Golf Van Newbie Cleaning

Hi All

Elderly neighbour mentions she has an old car that is due its MOT (didn't even know she had a car) and that she was going to take it to the local Polish supermarket cleaners. So being a good neighbour and wanting to help out an old lady I volunteered to clean it for her.

Anyway I popped around to see the car expecting to see a Micra or a fiesta and was surprised to see this 22yr old VW Golf van(please tell me it is a MK1 or i will get my coat now)

Problem is now what I thought would be a quick wash and wipe over is about about to turn into a personal challenge to and get it looking as good as possible again, although I don't own a Golf I am a T5 owner so want to do good by the VW badge.
So i'm thinking Wash, Heat gun the plastics, clay and wax the body work, polish and then probably polish again, auto Glym plastics.



Any advice on how to get it looking good again, as you can see it is quite badly oxidised, plastics faded, paint work has been touched up in places, mould on the vinyl however overall for a 22yr old van its in quite good condition. :?

Thats a mk2

As above....Mk2

I thought so but was thrown by some of the pics on here which had a "H" Plate Mk2 at some of your meets.

Guess I better get my coat and crawl away to the MK2 site :redfaced:

Tin tops stopped in 84 mate unless its a Citi (south African import) nice to see a mk2 van though, I'd have though its just as rare in its own right..

if u want a quality finish use auto smart or auto glym and use a electronic buffer,should do the trick worked for me with my old vw van,came up a treat by just using class brands.. If she wants to sell the van ,i will buy it

nathy said

if u want a quality finish use auto smart or auto glym and use a electronic buffer,should do the trick worked for me with my old vw van,came up a treat by just using class brands.. If she wants to sell the van ,i will buy it

Thanks for the replies, i may post a picture of it when its done or is that adding insult to injury

Don't tell anyone but my fav golf was my first MK2 GTI in black!

Wouldn't sell the cabby i have now like but there is a bit of a better finish to the MK2 i think.

Managed to get a bit polished over the weekend in between the rain showers
So from pink

To something that is a bit more red


Bumpers came nice with the heat gun and a bit of polish


To be honest the car has been quite easy to clean, there are quite a few scratches, dents and a few small bits of rust so its never going to look that good, but I have been impressed with the build quality and how well it has with stood the last 22yrs.  Although it is a MK2 I will put some more pics up when finished.