Blemishes on ally

[jenniewren]

I avoided the dent.....tomorrow....yep tomorrow..... ;D ;D

I decided that washing the outside would be a good idea, sunny, windy etc etc and give the vv a treat & use something special for it's first wash ;D

I used Brite Lite (stinky) diluted it in water....soft bristled brush wash, wash, wash, swirl, swirl.....humming along happily to ipod....

My thought was to get rid of all the dust, bird droppings etc....even though it had been undercover in shed for quite a few years...shed ends were open.

You know what birds are like...in one end out the other & thought they had used vv for target practice!!!

Had the raybans ready to put on...thinking there is going to be sweet blinding, glinting, glitzy light!!!

Wiped the ali over with soft towel....buffing, buffing.....

Hmmmmphfff .....looking, looking at him........not happening. It took some of the dust off, naturally, & yes some of the red paint stripe but that's ok cause I was going to redo that.

Okey dokey....next plan of attack.....warm water.....palmolive dishwashing liquid....soft bristled brush..which is what I used on ex coronet, always came up a treat...blinding in fact.

Madge's words were ringing in my ears...."Your soaking in it love" ;D ;D

Over and over again brush, swirl etc etc.....rinse.....wipe down with towel...

I have to say a little better.....but not what I was expecting after 4hrs of building my arm muscles

What I thought was bird poo predominately down one side only....yep happens to be the door side :(I am starting to think that it might not be bird droppings....well a couple maybe.

Has anyone come across "white" marks on their alli??? Some about the size of a 5 cent pce. I thought it may have been oxidization marks as I know alli does do this but it's like dotted all over one side of vv..........hence that's why under the dust I thought it was bird poo!!!!

Please, please don't tell me that the bird poo (my feathered friends) if it is this..... have left an indelible mark that you can't budge out of alli unless you use something like SOL..or a buffer/polisher thingy....which means I would have to polish the whole damn VAN

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[DC3Td]

Sounds like bird poo Jenniewren. You could try a very soft sponge scourer - the white ones - NOT the green ones. I use these every day on the vehicles i detail to remove tar/tree sap/bird poo in conjunction with our chemicals.But then i`ve been doing this over thirty odd years so you get to know hand pressure. However, one of these scourers & warm soapy water tried in an inconspicuous area first off should give you an indication of outcome. Purple brand ali polish seems to be what a lot of folk use these days as a no nonsense polish available at most auto product outlets. Easy to work with using a buffer & polishes up real nicely. gordon

[Franklin1]

I used a white nylon scourer and a bottle of cheap 'creme cleaner' (cream cleanser?) from the supermarket to get 35 years of stains and grime off the white acrylic paint on a caravan. Worked a treat and it didn't take four hours**...




**Took more like forty hours or four hundred hours or something like that...

But it did the job well.

[2up]

Hi Jenniewren, if it is unpainted ali, WD40 and superfine steel wool, worked for me on the Wayfarer, give it a go! It also removes tar dots, cheers Les

[jenniewren]

4000 hrs.........come on.... Mr Franklin1 thought you worked at a harder pace than that!

But the sheeting looks fantastic.....white scourer....only know the green ones but will have a look for some.

Oh dear....I am not going to get out of this easily am I? The purple auto cleaner/cream gets tar off eh? Well have discovered that there is a little tar smattering over front so this might have to be tried....along with dobs of really stubborn....horse poo dots! Guess the prev owner was a stockman after all>

Ok might attack the dent later today and dodge that arm muscle workout. My arms & shoulders are a little stiff today....don't know why

[DC3Td]

Hi Jenniewren. Dunno about Purple removing tar - mentioned it as a very good ali polish.

[jenniewren]

Thanks DC3Td...(what does that stand for by the way??) I have some WD40 which I will go and try.....sorry it was 2up who suggested WD40 for tar.......but I will try your Purple & see how it polishes up...maybe back end underneath first! Thanks J

[Don Ricardo]

G'day Jenniewren,

DC3Td's forum handle refers to the fact that his teardrop was built from bits of a DC3 aircraft.

The teardrop was built by Mercury Caravans in WA, and you can read a bit about its history here.

Don Ricardo

[jenniewren]

Why thank you Don Ricardo....DC3 aircraft! WOW.....shall read...I am intrigued