I have been doing a few maintenance jobs on the van over the last few weeks and have decided to give the outside a bit of a spruce up. The sides of my van are aluminium and I use regular car wash and it seems to get most of the dirt off. The front and the rear is fibreglass and is a bit dull from the sun and was thinking of giving it a polish. Someone told me about a product from 3M that is called medium cut polish. Has anyone used it and if so, is it any good.
One other problem I noticed is the decals on the back with the caravan brand name are starting to lift from the corners. The glue i used didn't seem to bind with the decals and the fibreglass surface. Has anyone else had this problem and managed to fix it.
-- Edited by DMaxer on Sunday 6th of June 2021 10:54:22 AM
Wrong Pete, as a life long automotive spraypainter and quality control person the average film thickness of 2K finish (colour) coatings averages about 80 to 90 microns. This can be checked with a DFT (depth of film thickness) gauge.
Dmax unless you have a fair bit of experience take the caravan to a good panel shop and have their spraypainter machine buff both fibreglass ends for you, the glass has the colour embedded in the gelcoat and you will initially need a very coarse cutting compound to remove the oxidisation, followed by finer cutting compounds to remove swirl marks, then a final polish by hand with your choice of car polish. As stated the aluminium sides have approx 80 to 90 microns which is plenty to work with for an experienced tradesman. You are better off taking measurements and photos of the graphics and having them remade, this is not expensive. The old graphics can be easily quickly and safely removed with a rotary rubber wheel by the spray painter. Easy peasy.
-- Edited by peter67 on Sunday 6th of June 2021 09:46:34 AM
My van had the solar guard treatment when new. I wasn't intending to use the 3M medium cut polish on the aluminium, only on the fibreglass front and rear. The reason I thought about this product is a friend of mine used it on the gel coat of his boat and it brought it up really well.
It would seem I have named the wrong grade, it should be 3M light cut polish.
-- Edited by DMaxer on Sunday 6th of June 2021 11:08:03 AM
If you want to remove scratches from your acrylic caravan windows try using "Acrylglaspolitur Acrylic Polish", available from Bunnings. It worked very well to remove many scratches caused by close brushes with dry bushes from our off-road caravan.
All I really want to do is t make the front and rear shine like it used to before the sun dulled it. I just want to find a safe way that does not destroy the surface in the process.
I didn't realise that giving the caravan a wash and a polish needed to be undertaken by a qualified spray painter with many years of experience. I thought it would be really simple having watched others at caravan parks and in their front yards doing it themselves.
I wonder if they were aware of the potential damage they were causing.
Wrong Pete, as a life long automotive spraypainter and quality control person the average film thickness of 2K finish (colour) coatings averages about 80 to 90 microns. This can be checked with a DFT (depth of film thickness) gauge.
OK, 3 microns was an exaduration, but these finishes are not applied by a spray painter, by hand, and are nothing like "80 or 90 microns"
Check with your gauge.
I suggest a polish without a cut.
Cheers,
Peter
-- Edited by Peter_n_Margaret on Monday 7th of June 2021 11:27:22 AM
Pete, coloured gelcoat is extremely thick and durable, no danger of buffing through it and it's frequently fine sanded first before polishing. Polishing equipment and a selection of polishing pads, cutting paste grades and final polishes adds up to a few hundred dollars. That's why I suggested going and having a professional do it considering that it's rarely necessary to do that more than once and you get a better result having it done by someone who knows what they are doing eg: they would mask off all areas NOT being polished as it protects the rest of the van from excess cutting compound which is flung off the pad, some brands of cutting compound stick like sh#t to a blanket on unprotected surfaces and you can spend many hours trying to remove it. If that happens you will never forget it, and that's just one thing, not mentioning unskilled people damaging the surface using power tools, and you would be, because it's impossible to do well by hand. Cheers
I didn't realise that giving the caravan a wash and a polish needed to be undertaken by a qualified spray painter with many years of experience. I thought it would be really simple having watched others at caravan parks and in their front yards doing it themselves.
I wonder if they were aware of the potential damage they were causing.
If you want to take the p^ss I'm fine with that, enjoy it myself sometimes, but don't contradict your original question. You won't see anyone in a caravan park cutting a paint surface back before polishing, let alone gluing sticker edges down.
Sorry you got offended Pete. I just saw someone using the 3M product and wanted to know if it was safe. I didn't intend to use power tools or buffers, just a cloth to put it on and a soft one to polish it. The product is a light cut polish.
Thanks for your reply Peter. What did you use and how did it look afterwards. the reason I asked is I watched this video on Youtube and it showed someone using the 3M medium cut polish on the front and rear of their van with great results. I am usually a bit suspicious of these claims and when I did further research it stated that the #M medium was no longer stating that it was suitable for caravans and that the 3M light cut should be used. I just didn't want to start rasping away at the van only to totally stuff it up, that is why I thought I would ask on here.
I don't wish to offend Pete67 as he is trying to be helpful but I have trouble accepting that even as hopeless as I am at do it yourself jobs, that I need a three year or four year trade course plus years of experience just to hand polish the front and back of my van.
Thanks for your reply Peter. What did you use and how did it look afterwards.
No idea what it was. It was whatever the crashie had who did the work after the prang. They did some and I did some. We used their air operated machine to do it. The main objective was to remove the "bush stripes" caused by years of scrub driving. Looked like new afterwards. The can is on the trestle.
Thanks for your reply Peter. What did you use and how did it look afterwards.
No idea what it was. It was whatever the crashie had who did the work after the prang. They did some and I did some. We used their air operated machine to do it. The main objective was to remove the "bush stripes" caused by years of scrub driving. Looked like new afterwards. The can is on the trestle.
Cheers,
Peter
-- Edited by Peter_n_Margaret on Tuesday 8th of June 2021 09:40:57 AM
Come on to this topic a bit late I guess, but this might interest others regarding rejuvenating faded/chalky van exteriors.
I thought I'd give this stuff a try non my 2007 5 metre Jayco Freedom as the gelcoat was starting to look dull and chalky, and attracted dirt way too easily.
I bought this product called Septone from BCF.
Step 1 is a light cut and polish compound, followed by step 2 being the wax/polish. Both containers were $22 each. I also bought a cheap { $40.00 } Ozito Buffing machine from Bunnings to make it easier on the arms. I gave the Van 1 application of the cut/polish and 2 coats of the step 2 wax/polish, and still have close to 50% of the product left for follow up coats if necessary.
Must say I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, high gloss shine and what certainly feels like a tough coating. Van looks great and I'm glad I made the effort......now to do the boat as well
-- Edited by Phlipper on Monday 28th of June 2021 05:11:57 PM
Big part is you do something . Light cut , polish then wax . Makes it far easier to keep clean !! Have rubber roof on motorhome. This requires a coat of sealer or paint every two years . Keeps the UV damage at bay . Found the oxidation from roof made paint on sides look terrible!! Could be the same with other type roofs also ?
I find that there's nothing as good as marine polishes/cleaners for fibreglass.
Obviously needs to be pretty good to withstand salt water and sunlight for
any length of time. They are generally a bit dearer.