Well, this is my first meaningful post in this section  

 

My mechanic friend recently bought a van and wanted it freshened it up as it was a 12 year old with very dull paintwork and was covered in evidence of the old sign writing. Now I must say that I am not anything other than a keen amateur, although that said, I haven't used my rotary polisher in about 3 1/2 years when I corrected  the paintwork on my Fabia and have kept it in good nick since. :P

 

I first bought my rotary some 6 years ago and it came with the full range of Menzura polish and some pads, but have only used it on three cars since the original purchase and had loads of it left. One thing I did notice (that I must have forgotten about) was that there was a 24month symbol on the bottles, which I can only assume that it's the suggested lifespan. 

 

Before washing etc; 

 

Here are some pictures of the van after the Tar-x and claying...

 

 

 

 

..... and after a machine polish;

 

 

 

Believe it or not, this thread is about the use of 6 year old polish and not my work (but feel free to pass comment   ) 

 

What is the purpose of the shelf-life of the products as although this was not perfect on the 3/4's of the van I had mopped, it has come up rather well if I do say so myself? Do I really need to replace my 6 year old collection?! For the record, all my products have either been kept in a cellar or my garage and have done nothing to keep them in the suggested ambient temperature (although I've never measure the temperature, or even worried about it)

 

What's your opinion on using old products?? 

 

 

I'd personally replace them. The active ingredients are likely to have separated &/or evaporated. They probably still work, but only to a certain percentage of what they are supposed to do.

Am I likely to have caused marring by it not being finished properly then? I didn't have time to check over what I had done properly as my mate needed to close up shop and get on, although I couldn't see any when it was moved out into the sun?

Am I likely to have caused marring by it not being finished properly then? I didn't have time to check over what I had done properly as my mate needed to close up shop and get on, although I couldn't see any when it was moved out into the sun?

Possibly, just get some different type of lights on the panels, LED & Halides are good for spotting marring. But don't worry as I'm sure you can sort it out. Marring is quite easy to remove with a mild polish or paint cleanser. Of course, this is on the assumption you have caused some marring.

Cool, I'll take a look when I go back over to finish the job.

For a van it looks pretty good.

Nice work on the Van

If the Polish works fine after a good shake it will be fine..If youre not happy, bin it

No rocket science here...try it and see

Thanks guys.

Well that was my thinking, Chris. The paintwork looks rejuvenated and all signs of the old stickers had gone, so I'm happy and my mate is over the moon, but thought I would ask the experts, as I'm far from one.

You're welcome

If the polish looks OK when you splurge it out the bottle I'm sure it will work. If the results look good I'm sure its fine

If the polish looks OK when you splurge it out the bottle I'm sure it will work. If the results look good I'm sure its fine

Yeah they all came out as they did 6 years ago.

I think I'll keep using them for now and get some more when I buy a DA.

Looks like you did a cracking job so I'd carry on with it as you are:-) Can always fettle the finish later on if need be.

In my experience people with vans don't usually want a serious job doing.  One local chap gave me a Vivaro to clean up and literally said "Just make it white again please"

 

It involved nothing more than a bit of decontamination low down and hitting single stage with rotary and a mid-range pad & mid strength polish.  Probably 4 hours tops....

 

Compare that to the fully signwritten VW transporter high top that was being sold on, and needed fully cleaning and doing....  16 hours  

In my experience people with vans don't usually want a serious job doing. One local chap gave me a Vivaro to clean up and literally said "Just make it white again please"

It involved nothing more than a bit of decontamination low down and hitting single stage with rotary and a mid-range pad & mid strength polish. Probably 4 hours tops....

Compare that to the fully signwritten VW transporter high top that was being sold on, and needed fully cleaning and doing.... 16 hours

Spot on, I'm OCD about the car, done 70 miles with 2 washes this week, the van - well I couldn't give a toss about it as long as it looks white ish

This is very true. They just want a bit of gloss and colour back. I remember even polishing a car we used in scrapheap challenge as it was a bit more magnolia than white... G3 and a watering can and it looked loads better even though it was probably buffer trailed to hell

In my experience people with vans don't usually want a serious job doing.  One local chap gave me a Vivaro to clean up and literally said "Just make it white again please"

 

It involved nothing more than a bit of decontamination low down and hitting single stage with rotary and a mid-range pad & mid strength polish.  Probably 4 hours tops....

 

Compare that to the fully signwritten VW transporter high top that was being sold on, and needed fully cleaning and doing....  16 hours  

 

 

That's all my mate wanted for his van, but took me about eight hours taking my time and still didn't finish. (I'm still a little broken ) I was also unsure how the polish would work given how old it was so had to keep stopping to check my work. 

 

Next test for this old polish, my missus charcoal grey Fiesta and will probably post up the results on this thread for all to see how well it does or doesn't work