VW TDi Transporter – Rally Service Van

[PaulVW]

A friend of mine (who also competes in National Rallies) took a road trip down from Komatipoort to Cape Town and came to visit us. He decided to come down in the VW Transporter, which also doubles up as his rally Service Van. They basically ran out of time for the return trip and decided to fly back home and leave the van at my house for about 3 weeks. They are coming down this weekend to collect the van and do the return trip to Komaitpoort.

While the van was standing at my house, I noticed that it was very dirty and it had some nasty scratches on the sides. (Obviously sustained from bundu bashing while recovering a broken down or rolled rally car)

Anyway, I decided to challenge myself and see what it would take to clean up this large piece of metal. Using my usual arsenal of products I started off with what must be my most tiring detail to date.

Some random before pics:



Scratches were a sore sight…








The engine also needed some attention…



4 Motion - the one VW decal I would have loved on my GTi


Work in Progress:


Did I mention I miss my stored HP washer for the foaming?


The van looked a bit better after the 2nd wash down




The scratches were still there



Some random after pics:





Scratches be gone





Engine be clean


Final reflection shots:




This was my biggest detail by a long shot. I was really surprised how much harder this van was to do – even compared to the Discovery D3 I did a while ago. Surface wise this must compare to at least 2 cars the size of the GTi! I also did this work in one weekend (2.5 days) which must be a record for me!

Anyway, as always it was worthwhile seeing the transformation.