Aircooled VW South Africa

Nice work man, I'm very impressed with that vent and the results of the soda blasting. Have you had the paint colour matched yet ?

Yes, 2K paint colour matched at city paint and tool I put a drop on the vent before blasting and it seems pretty much identical to me. Time will tell though

Congrats!

Well, I have had these photies since 2011... Time they went up.

Loose rust removed like so and phosphoric acid rust converter combo undercoat applied.


The sandblasted bumper bits looked just as good as the soda blasted body panel bits.


Grill primed versus waistline bits unprimed. Pre priming treatment included a good blast of recycled 2K thinners through the spray gun to remove oily residue from fingers etc


RHS cab door looks quite good except for this sticky grey dusty grime. Note the colour of that orange sponge around the locking mechanism.


I spent a good deal of time on these bits after the undercoat step with some water paper. Your final spray job is only as good as your prep work.


Sliding door mechanism looks to be in good condition, I did not remove my door but I had the waist line panel off so I gave the area a good dose of clear Tectyl.


Under bumper bits and front "bash plate" removed, cleaned up and hand painted with black hammerite before being reinstalled.


LHS door has a really nasty rust hole at the bottom, I clean it up and in doing so recover the possible cause of the mess. An old allen wrench. No surgery attempted. I clean up the loose rust and tectyl to stop the rust.


I can't help wondering why my LHS door sponge is grey when the RHS is orange.


Bumpers are sprayed ivory white to match the original colour.


Masking off the belt line is done with some plastic material left over from milk sachet production. It's much easier to work with than paper and the length is unlimited. A touch up gun will be used on the half moon air intakes. I don't expect a perfect result with all those angles (turbulence) but that's what finishing compound is for.


I manage to get some overspray on the inter panel seal rubber but the halfmoon area looks a lot neater.


The belt line was done on all sides the same day. No spray booth just hot weather with minimal wind.


End results look good. My ultimate plan is to preserve as much og paintwork as possible.

Excellent results there and great pics

The slow resto continues. I have investigated the possibility of repainting the entire bus but after exposing the pristine tail gate and dog box body panels I cannot bring myself to do this. I will continue with the micro repairs to preserve the original paint as far as possible. I will in this way also preserve all the rubber chafe blocks and foam pads.

This really is such a nice bus! it's a pity the the guy who had it in Wilderness was so careless with it. I believe the bus came from upcountry (NC).

Pics below are all from the dog box and rear hatch. What are those wedge shaped fittings on the sides of the hatch for?