TheSamba.com :: View topic - Painting the louvered piece under the vents under rear windo

Wed Jun 18, 2008 11:18 am

The piece that the deck lid is bolted onto. As far as I can tell it's just tack welded on. I was thinking about grinding it off and getting a replacement to paint, since it doesn't really look paintable where it's at. To do that would I just paint the top and use a weldable primer on the bottom, and then paint the underside after it's tacked on? I almost dont want to worry about it but I'm doing my best not to cut corners

Wed Jun 18, 2008 2:30 pm

Wouldnt the paint on top burn from the welder? I would think so.

Wed Jun 18, 2008 4:11 pm

I'm in the process of painting my bug. If you shoot the paint straight in the vents on the first pass and at 45º angles on the 2nd pass, you will cover the louvers very easily. There is enough pressure behind the gun to create a cloud of paint behind the vents to make it cover everything.

Wed Jun 18, 2008 8:35 pm

This will be my first paint job. Would it work to just keep spraying coats over just that area with the surrounding areas masked, and then strip the vents afterwards leaving the louvers underneath painted, and then paint like normal? Also, how close to the vents were you with the 45 deg angles to cover inside the vents?

Thu Jun 19, 2008 6:31 am

Don't bother masking anything. By the time you get 3 coats (possibly even 2) on the car you will have covered all the louvers. I repainted near the same color so it was easy to blend with 2 coats. I just finished wet sanding and I'm spraying 2 more coats this weekend.

I'm painting my first car as well.

Thu Jun 19, 2008 10:07 am

We do do that on some clients cars,
after it is painted we use a
panel glue to adhere it

Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:09 am

Panel glue? Is it strong enough? Keeping in mind that the trunk lid is attached to it?

Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:47 am

yes it is, it is used in some of todays cars instead of welding .
we did a shear test and the metal failed before the seam

Thu Jun 19, 2008 12:34 pm

spook wrote: We do do that on some clients cars,
after it is painted we use a
panel glue to adhere it

What brand of panel glue? This sounds promising.

Thu Jun 19, 2008 6:46 pm

David wrote: spook wrote: We do do that on some clients cars,
after it is painted we use a
panel glue to adhere it

What brand of panel glue? This sounds promising.

If that is the case I'm definately thinking that's the way to go. Is it essentially glorified JB weld? Does it chemically bond the metal...? Sorry, I'm just very curious, I'll probably still use it in any case.

Sat Jun 21, 2008 4:00 am

When I goto work today I will pull it out
and let you know. We bought it
through our paint supplier .

we are currently doing this on the Pat's car, 75 German Looker http://airkooledkustoms.com/projects.html
click on the rendering of 'The Patty Wagon' 3 down on the right

Sat Jun 21, 2008 1:43 pm

I was looking at mine today after getting it from the sandblasting shop. Why couldn't you take a long, slender brush and paint the inside area with that?
I'd think the paint would level it's self out just fine.

I haven't tried it yet. Just a thought.

Sat Jun 21, 2008 3:51 pm

painted several by focusing and getting the louvers completely and using a lint free and thinner wiping down the outside and spraying the car no removal welding gluing .just spray wipe and go

Sat Jun 21, 2008 5:29 pm

slow36hp wrote: painted several by focusing and getting the louvers completely and using a lint free and thinner wiping down the outside and spraying the car no removal welding gluing .just spray wipe and go

this is the preferred way to do it, but some clients request it.

Mon Jun 23, 2008 6:48 pm

I painted through my louvers on my bug without cutting or gluing. I bought a touch up gun and turned the nozzle so the spray pattern is vertical not horizontal and adjusted the needle to control how much paint was leaving the gun. I sprayed as normal down into the area below the louvers through each opening. I let it dry thoroughly then wet sand the vent area then shot the rest of the car the next day. No problems and no runs...just took some time.

Tue Jun 24, 2008 7:45 am

Hi Spook re: "We do do that on some clients cars,
after it is painted we use a
panel glue to adhere it"

Im doing a short panelbeating course and we were discussing panel glues and the senior guys at our tech like the stuff very much. But they give out a warning that care must be taken when welding/heating panels that are glued due to the carcinogenic vapours that can be given off. This would be in particular a warning for the future welders of cars that have been panel glued.

Just thought I'd pass this on