Alright to pass some time whilst we’re confined to our homes I’ve decided to give the van a polish as I’ve wanted a kit for years as its black and faded and the last step in turning it from a delivery van into a camper!

I can see lots of different shades of black, most of it looks like a whitey/grey black and there is some terrible scratching and swirling of the paint. I can also see the old logos.

I’m thinking of using this site as they can post to me:
cleanyourcar.co.uk

Done some reading online but still not enough to press go…
I hear bilt hamber stuff is good and so is the DA6 Pro Plus DA

I know you’re meant to start with less aggressive stuff and work up but based on what I’ve said above does anyone have any recommendations for the kit I should or shouldn’t buy to make my van properly black again!

Thanks
Alex

Hey Alex,
give them a ring, i`ve always found them really helpful, always ready to answer any questions.
Also there is a great article on detailing world called Dave kg guide to DA polishing, google should bring that up, very thorough guide.
Stephen.

Just look at the badly hologrammed black cars on dealers forecourts where an employee with some, but not enough, practice has been let lose with the DA polisher.

The paintwork on my MG is pretty crap, but I’m confident it would look worse if I took a machine to it 🤣

thisisnotaspoon
Subscriber

Just look at the badly hologrammed black cars on dealers forecourts where an employee with some, but not enough, practice has been let lose with the DA polisher.

Didn’t bother prepping properly then too aggressive with a rotary and a cheap/aggressive compound more like.

OP – Get the DA6 Pro Plus DA, orange or green hex logic pad, scholl S20 black

As long as you clean the car thoroughly beforehand and follow a good guide e.g. one of the ones on the Forensic Detailing channel, you are highly unlikely to cause any problems.

The S20 black compound is a diminishing one, so it starts course and gradually gets finer as you use it on each panel. Means you don’t have to do a rough compound then a refining stage. Big time saver.

I’d still recommend using a heavy cut pad then going over with a finishing pad.

Ha I actually have that in my basket at the moment, but didn’t know if I should order the orange, green and blue (I believe the blue can be used simply to put the wax on) or is that step always best by hand?…

I also didn’t know if it should be orange OR green or both…

I noticed they have a Scholl s20 kit with 2 pads – is that worth going for to save a 10er or are the chemical bro’s pads much better?
https://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/scholl-concepts-s2-black-limited-edition-set#page=2&top=538&

Been looking at the Forensic guy which is how I got onto the da6 pro plus !

And I’ve also got some, bilt hamber auto foam, hard clay, cleanser polish and finis wax

Or have I gone overkill?

Thanks!

If it was me id do orbital polisher.
Clean the car.
Clay bar all over.
Polish with meguairs compound.
Then meguairs polish.
Then wax with a good quality wax.

I have done this with my car and haven’t had any swirl marks and I’m a bit of a perfectionist.

If you are after some cheap but quality stuff the poorboys stuff is worth a look.
If you’re local to the west midlands happy to show you the ropes

Scholl stuff is really good but I’ve found I get better results with meguiars 105/205.

Use a lake cutting pad.

Poorboy’s black hole after polishing then a decent wax.

DA is easy, rotary needs more skill or you’ll risk burning the paint.

It sounds like the paint is badly faded so you need to shift a bit of paint. Usually you err on cautious, start gentle polish and pad, then find the spots they need more aggressive work, got them with a heavier pad or polish out both, then refinish those areas, then LSP the car, but with something badly faded all over I’d probably hit it with something moderately aggressive all over, then a light pad) polish then LSP. The worry, heavy fading can be a sign that someone has applied polish, t- cut before and not LSP, repeatedly. If so the paint may be thin and aggressive polishing will go through the top layer. So, take care.

I recently polished a Hyundai i10. It is 7 years old and my wife now has it. It used to be dad’s until he passed away. So I know it’s history and that it had never been polished. The paint was badly swirled and plenty of deep randoms, but no fading. Someone not obsessed would think it looked fine. I thought it was shot. I sort of ignored several rules…. Went at it with a cutting pad and …t-cut (yes really) but gently. Then a reducing and gentle polish (ssr1) with a heavy polish pad, then with a finish pad and ssr1, then when a fresh finish pad it got 2 layers of Natty’s wax, and finally a wipe off sonax bsd. It now looks fab. However it took ages, despite being a small car. 10 hours maybe with the wash and deiron, and doing the wheels.

As for clay… Use a mitt, farecla G3, it’s easier. Use super soapy water or a quick detailer as a lube. But on a car needing a heavy polish it’s of limited value. If just waxing, or light swirl removal then yes, wash, detar, de iron, clay, before polish, or risk a bit of contamination adding to your swirls. But if heavy polishing…..I didn’t bother.

Great thread potentially. I will be doing my Mondeo this weekend if I have a decent option.

I don’t think my S20 is colour specific though and was going to go straight on with black hole after clean and clay bar. But I’m guessing that’s not right?

I’ve got a DA6 here but it’s 5-6 years old now bought from website in OP.

