Not that I experience near the severity of summer thunderstorms that friends of mine do throughout other parts of the country, but sometimes just a little bit of spit from the clouds above is more annoying than torrential downpours. Not even two days after my most recent truck and trailer wash, humidity started to roll up against the hills near where I park, with just enough spit to turn dust to mud on the truck. At least if it rained buckets I might be tempted to go out and throw some suds on and let Mother Nature do her thing to rinse the dust off…just kidding! All kidding aside though, I would prefer at least enough rain to rinse off the dust instead of just clumping it up all over my freshly washed truck and wagon.
One thing I have learned to use to alleviate some of the frustration when this happens begins right in the wash bay in the form of RainX. Opting in for this seems to help more with heavy rain after a wash though, but is something I always spring the extra couple bucks for. If little drops of mud can’t be helped from a little drizzle, I carry a small arsenal of 5 stand-by products that always have steered me right. They are all products of Zephyr consisting of their Pro-40 Perfection metal polish, Pro-33 SPO-DEE-O-DEE (which is just fun to say), Pro-39 Ultima protectant and their Pro-50 Eliminator. Although I discovered this brand based near my hometown here in Ontario, CA because of their Pro-40 metal polish, their full line of products help with those post-wash rain blues in making my truck look like I ran it through another wash. Pro-33, the one with the cool name, is an awesome spray-on, wipe off wax that requires no water or intense rubbing. If my rubber or plastic aero pieces need sprucing up, Pro-39 Ultima does the trick and doesn’t do too shabby on my interior pieces as well. In the event I have hard water spots from some of the drops on my glass, paint, or shiny stuff, I use the Pro-50 Eliminator to easily wipe the spots off without damage to the surface.
My 15 years of using Zephyr products has led me to realize that this hometown brand has the quality it takes to take those grimy blues away after a post-wash rain scenario. It also doesn’t hurt that they offer a 15% discount to OOIDA members on direct orders through their website (https://zephyrpro40.com) and offer a wide range of sizes from small bottles to gallon jugs! They help make my truck go from work truck to show truck every time I pull in somewhere to display the newest Freightliner technology in my New Cascadia. The guys from Zephyr even came to the rescue last year at GATS when I had brought the New Cascadia and its “Bull Wagon” out for their show debut, but left my Zephyr kit in the garage. Luckily the Zephyr guys were on hand and kicked me down a bottle before they could even set up their point-of-sale in their booth. Whatever brand you use, be sure to have some of these easy spray waxes, spot removers and metal polishes on hand to help keep the shine through monsoon season and on into winter! Making sure to take the time to keep your truck beautiful helps to project a highly visible image of your business as an owner-operator, long before you even step one foot out of the cab. Put your best shine forward and wipe those tear drops, I mean raindrops, away!
