I am not the best automotive care person in the world. In fact I don't think I have ever waxed my truck. But my RV is different. It's like my baby. So, when I first got it I immediately wanted to give it a good cleaning. Inside and out. I noticed this black gooey(mostly dried) stuff oozing out every external seam (not the storage compartment doors, but the windows, the main fiberglass intersections and the door) I tried to wash it off and found it to be very sticky, like pitch only not quite as bad, and it sort of smeared around making a big mess. Some of it is pretty thickly beaded and dried. I had no luck removing it.

During one of my many trips to the RV store, I inquired what this stuff was and how to safely remove it. I was told it was the sealant oozing out and it is safe to remove, just use a razor blade. My big disclaimer here is that if your RV has different sides, say metal, or gel-coaded fiberglass, my technique might not work. First ask your neighborhood RV place their opinion on goo removal for your particular exterior material. Well that sounded pretty scary to me so I set about doing this carefully. First my list of tools are as follows:

• clean angled Knife cutter blades(used in Utility knives), not the small square razor blades
• dry paper towels
• Simple Green

Then after some careful experimentation I found this process to work the best:

1. Pick your seam, such as a window. ensure you have a good edge to follow. point the blade perpenticular to the seam right up close to the edge and score the dried black goo using the edge of the seam, such as the black window edge, as your guide. Score carefully, not straying from that edge at all. I score about 6" at a time
2. Now place the blade along the fiberglass flat with the sharp edge pointing toward your edge. Push up into the goo running it right close to the RV surface and you should be able to lift a chunk of this goo off. Sometimes it is dry enough that it just breaks off. You will have some residue. You can try to score it off or just leave that little bit for cleaning later
3. After you go a ways you can now take and clean off the residue. Spray the area(not the paper towel) with Simple Green
4. Use a dry paper towel, to clean off the remaining little bits of residue, you need the paper towel dry to use its roughness, once wet it just seems to smear around

I worked on this project bit by bit and after a couple of weeks had all but the overhead cab window clean. what a difference it made. My RV looked crisp and clean. I now wish I had taken before images to compare to now. Ok, HUGE TIP here....Please, please keep track of all your goo remnants. I did all this work in my gravel side driveway and that darn goo stuck to my shoes like gum making a mess. It took me some time to get that stuff picked out of our gravel. So I suggest keeping it picked up as you go.

Next I tackled the black streaks. I hear this effect is a result of a dirty roof, so I figure I will always battle them. I found if I mixed some Simple Green with hot water, and perhaps threw in some Car Wash soap, I could remove the streaks. I had to get up on a ladder and scrub by hand, the extension pole brush wasn't enough. Then I finished up the project with a good wax job using RV wax.

I still have two more details to look into that I will report on when I get to them, namely, washing the roof and resealing the seams.

Here are my plans for the last two tasks. I have devised my plans based on reading forums and talking to RV owner folks.

• On the roof, I hear I can use a really strong cleaner, such as oxy-clean, but I will undo my great wax job. I also hear if you do use a strong cleaner, you need your co-pilot on hand with a hose to keep the cleaner from sitting on the sides, streaking them. So, you can see I haven't felt like tackling this one yet.
• For the sealant project I would have jumped right on it, but my local RV store only carries clear sealant and my RV has white. I need to dig up some white to match what is already on it.