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Thu Jul 08, 2004 9:58 pm

My son (8 yrs old) and I are starting to build him a bug. A '72 Super to be exact. Got it for free, and except for no engine, it's about 90% all there (woohoo). Anyway, as you would expect with a free car, it needs to be painted, and a little body work (pass fender and front apron have small dings). I've never done any body or paint work, so I figured this would be a great car to learn on. My question to you body/paint guru's is this; Where do we start? Once we get the dents out as best we can, what is the next step, and how? Do we strip the paint, or just sand it down? I know rust has got to go, and fortunately, there isn't much, and the pan was redone by the previous owner. Should we strip the interior and exterior components and trim, or what? Help dad look good! Here's a pic of the car as we got it:

Thanks!

Thu Jul 08, 2004 10:15 pm

I restore bugs for a living and i will tell you right now they are the hardest cars to do body work on if it has to big of a dent get a good used one will save you time and aggravation.
strip the interior that is the easy part to put back together and do the motor brakes and front end first why would you want to damage the paint job doing those thinks after it is painted.
GOOD LUCK YOU WILL NEED IT.

Thu Jul 08, 2004 10:22 pm

I was thinking about practicing my painting abilities on the interior. I also thought that I'd want to save the body/paint for last, but a couple of VW folks said I should get the body/paint done first, cuz once the other stuff is in, the paint won't be complete. Any more opinions?

The dents visible in the picture are the only dents on the car (fender/apron), and we've got them pretty well smoothed out. I'll be getting a little bondo practice on the apron ding/crease, but the fender came out really well.