An experiment gone awry.

Several years ago I got caught up in the “Red Wax polish” phenomenon of using this wax to polish my RV. The wax was then available at Lowe’s as a liquid. A particular friend had used it to make his RV shine prior to selling it. It really looked great!

After some internet searching I too decided to use it to make my RV shine. Bummer, “Red Wax polish” was no longer available but some folks were using Zep Hi Gloss floor Finish with similar results instead.

So, why not give it a try. The cleaning itself was brutal as all dirt had to be removed by a multi-step process by first washing the RV, then using a 3M white scrubby with Bar Keepers Friend on it to remove any old wax. The RV was again washed with TSP followed by another water rinse. I must say, the surface was now very smooth but dull.

The Zep polish is a liquid so I used a white micro fiber cloth dipped in the polish and an aluminum pie tin to hold a small amount of the wax (a colored cloth will bleed into the wax). The idea was to coat the surface of the RV in multiple coats not worrying about perfect coverage as subsequent coats would cover any missed areas.

Only a small area is covered at one time so that means many, many trips up and down the 8 foot step ladder. In all I did 4 coats over a couple of days. After the first coat the surface looks blotchy but by the third coat the shine is something to see. Adding a 4^th coat really made it look show room new.

About a year later I noticed that the top of the front and rear cap were loosing their shine so I reapplied more wax to those areas. After about 3 years the wax was beginning to peel as the suns UV rays got to it (my RV sits outside) and it wasn’t looking so nice.

What to do? More Google research and now folks are saying “Don’t use Zep Hi Gloss floor finish” because of the UV ray damage to the wax. Even Zep has issued a disclaimer about it.

So, after much research I decided to use the Meguiar 3 step process to remove and restore the gloss to the Gel coat finish.

Not so fast! First I need to remove the old wax. I tried using the old tried and true Bar Keepers Friend method and a white scrubby. I worked sort of, but was really labor intensive, so I did what boating users do and that is to use Xylene which is a slow evaporating heavy duty cleaner.

Nada, It didn’t work. Now what? Lets try Acetone in a small out of the way place. It works but still is a slow process as it evaporates very fast. I used old cut up t-shirts as rags. Putting a small amount on the rag and wiping removes the wax but requires constantly turning the rag to a clean spot and redoing each small area a few times to remove all the wax. By looking at the surface from a side view any missed areas are visible. Caution should be used on painted surfaces as Acetone will remove the paint.

I decided to do one side at a time starting with the door side as it took the worst of the sun and was peeling badly in spots. All of this process should be done in the shade so in my case I could work for a few hours in the morning before the sun came around to that side. It took me 3 days to remove just the one side. It took me 3 more days to complete the Meguiar’s process on that one side. Do you have any idea of how many trips up and down that ladder I made or how many old t-shirts I cut into rages? Fortunately, because of the sun getting to that surface I only worked a few hours some days. At other times I got up at 6:30 in the morning and started right to work.

After removing the wax I wiped the surface with the Xylene to remove any remaining wax. Then I washed it with TSP using a long handled brush. This was followed by a fresh water rinse and drying with a chamois.

The first step in using Meguiar’s is the cleaning process. The second is a polish, restorer, and the third is a pure Carnuba wax protector. All are applied using a 6 inch buffer to a small area at a time and immediately after in the case of the first 2 steps, remove the polish using cut up t-shirt rags while the final wax is polished with a Terry Cloth pad.

Three weeks later, I have now completed that one side, the back, and the front and have removed some of the old wax on the remaining side. I am not completely happy with the front and back so I will probably do another layer of the Carnuba wax when I am at Visitadores in 2 weeks. While I am there I can easily reach both of those ends. The remaining side will get done later as it is in the shade more than the other side was and has been somewhat protected from the UV rays.

The final result is a shinny surface, much like it was when I bought the RV in 2005.

Not a good view but the sun was shining on the other surfaces.

I bought my wax and polishing pads on Amazon. So far I had to reorder once but I think I may need another order of wax and pads before I am done.

I don't know why the difference in text within the blog. It is all the same until I post it on-line. Something to do with Blogger i guess.

A "Keyhole" garden

It seems I am a little behind the times here as I haven’t posted since February 21^st. Maybe it is because we haven’t gone anywhere since then but have just been doing things around the house.

I did have one project that intrigued me and that was to build a “Keyhole Garden” after talking to son Tim about the one he was working on. Some Google research told me a lot about them and it soon became apparent that a true 6 foot diameter keyhole garden required a lot of compostable material, something in short supply right now in my garden. The name drives from the slot shaped much as a piece of pie removed from the circle which allows access to a wire cage in the middle to add compost material and to harvest vegetables.

However, I did have enough material for a 3 foot diameter keyhole garden, minus the keyhole (keyhole not needed for a 3 foot diameter circle), which would go nicely in a spot from which we had removed a very thorny cactus, think big pointy spikes.

Keyhole gardens originated in England and are used in some African countries which had little good soil. They basically are used to grow vegetables. A well known authority is Dr Deb Tolman of Texas who teaches classes in building Keyhole gardens. Her videos are available on YouTube.

I had a supply of bricks available so that became my material for making the walls. First I drew a circle and then I first dug down to increase the depth of the keyhole and also to level the spot. I next laid the bricks 5 layers high. I cut and fit chicken wire in the bottom to discourage rodents and a certain snoopy dog, (Craig’s).

I then wet large sheets of cardboard and fitted them into the circle including up the sides. I built a chicken wire cage about 8-9 inches in diameter and tall enough to reach above the expected top of the soil. I inserted a tin can in the top of the cage with a lid on it again to keep pests out. This cage will be filled with kitchen garbage and shredded paper and watered well each time it is filled. The hope is that the water will wash nutrients from the kitchen vegetables down into the soil and the surrounding plants will send their roots deep to get moisture thereby needing less water.

I added rough compostable materials such as old tin cans and rough wood cuttings. All of these will break down over time and supply nutrients to the soil.

Next was several layers of wet newspapers and newspaper type magazines.

On top of this was added brown leafy cuttings and branches, shredded waste paper, kitchen garbage, green leafy material, and finished compost. Each layer was wet down with a hose. A top layer of about 6-8 inches of good garden soil was used to finish of the garden. The soil was sloped to be high near the center so rainwater will drain off.

So what has been the results of this experiment? So far, I have 3 of the wire cages in use, 1 in the Keyhole garden and one each next to 2 rose bushes. The 3 of them use up most of the compostable kitchen garbage we generate. I plan to add 3 or 4 more cages in my garden when I plant my tomatoes, zucchini, and squash. The hope is that we will generate more kitchen garbage in the summer time.

I don't know why I have larger text in one paragraph as it is the same text height in my original copy. Leave it to Blogger to change something. Always an adventure!