Here's the (so far) saga of the 1984 vanagon that I got from a friend as part of a trade.
He was going to cut it up, and I wanted to get rid of the syncro vanagon that I had that needed more work than I could justify. Plus, I wanted a 2wd one for lowering and putting in a subaru engine.
On to the pics....
here's what we started with, before a wash with meg's GC.....
and a shot of the interior.
(yes, that's a sneak peek of one of the wheels that I'm going to use, they're 18x8.5" RH AD cups. ):spot
anyway....started with clay, and used a bunch of my Griot's stuff on the van. Why griot's? I had a friend that worked there, and got me started on the detailing path. Plus, they're only 10 minutes from the house.
It was really taking some time to get the paint to come back using the Griot's orange pads and their machine polish 2. It was working, but there's a LOT of real estate on this here rolling toaster.
you can see how nicely the old T3 single stage paint comes back with just a quick pass over the paint, even using the Griots stuff.
I had ordered a swirlbuster pad and sonus polish a while back, in anticipation of a big show coming up later this summer, and wanting the TDI wagon to look it's best, and get the TDI rabbit whipped into shape for the show season as well. I decided to pull out the Autopia box and give the stuff a whirl, I was hesitant, as the stuff was pricier than the Griot's product, and it hardly seemed worth it for this old van....
:shocked shaz-frickin'-bot!
I re-did the door and most of the driver's side in the time it took to do the first night of polishing, in which I didn't get results that I was happy with. I went from this, which is a good shot of the passenger side, and the how bad the scratches in the paint all over were-
(you can see the amount of stuff in the paint. scratches, marks, spots, you name it. the whole van looked like this. )
After two nights of polishing, here we are. I couldn't get out the big deep one in the center-it's down to primer through two coats ( upper and lower) of paint. I'll probably touch that one up later...
:drool: I really can't describe the difference in the product. The previous owner saw the pics and was speechless. His friend came by the shop to pick up some parts and didn't think it was the same van. Lest I remind you, this van was going to be cut up to fix another one. ( I suggested they use the newer, more dented one for parts) I've just ordered the small 4" pads to get into the body crease easier, and then I'll throw on a nice coat of meg's #21 to really make it shine!
Now on to the interior.
They nicknamed this van "smokey". I'm not a car-naming type person. But I'll tell you, this van stunk. Like a tobacconist. Like the guy chewed packs of discount cigs and threw up in the car. daily. with all his friends.
After I swept (yes, with a broom) the van out.
I then used my shop vac to clean the carpets.
My shopvac died a horrible death shortly afterwards. ( no kidding, the motor burned up)
I then used APC to clean the headliner, stoner's invisible glass cleaner and newspaper to clean the windows, and pulled out the trusty Sears Cleanmore that I found in my alley about 4 years ago. ( rebuilt the pump, put on a new plug, and it's been cleaning cars ever since ) It's like a shop-vac/carpet cleaner system. Anyway, it holds about 5 gallons of steaming water + cleaning solution, and has a rental-type sprayer head on it. Kicks tail for free...
Here's where the carpet was AFTER brooming/shop-vac action.....
Notice the lack of pile near the egress area on the driver's side. That's all dirt matted into the carpet. No kidding.
After quite a few gallons of the Cleanmore solution, nearly a whole (mixed) bottle of AIO cleaner, a spray bottle of h20, and quite liberal use of my carpet scrubbing brush, and some time to let the whole thing dry out a little.....
The rest of the carpet came even better, since it doesn't appear that more than one or two people used this van, they just neglected it.
I used an Oust air freshener, and let it sit in the van closed up for almost a week straight. Before, I'd start sneezing when I opened it up, and you could smell the smoke from about 25 feet away with the windows open. Now, I can open it up, and sit inside with no discomfort. It's not quite as good as having an ozone machine, but the Oust worked pretty well for a $10 experiment. I'm sure getting as much residue off the interior beforehand helped that scenario.
I won't go into the details of the engine that poured frappucinos out the tailpipe( mixture of coolant/water/and oil) but I will say that with a replacement engine, it's now running, awaiting the lowering springs/tires, and subaru engine conversion. If you've ever had to push one of these things around, you'd appreciate the effort to install a cheap motor to avoid having to push a wall. I'm also trying to source a set of the rare 89 Jetta striped blue Recaro seats to put in. I've got one of my spare recaro seats mounted in the van right now, and it's sure comfy....
anyway-:thx to autopia from this lurker, and thanks for making products that work well!
