79 Westy - Baby got back!

[EmileN]

Our Papa bought a new VW Westfalia Camper in 1979 and flew us all to Germany to pick it up and do a 4 week trip around France. Me and the family are enjoying the bus a ton.

But, the rear left corner took a good hit years ago, and I added insult to injury by backing up into my truck with it!

So my brother likes to have projects to keep him occupied. After doing some sheet metal work on his 1960 Pan Head, he is taking the hammer and dolly to the bus. He is taking a minimal approach, only repairing and applying new paint as needed.

Let the fun begin!

Here is a pic of the damage on left rear, it is worse now since I crunched higher up on the corner

My bro's irst pass at using the hammer and dolly on the rear panel. Still lots of fine-tuning to do. He was very impressed with how TOUGH the OEM paint is, even being faded its hard to remove!

[EmileN]

Here is the result of futher fine tuning, all by hand with hammer and dolly....being careful not to strech out the metal....

Here's some new products to help finish it out!

[EmileN]

Ok, the body filler is done as well as the spot putty applied:

After a bit of sanding, I now have the panel primed and almost ready for the color coat:

For now the job is done. You can't see it in this photo, but I managed to screw up the clear coat. I was trying to fix a flaw, and re-coat the clear...very frustrating! So, I'll be wet sanding the clear and re-applying it in September. I'll also replace the rear bumper with a nicer original one which or Dad picked up.

The original VW taillight went in great, however the reproduction red running light was a crappy fit, but I massaged it and got it on nicely.

[Thrasher22]

Nice work! Nothing feels better than doing it yourself
_________________
1975 Westfalia - http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=516701