Had the van detailed today.

[ThreeBridgeT6]

It’s honestly impossible to tell the level of work that will be needed without seeing the condition of the paintwork. It depends how the supplying dealer has treated it since it was sat in the compound gathering dust etc.

If the dealer has given it a machine polish to buff it up to a good shine for delivery then a lot could’ve gone wrong. It’s not uncommon for dealers to leave buffing trails, swirl marks etc in paintwork because of poor machine polishing work. Often you don’t see it, or at least the worst of it until you’ve washed the vehicle a couple of times and removed the “protection” that they’ve given it. Some are much better at preparing a vehicle than others, so it may be in good condition.

I had a full 2 stage machine polish of my van done (excluding roof) and that took 1 man 2 working days. It could’ve done with even more work to get it 100% perfect, but at the time I was willing to go with 90% and not pay an extra day to get to 100%. With a quality ceramic coating applied over that and left to cure indoors for 12 hours I paid £800. It would’ve been about £1200 to have been a 100% job, but I didn’t have the extra at the time so I made the compromise. To most people they wouldn’t notice the few deeper marks that weren’t removed during my treatment though.

The best thing you can do is wait until you get your van back from the converter and then post some close up pictures of your paintwork on here for advice. Also, look for recommendations for good detailers near you and then get them to look at it and give you a quote. Until they look at it and give their expert opinion you won’t really know, but we can give you some guidance to the level of correction that might be needed.

Pricing for detailing work can vary wildly depending on the experience, knowledge and quality of the detailer and it can be tempting to go with cheap prices, but this is definitely one of those jobs that you should go with recommendations for, it really pays in the long run to get the job done well, by someone known to be good at what they do.

Thanks @ChrisR . Coming from a man whose van I lust over several times a day, that's helpful advice which I will follow. I keep going back to yours because I just love your wheels, but I'm reluctant to put a silver multispoke on because I worry about alloy worm and the amount of work required to keep them looking good. I'm planning on putting satin black Judd T311Rs on mine but am struggling to find the right size/width combo.

I'm going over to Three Bridge to see it during the build next week (it'll be the first time I've seen the van other than photos!) so I'll get some close ups of the paintwork.

 

[The Van Cave]

Thanks @ChrisR . Coming from a man whose van I lust over several times a day, that's helpful advice which I will follow. I keep going back to yours because I just love your wheels, but I'm reluctant to put a silver multispoke on because I worry about alloy worm and the amount of work required to keep them looking good. I'm planning on putting satin black Judd T311Rs on mine but am struggling to find the right size/width combo.

I'm going over to Three Bridge to see it during the build next week (it'll be the first time I've seen the van other than photos!) so I'll get some close ups of the paintwork.

Love the lusting comment, thanks! It always looks better in the photos though, there are still some bodywork issues to sort out yet.

Don’t worry about silver wheels, it’s polished/machine faces you need to worry about. My van is my daily drive, I’ve driven those wheels all through winter and about 10000 miles of filth, but they still look good. Get close and you’ll notice a few stone chips etc, but no wheel worm or lacquer problems apart from where I quite badly curbed one . Any wheels of any colour would be showing the same signs after the conditions I drive through during winter.

Having said all of that, you can’t go wrong with those Judds in satin back! They will look great on indium grey!