Weeksy don’t wax over poor paintwork. The idea is to polish it to a high gloss them use the wax to protect and enhance the gloss even more.
If you just go straight to wax then you won’t get the results you’re after

as big yim says.

wax away for just a ayer of protection….but even then be careful not to swirl the paint as you do with some contaminant in the paint.

if you’ve got a DA then a decent finish is in your grasp, and easy, but does still take a bit of time. To do my Octy externally, fully takes 8 or so hours, but that includes wheels and black plastic and rubber trim. Doing fuly means:
1. wash with 2 bucket method (in hte winter it may get a pressure wash first and a bit of citrus power trafic film remover)
2. iron-x to get the iron off. (the i10 is a light silver….it turned purple at this step!)
3. de tar with a tar remover or white spirit
4. clay mitt to get the remain contaminants off ( there will be some). paint should now be very clean and smoth, run a finger over it, or a finger in a plastic bag, it will not have any tugs/pimples/sharp bits. its now ready to correct the paint if needed, or to LSP it.
6. if correcting paint…well i covered it above.
7 LSP (last stage protection) sealant lasts longer but wax has the ultimate shine, you can wax over sealant but not the other way around. apply wax in as many layers, THIN layers, as you wish.

if you do it well the sealant/wax will stick better and last longer, protecting the paint for longer as well as looking better.

there are plenty of good youtube vids on how to, and products. and good places to buy online. cleanyourcar is what i’ve used.

If anyone is near SE19 i bought a few products in bulk and could supply a sensible sized bottle cheap

Scholl S20 is the perfect polish for a newbie as has been pointed out in another post…

Start out with a polishing pad over a cutting pad and get a feel for the machine.
Don’t rush things and don’t get annoyed if you don’t get things perfect first time around. It’s all about practice. You will get some fantastic results with a DA.

I personally started off with a DA, but moved on to a mains Rotary and recently bought a new cordless Flex rotary i haven’t used yet.

It could be me, but there seems to be a bit of confusion about Black Hole a few posts up…firstly it’s not a wax and it’s definitely not a standalone product…it’s a pretty heavy filling glaze which will make the car look nice, filling swirls etc for a few weeks until the fillers wash away. It’s ok for a quick fix but you need to put a wax over the top to “lock in” the product.

Remember to decontaminate the van before you start polishing…

My routine is usually

1. Wash
2. Tar remover
3. Rinse
4. Fallout remover
5. Rinse or even better a quick wash
6. Dry
7. Prep (tape up plastic trim etc)
8. Start polishing!
9. Dress exterior trim
11. Wax/Sealant
12. Clean glass etc

If you want to clay the van, you can do that instead of numbers 2+4 but my personal preference is that above…

Just take your time and enjoy it

I do the clay after 2,and 4. Ive had very visible contaminant firmly stuck that iron x nor detar shifted, the clay mit did. but its worth 2 and 4 first as these are chemical not mechanical methods to remove contaminant, any mechanical method risks paint damage (random scratches) so, get the contaminants off chemically if you can.

I’d also dress trim after lsp on paint….I’m too lazy to tape off trip so will get the odd bit of lsp on plastic which will go white, but by dressing after that is seen to. These are just my preferences though.

weeksy
Subscriber
Great thread potentially. I will be doing my Mondeo this weekend if I have a decent option.

I don’t think my S20 is colour specific though and was going to go straight on with black hole after clean and clay bar. But I’m guessing that’s not right?

No the product is just called S20 black 🙂

I got the slims DA polisher and 3 pad pack. It brought my 03 Celica up to looking brand new which really helped the sale, same on the following 2 cars and now regularly called on by friends to borrow it for carpark scratches. Unless it’s down to the metal, compound and coarse pad followed by fine and polish has removed every scratch I’ve tried so far. Even after a few sessions it takes a full 8 hours regardless of car size for me with wash/clay bar/polish/paint seal (which is better than wax unless you want a show car imo) so bear in mind you need to start early in the day and be sure it won’t rain

I think my motor will get a decent going over during the coming week or two.

Given that it takes a while, I plan to do something along the lines of above but spread over a couple of days, as it’s a big car.

Thinking do the wash and clay thing then polish and wax/seal the horizontal surfaces (roof/bonnet) on day one, then the vertical surfaces day two.

Sound alright?

Never done detailing before. Any good websites for the basics?

Go on then my interest is piqued. The Cmax looks shite but I dont care, theres a big dot4 hand print on the bonnet. And the midgets paint is incredibly soft so full of swirls and 5 years of storage hasnt been kind to the finish, bird shit, dust and the odd leaky roof have conspired to leave a few marks.

Whats the difference between a £40 generic model (theres a couple of similar looking models that crop up in aldi/screwfix/toolstation/meguiars/halfords/vonhaus etc. And a £140 DA polisher?

I dont have £140 plus all the materials, but £40 for a “sander” I can justify and fair the boat while Im at it.

don’t confuse a rotary with a dual action for one, and wattage for 2, and probably tool quality for 3. if you need to remove a lot of paint to correct paint then more wattage does really help. correcting a few swirls and a DAS6 is sufficient. That said I got my DA from argos at a cost of about £65 or £75 IIRC and i wouldn’t want anything more powerful, not as a novice, I have no desire to **** up the paint on a car and more power means you can do that…quickly.

youtube is your friend for learning.

The meguiars youtube channel is decent for learning the basics. Hopefully that link works

I’ve been looking at this kit but seems it’s now gone out of stock!
DA8 kit