blade (also risky) to Goo Gone (will take your paint off), to using a rubber wheel attachment on a drill (works but takes finesse).

When I stumbled upon Aero Cosmetics Wash Wax All, I noticed they had a product called "SafeSolv" which was listed as an "All Purpose Citrus Solvent.  Removes tar, oil, hydraulic fluid, adhesives and gum"


At $11.95, I figured it was worth a shot.  I threw one in my cart along with the recommended-but-not-necessary Aero Cosmetics bug scrubber, a paint-safe non-abrasive reusable scrubber designed to remove bug guts from the front end of an airplane.


I'm going to sound like a broken record here, but with almost no effort whatsoever, the SafeSolv just melted off the ghost letters:

I'M MELLLLTINGGG! - the ghost letters, probably

I sprayed it on and impatiently started scrubbing immediately, and the letters just melted off effortlessly.  If it felt like the scrubbing required elbow grease to remove the letters, I hadn't used enough SpraySolv.  Another spritz took them right off.  Like Wash Wax All, you then take a dry rag and wipe the surface down until it's dry to finish.

The ghost letters are gone!

It didn't say I had to do this, but I followed it up with Wash Wax All, just to get all the acidic citrus compounds off my paint.

The big gotcha with this stuff is that it WILL take your standard vinyl decals off too, because it's designed to dissolve adhesives on contact.  If you want to keep your vinyl decals, don't get SafeSolv on them.  I got a tiny bit on the tail end of the wispy decals in the photo above and it immediately started peeling back.  Good to know for when these poorly applied decals eventually fail and I have to remove them all (thanks, Shadow)


I'm keeping it in the house because it's also supposed to remove: "Chewing Gum, Grease, Stickers, Labels, Tape Residue, Oil, Blood, Lipstick, Mascara, Shoe polish, Crayon" so yeah, I think I'll put the rest of the bottle to good use!



What: Aero Cosmetics SafeSolv and Scrubber Pad
Quantity/Price: Various quantities available for both.  I paid $11.95 for 8oz of SafeSolv and $9.95 for one Scrubber and handle
Where to buy: Amazon or the Aero Cosmetics website