Having only ever given the van a wash now and again and a polish if there was a wedding or a show, I recently found on the internet the black art of 'car detailing'. There are people who spend hours polishing Fords, Jags, even Renaults and Citroens, they are all extremely anal about it but you can't knock the results.
This was all new to me, but after a bit of research I decided to give it a go on the splitty. Apparently whites and lights will never achieve the same depth of shine as a darker colour, so I treated top and bottom differently.
After washing with Johnsons baby shampoo (no additives or residue) the bottom half was clayed. This was a bit like rubbing it all over with a lump of Blu-tac, but it was a step worth doing. Loads on the web and YouTube about this....
Top half was polished with Autoglym, bottom was then polished with a carnauba based wax. There are lots of these on the market, but I used the wonderfully named Dodo Juice Rainforest Rub...

The results...







Not bad at all considering the van was sprayed by me, 7 years ago, with a £60 Aldi compressor. I'm pleased with the reflections in the last two shots, even though it's the shaded side you can still see the reflection of the van's shadow and the edge of the drive in the paintwork.

Let's not let the patina boys have it all their own way, more pics of shiny buses please....

Come on Chris Lodge & Mark Pinder, super straight panel work and great paint, I'll post a few of mine while we're waiting

Cool shots dudes here is a few of mine

Painted by myself in my single garage at home, lots of colour sanding, buffing and polishing later got me this...





And putting him to work...



Nige

Hi
Will never pass up the chance to post this picture,
First ever run on my van after 5 years hard work in the garage.


Or this one from last year


Or this one from last month..


Or this one from last week....



Ahhhh shiny buses.....love the foxon,beyond shiny........

Quite happy with it for a leaky lean too budget resto!

I was that OCD detailer a few years back, and I mean serious. I entered national competitions reaching the NEC classic grand final etc it got far too obsessive. In the end I decided to sell the car that was becoming too mint to drive and entered the world of VW (well I had one already I just wanted another)

THis is Daphne after a one hour protection detail (yes there is such a thing) - when it was serious and I was losing the plot it would be 16 hours detailing on paint alone. And this was considered quick by some people! Anycase Daphne never ever sees shampoo and a bucket as old habits still die hard. She is cleaned by a mixture of............... oh hang on its coming back. Must stop.

WOW

I'm loving the shiney bus scene !

me personally, I was going to restore Laura and go down the shiney route, but BJ1 made a comment of "don't over restore it or she'll lose her character".
Since then I have sympathetically restored Laura and proud of her pantina.

I have to say those these buses are great. I often wonder what Laura would look like shined up, but try not to think about it......

8bus is awesome - loving the orange.

and well done to all the painters in cramped conditions + lowbudget etc

yours buses do you proud.

Jason

Another one for the shinies:)

Here's mine, I bought a hand held polisher but I found it was easier by hand with all the curves.


wolfsburgweedhuggers.co.uk

wolfsburgweedhuggers.co.uk

Here's mine,



Couple of panels have got a couple of runs/blemish's I'd like to get rid of. Any of the OCD detailers got any advice on techniques or products?