Automotive painting

[KenWittlief]

Ive had about 14 aircooled VWs over the years, painted a few

right now my son has a 70 beetle that is completely disassembled. We just finished cutting the old floorpans out tonight.

People who go all out restoring cars usually put several coats of paint on, wait about a month for it to completely harden, then wet sand the paint to get it perfectly glossy, and overcoat it with a few coats of clear paint.

Fortunately for VW owners, VW did not do that at the factory, so you can simply paint the car with enamel (or one of the newer paint formulas) and it will look like it did when it came from the factory.

I painted one myself completely while I was in college. Its not easy to do yourself because you need a large compressor (to keep up with the airflow in the spray gun), you need a really clean place to put the car while its painted, that is ventilated with filters (so you dont get bugs on your bug)

and with some paints you want to bake it in with heat lamps.

If you are not out to win car shows, you can do a pretty good job yourself. its not hard to take the fenders and bumpers off a bug. Its not hard to get the windows in and out too. The car will look better if you take the fenders off to paint them, and replace the black gaskets between the fenders and the body.

Ive also done all the body work, primered everything with cans of rustolium, took it to a shop (Macco I think), taped it up there and had them just spray the final coat. They did a better job than I every could.

I guess it all depends on the level of quality you are after. Personally I would love to do a 60's hippy bug with flowers and rainbows and sunsets all over it. I also think a bug would look great with what they called "Razzel Dazzel" camouflage paint job - used on battle ships in WW1.

My son with the cutting wheel on the grinder, taking out the last corner of the floorpan on the frame:



this was last week, when he bought the car from his cousin - we brought in home in a 24 foot Uhaul:


as you can see, this is a complete frame-off restoration project. I figure we might have it all back together maybe by the end of November this year?

BTW, anyone know where I can get a front end (Utube, trailing arms, front axles...) for a bug? we need one for this car.