After a long winter and a fresh set of white wheels it highlighted the paint needed a bit of tlc on the Kangoo. First good day on a weekend so decided to crack on.
The paint had gone very oxidised on the roof/sides as it had not been very well cared for in the past. The paint was also very soft and had been agressively polished with a heavy cut and poss rotary before as i noticed that its almost struck through to primer on some edges so had to proceed with real caution as a heavy cut which was really needed was not possible. I really needed a paint thickness gauge but did not have one available so just done the tested method of using the least agressive cut to get the job done.
First stage was wash and clay. Followed by mask up..the clay was absolutely black off the roof.
Masked up and i cracked on. Im still a novice with the da having only used rotary and g3 many years ago so had to proceed with caution. I started on the roof incase of a f**k up and could hide it easy. 2×2 foot area marked out and tarted by using a finishing pad on the da with no cut and poorboys white diamond glaze. One pass with the da and whiter but no shine. Tried a chemical guys finishing polish on the finishing pad and not much better. Next step was a chemical guys light cutting compound and blue light polishing pad. Come up nice and white so give it 2 passes to work the compound in whilst checking the pad for paint transfer. Looked minimal so went for it.
Pic of the roof half way through. Its a little hard to see but the difference is night and day, lower part of pic after first cut.
Front and sides done, should have masked up better really but time permitting was adequate.
After this i give it a once over with Poorboys white diamond glaze and finishing pad to try and fill any imperfections and improve finish
Bird s**t on it before applying wax - the joys of living near the seaside lol
This in total took 5-6 hours - there is a lot of panelwork on a van even though it is a small one ! I should have stripped mirrors and trims off really but it would have rolled into 2 days work easy.
After this i applied 2 coats of Collinite 476s wax to seal the cleaned and glazed paint, by hand this time as shoulder was killing me off the da. No trim gel as waiting for some Gtechniq c4 to arrive.
Happy with the finish however i feel i could have improved it a lot better if it had more paint on it. I guess its had stickers removed in the past and quick flog over with a rotary. Would have been nice to wet sand it and really bring it up but this is what i have so worked with it. Thanks for reading !