He was going to cut it up, and I wanted to get rid of the syncro vanagon that I had that needed more work than I could justify. Plus, I wanted a 2wd one for lowering and putting in a subaru engine.
On to the pics....
here's what we started with, before a wash with meg's GC.....
and a shot of the interior.
(yes, that's a sneak peek of one of the wheels that I'm going to use, they're 18x8.5" RH AD cups. ):spot
anyway....started with clay, and used a bunch of my Griot's stuff on the van. Why griot's? I had a friend that worked there, and got me started on the detailing path. Plus, they're only 10 minutes from the house.
It was really taking some time to get the paint to come back using the Griot's orange pads and their machine polish 2. It was working, but there's a LOT of real estate on this here rolling toaster.
you can see how nicely the old T3 single stage paint comes back with just a quick pass over the paint, even using the Griots stuff.
I had ordered a swirlbuster pad and sonus polish a while back, in anticipation of a big show coming up later this summer, and wanting the TDI wagon to look it's best, and get the TDI rabbit whipped into shape for the show season as well. I decided to pull out the Autopia box and give the stuff a whirl, I was hesitant, as the stuff was pricier than the Griot's product, and it hardly seemed worth it for this old van....
:shocked shaz-frickin'-bot!
I re-did the door and most of the driver's side in the time it took to do the first night of polishing, in which I didn't get results that I was happy with. I went from this, which is a good shot of the passenger side, and the how bad the scratches in the paint all over were-
(you can see the amount of stuff in the paint. scratches, marks, spots, you name it. the whole van looked like this. )
After two nights of polishing, here we are. I couldn't get out the big deep one in the center-it's down to primer through two coats ( upper and lower) of paint. I'll probably touch that one up later...
:drool: I really can't describe the difference in the product. The previous owner saw the pics and was speechless. His friend came by the shop to pick up some parts and didn't think it was the same van. Lest I remind you, this van was going to be cut up to fix another one. ( I suggested they use the newer, more dented one for parts) I've just ordered the small 4" pads to get into the body crease easier, and then I'll throw on a nice coat of meg's #21 to really make it shine!
Now on to the interior.
They nicknamed this van "smokey". I'm not a car-naming type person. But I'll tell you, this van stunk. Like a tobacconist. Like the guy chewed packs of discount cigs and threw up in the car. daily. with all his friends.
After I swept (yes, with a broom) the van out.
I then used my shop vac to clean the carpets.
My shopvac died a horrible death shortly afterwards. ( no kidding, the motor burned up)
I then used APC to clean the headliner, stoner's invisible glass cleaner and newspaper to clean the windows, and pulled out the trusty Sears Cleanmore that I found in my alley about 4 years ago. ( rebuilt the pump, put on a new plug, and it's been cleaning cars ever since ) It's like a shop-vac/carpet cleaner system. Anyway, it holds about 5 gallons of steaming water + cleaning solution, and has a rental-type sprayer head on it. Kicks tail for free...
Here's where the carpet was AFTER brooming/shop-vac action.....
Notice the lack of pile near the egress area on the driver's side. That's all dirt matted into the carpet. No kidding.
After quite a few gallons of the Cleanmore solution, nearly a whole (mixed) bottle of AIO cleaner, a spray bottle of h20, and quite liberal use of my carpet scrubbing brush, and some time to let the whole thing dry out a little.....
The rest of the carpet came even better, since it doesn't appear that more than one or two people used this van, they just neglected it.
I used an Oust air freshener, and let it sit in the van closed up for almost a week straight. Before, I'd start sneezing when I opened it up, and you could smell the smoke from about 25 feet away with the windows open. Now, I can open it up, and sit inside with no discomfort. It's not quite as good as having an ozone machine, but the Oust worked pretty well for a $10 experiment. I'm sure getting as much residue off the interior beforehand helped that scenario.
I won't go into the details of the engine that poured frappucinos out the tailpipe( mixture of coolant/water/and oil) but I will say that with a replacement engine, it's now running, awaiting the lowering springs/tires, and subaru engine conversion. If you've ever had to push one of these things around, you'd appreciate the effort to install a cheap motor to avoid having to push a wall. I'm also trying to source a set of the rare 89 Jetta striped blue Recaro seats to put in. I've got one of my spare recaro seats mounted in the van right now, and it's sure comfy....
anyway-:thx to autopia from this lurker, and thanks for making products that work well!
Project vehicle and it looks like you are making excellent progress. I can't wait to see the finish pics. 