2 tone paint question

[77 Deluxe]

I posted this up in the Body/Paint forum but maybe better in here

Not far off the time when I will be getting my bus painted. It's a 77 and I'm trying to complete as per factory spec.

So the question is about factory 2 tone paint method.

Bus is white on top half and ocean blue below waisteline.

So, is it correct to paint exterior top and bottom all white first then mask up and do bottom half blue?

I know the interior is all white.

How about the underside of the bus, is that painted white first then blue or straight blue?

Thanks

[ccpalmer]

The shop that painted my Bus painted the whole Bus the body color (minus the roof) then painted the upper part white. The owner said that's the proper way to do it but I'm no expert.

I had suggested myself that they do it that way since obviously masking the lower part off would be much much easier than masking the upper part off.
_________________
'71 Westy

[busdaddy]

VW painted the entire bus lower color (roof and interior too) and then masked the outer lower body and painted the whole thing white (inside too) on 71+ buses.
I can sorta understand why, it's easy to mask up to the bottom of the body bulge but takes some serious tape skills to mask on the bulge for the lower edge.
_________________
Rust NEVER sleeps and stock never goes out of style.

Please don't PM technical questions, ask your problem in public so everyone can play along. If you think it's too stupid post it here
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

Слава Україні!

[77 Deluxe]

[Blaubus]

[rsbadura]

[77 Deluxe]

Thanks - your bus looks great, I'm inspired!

[ccpalmer]

[busdaddy]

[rsbadura]

[busdaddy]

So the plot thickens!
Early bays are indeed painted all lower color before the white but later ones do appear to have no lower color layer beneath the white like Rolf describes. It seems like the lower color was added after but I've got to look at one more OG paint bus to confirm that, the earliest factory 2 tone I have with the "new style" paint job is a 76. I wonder what year VW changed the procedure? I guess it was to save paint but it sure looks like it added some time to the masking
_________________
Rust NEVER sleeps and stock never goes out of style.

Please don't PM technical questions, ask your problem in public so everyone can play along. If you think it's too stupid post it here
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

Слава Україні!

[77 Deluxe]

I wonder...

My 1977 was og paint (before it was stripped) and there were definitely signs of the blue underpaint coming through around the waistline bulge as seen in the picture below and circled in red.

Pretty sure that there were no signs of blue coming through on the roof area or the inside of the van where the white had thinned out.

So I reckon that the blue paint we can see coming through on the waist bulge is 'generous' overspray and evidence that on later buses the lower half was painted blue first then masked up and then white paint done.

The process I will use is most likely to do the interior first (in white), then the blue bottom half and then the top half white. I'm having the outside of my bus flowcoated to give it some real depth of colour, so the clear will go on at the end. Also another slight deviation from stock is that I will be adding a thinned down stone chip to protect the underside before painting blue.

[grandpa pete]

just a thought;if the roof is that bad ;did u know that you can drop another roof ontop of the one you have fairly easily.The trick is in cuttiog the donor one off and then trimming the outside lip of the gutter off so the new roof droppes into the old gutter A sawsall blade will cut the roof off UNDER the gutter,cutting where the roof is welded to the sidepanel.Drill 200 1/8 inch holes to plug weld into the gutter bottom.easier than u might think.I turned a rusted out westie into a day camper with an awsome recessed light panel inside.Now if only the transmission wasn,t totaly screwed up.Rebuild should be finnished by may ..........

[77 Deluxe]

[77 Deluxe]

Hi All

Can anyone help me with pictures of the insides of front doors, sliding door and rear hatch on a two tone van? I need to see where the white meets the color....

Thanks