Cob Jockey

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

Since I've now gone way out of my way to make this trailer exactly what I want it to be, it's time I started taking care of it.  You really should wash your trailer regularly and wax it twice a year.  I...have not done that.  In fact, I haven't washed or waxed it once yet...bad.  Traditional waxing, washing and clay barring is just a lot of freaking work, and that's time I don't have, so I've slacked.

But then I stumbled upon this:


It's a waterless wash/wax originally intended for airplanes (which are made of painted aluminum just like my horse trailer), and from what I can tell by the reviews (five stars after 2,000 reviews on Amazon!), it has a niche cult following.  It's made to Boeing and Airbus specifications for aircraft safety, and is biodegradable.

I'll cut to the chase: I was freaking blown away by this stuff.  Both how easy and fast it was to apply, and how amazing the results were.  My trailer looked like I spent hours washing, clay barring and waxing it.  If you live in a drought/water restricted area or if you just don't have a ton of time to spend on trailer maintenance like me, this stuff is the holy grail.

Before:



After:


How do you use it?

Step 1: Spray on small area of trailer

Step 2: Wipe off.

That's it! And the trailer looks and feels like it just came out of the show room with that new trailer gleam.

Reflecting the indoor and the 3h slant next to it like a mirror!

It took me an hour and a half to do the outside of my trailer by hand.  I would spray it on, use a rag more or less soaked in it to agitate the dirt and black streaks, and then dry it completely with a dry rag.  As the dry rag got soaked, I demoted it to damp rag duty.  The damp rag was kind of unnecessary, but it worked for me.

Left side before, right side after (look at the caulk!)

Several things to note if you try this:- You have to dry it with a towel before it air dries or else it will leave a cloudy film (which you fix by re-wetting it with Wash Wax All and re-drying).

- It's safe to use every time you wash your trailer (the wax won't build up).

- If you submit a question about this via Amazon or the company's website, the owner will reply to you.  He's very passionate about his products and making sure people have a good experience with them.

- If your trailer has a lot of grit on the surface, it's a good idea to rinse it first so that you don't drag particles across it and scratch the paint.  I did not do this.

- A 16oz bottle ($9.95) did my 7'6 tall x 12'10 long x 6'4 wide trailer with very little left over

- I did it by hand with towels, but they do make poles and scrubbers to make it go quicker for large vehicles.  I recommend doing your trailer by hand at least the first time though - inspecting it that closely, I discovered some minor maintenance issues I'd have missed if I used a pole, such as failing caulk and nose paint chipped by rocks.

Working my way around the nose

- It's safe to use on "any surface that can get wet" but do a patch test first!

- It's probably not going to work well on a trailer with a busted clear coat or oxidized/chalky fiberglass.

- For tougher dirt, the instructions say to wipe with a damp (water) rag before drying, but I didn't have to do that.

- My black streaks were fairly new so it almost completely took them all off.  If your black streaks have become black stains, they recommend using "Polish All" to take them off.

- You could use this stuff to do like, one section per day if you only had 10 minutes after your ride to do it and couldn't dedicate a couple of hours to doing it all at once. 


This isn't an ad and they're not compensating me for this, this is just a freaking awesome and relatively cheap product that I wanted to share with everyone.  I've got a couple of other of their products I'll be reviewing too, but this is the main one.


Bottom Line: This is a game changer for trailer maintenance for me.  If you don't have time to devote to trailer cleaning, or if you live in a drought-prone area, this is a must have!

What: AeroCosmetics Wash Wax All
Quantity/price: Various, from 4oz for $4.95 to 5 gallons for $139.95.  16oz did my 1H slant once.
Where to buy: Amazon or direct from the manufacturer