MeteoFrance was forecasting massive thunderstorms last night at my location and even my house insurer, AXA, sent me a text warning me to disconnect sensitive equipment. Now I do have a full cover for my M3W but it is the original Morgan one, made out of a waffle material that is about as waterproof as a string vest, in spite of many applications of patent waterproofing. It has been relegated to a dust cover for when the M3W is in its winter storage. Luckily the tonneau cover is pretty good but on the last storm I noticed that some water had dripped through at the zip. Now this is not the original zip, which failed at the insertion tab but one I had my local cover and tarpaulin maker, Monsieur Querol in Vidauban, stitch in for me and is a heavy duty, large tooth, black nylon zip, as used for wet suits.
I sprayed the whole tonneau cover with Nikwax and gave the zip a good soaking both open and closed. We duly had the storm from about 2AM all the way through to 6AM with continuous thunder and lightning. Fortunately the main thunder cell missed my house by around 1 km, as in the 17 years I have owned the house, it has been hit by lightning three times, causing electrical mayhem. When I went to the M3W this morning, I found not a drop of water inside, so the Nikwax had obviously done a good job. Less good was when I drove off when I found I had also coated the aero screens with the wax. Trying to wipe this off with screen cleaner, just smeared it around. I phoned Nikwax in Wadhurst, to ask what was a solvent for their wax and they suggested white vinegar but I really dislike the smell of this. Now the best solvent would probably be cellulose thinners or acetone but with plastic aero screens (? Acrylic or Polycarbonate) these were out of the question. I found that brake cleaner removes the wax very quickly, leaves no residue and does not harm the screens, so now I can see through them again. In retrospect, I should of course have taken the tonneau off the car to proof it but it is easy to be wise after the event.
Wilson
