Spit & Polish

Real-time 

While we've been parked up in Napier David has spent quite some time polishing the 5th-wheeler.... again. You may remember he gave it a good going over by hand, when we were here back in January, but unfortunately all his elbow grease and hard work didn't last and it was with great disappointment that the dull 'bloom' returned to the surface within a few weeks.

Since then he has been doing quite a bit of research- on line, through friends and talking to paint and auto shops resulting in the purchase of a quality car polisher (not orbital) with variable speed. For those that would like to know, it's a Rockwell Car Polisher 1200W/180mm #135285 from Supercheap Auto.

And as you can see below it's been doing a great job. Though David soon learnt to put the cutting paste (he used Finixa polish compound) on the van surface by hand otherwise it splattered everything else within reach (including himself!).

After the cutter had done it's job of removing the dull bloom, the pad was changed and he applied Mothers© Carnauba wax for the perfect shine! You can just about do your hair in the reflection off the side now.

The final touch was to replace our NZMCA wings and number, they had faded quite considerably, and also our self containment sticker which some bugger had tried to peel off! 

We were ready to roll...

....but Mother Nature had other ideas. We were due to leave last Wednesday but with the weather forecast predicting heavy rain and high winds there was no way, after all his hard work, that David was pulling out and getting the van dirty. He wanted at least a few sunny days on the road to admire his handiwork.

Which is why we are still parked up in Napier looking at bedraggled freesias out the window.