Rain X stuff

Recently, I got an offer from Rain X to try their new Latitude wipers. I don’t know if I actually needed new wiper blades, but I hadn’t changed them since I got my car in 2004, so I convinced my frugal side to give the Latitudes a try. They came as part of a kit along with Rain X glass cleaner, glass treatment (their claim-to-fame product), and a microfiber cleaning cloth.

The glass cleaner came in an aerosol can, rather than a typical blue stuff spray bottle. When you spay it on, it foams. I used the cleaner and microfiber cleaning cloth to clean all the windows of my car. Beforehand, they were dirty. Afterward, they were clean. I’m not sure that it worked any better than the blue stuff. I’d probably only buy it again if it’s cheaper, or is more environmentally friendly. I have no idea about either yet.

The microfiber cloth is actually quite nice. It has little pockets in the corners for your fingers so you can easily get the cloth into the nearly unreachable inside corners of your windshield.

The Latitude wipers are the newer “beam” style assembly, with a single curved, springy beam that is supposed to evenly distribute the wiper pressure across the windshield, as opposed to standard wipers which have several “pressure” points, according to the Rain X marketing department. The wipers have some weight to them, and feel like a quality product. They were fairly easy to install, although I had some trouble when trying the different adapters.

When I placed my order, their web site guided me to the correct driver and passenger wipers sizes for your year, make, and model, which was great. After I installed the Latitudes, I sprayed water on the windshield to test them. They completely missed a four inch wide, six inch long swath right in my field of vision. My first instinct was that I installed them incorrectly. A quick look at the instructions revealed that it was reversed, left to right. I couldn’t imagine how this would make a difference, based on the design, and sure enough after I fixed it, the wiper still missed the same large swath.

I decided to try the other adapter in hopes that it was a bit larger and would cause more pressure on the blade. It was a pain to change, and involved using a screwdriver to pry things. I can understand that, since you don’t want your wiper assembly flying off at high speed, but still overly tough. Unfortunately, neither adapter allowed the blade to contact the windshield fully in this one area. Since that pretty much defeated the purpose, I gave up and put my old wipers back on.

The Rain X glass treatment works pretty well. I had used it, or something similar (I think it was Rain X brand, but can’t remember for sure), about 8 years ago, and remember it working well.

At low speeds (under 30 mph) with light rain, water beads instantly, but you still need to use your wipers intermittently to clear the water. Heavy rain runs down and off the windshield at low speed, and amazingly enough, you can still see clearly and only use your wipers as needed. At higher speeds (over 40 mph), light and heavy rain are blown up and off the windshield. This higher speed effect is quite nifty to see, and works surprisingly well at keeping the windshield clear even in fairly hard rain. Of course, you should still use your wipers as needed.

There is a gray area between “low” and “high” speeds where the airflow over the windshield holds even larger water beads in place. I’ve had to use my wipers more in that gray area than at either low or high speed.

So far, the only downside I’ve found is that under very light rain, the glass treatment can leave a light haze on the windshield after clearing it with the wipers. It doesn’t hamper visibility, but it is definitely noticeable. I don’t know how long a single application of the glass treatment will last. I’ve heard 2-3 months. It only takes a few minutes to apply, so that’s probably long enough not to be annoying.

I’ve read in several places that PPG Aquapel is at least as good, and may last a good bit longer. If the Rain X doesn’t last 2-3 months, I may give the Aquapel a try later in the spring.

Thanks, JD

Last January, when I was unemployed for a while, doing the job search thing and driving to interviews almost every day, I got used to quickly backing my car out from the garage onto the carport, a space off to the side of our driveway where Lor parks her truck, and then taking off down the driveway. I got a little too accustomed to it, apparently, as I did the same routine while Lor was home, and the (old) truck was parked there. Imagine my surprise when the car came to a sudden, and fairly loud, halt as I backed square into the truck. It left a nice hole in my rear bumper, a nice bow in the left side of my trunk line at the seam, and several spots of chipped paint.

Better yet, Lor was in the car when it happened. Fortunately, it didn't really hurt the truck at all.

A few minutes later after the humiliation died down, it all became very funny, as those things usually do. We decided that since the car was still perfectly drivable, we would wait a while to get it fixed, at least until I had found a job, and we had finished the bathroom remodel.

So here we are one year later, and we finally got it fixed. This was our second dealing with JD Auto Body in Verona. The first was with my 2000 Jetta, which we guess was the victim of a toppled 4x4 post in the Home Depot parking lot. JD did an excellent job then, and so we went back.

They did an excellent job once again. The estimate was reasonable (they did estimates for both repairing and replacing the bumper), were able to get me on their schedule within a week, let me drop off and pick up when it was convenient for me, and were friendly the whole time.

To my admittedly untrained eye, they did a great job with the repairs. I had them fix some scratches and nicks on the front bumper in addition to repairing the rear. Both turned out looking brand new. The seam that they repaired between the trunk and the rear left panel is tighter and more aligned than the factory seam on the other side.

While I'm sure they had to wash the car to work with clean bumpers and to match the paint, they really washed it. Honestly, it is the cleanest it has been since we drove it off the lot back in 2004. It looks like a new car.

So, if your car needs body work, I highly recommend JD.

New truck

We finally said good-bye to Lor’s ‘96 4Runner last week. It was a great truck, and was still going strong after almost 160k miles. We decided we needed something bigger for Home Depot runs, and antiquing. So, Lor found a used 2006 Toyota Tundra Limited double cab with only 14k miles on Autotrader—quite a find, so we’ve been told. We got it from Land Rover of North Hills, and they gave us a great deal, and were very nice to deal with. The previous owner apparently trades in his current vehicle once a year (or more) for whatever happens to suit his mood. Good deal for us.

He also loaded the truck up with some nice extras that we basically got for no cost. It has what looks like a fairly expensive set of off-road lights (I’m no off-road light connoisseur), on a huge bumper/grille protector. It has running boards, a bed liner, a hydraulic hard cover for the bed, and a bed extender! He also installed a satellite radio, which still seems to have an active subscription.

We probably won’t get much use from the lights, as nice as they are, so we may try to eBay them. They do look pretty cool (if slightly intimidating), though, so maybe we should keep them for effect.

That’s two vehicle ironies in the past month. My small-but-mighty wife drives a big intimidating truck, and my dad, the most humble and understated person I know, drives a 263 horsepower rocket with a wing on the back.