"Eloise" - 1978 Super Beetle Cabriolet Restoration Project

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02 Dec 2023 - PAINT DAY - PAN - FINALLY

So, got checked out on new paint and mixing room controls.
The upcoming weekend was all mine to get the car in 2-part epoxy primer.

Pumped and wary at the time as I knew the amount of work that would be involved.

Paint booth area (Note the entire hanger is used to paint aircraft. The smaller open booth is for smaller parts that are hung on trees).

After blowing out sandblasting material in the sandblasting booth, an intermediary step is to use wax and grease remover on a green Scotchbrite pad to prep it prior to bringing into clean paint booth.

Moved into hanger and placed in booth.

Mixing paint the easy way.

Final solvent wipe and tack cloth - Before.

And After

Flipping it 180 degrees before:

And After:

Side profile and end view

So ends day one.

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03 DEC 2023 - PAINT DAY 2 - THE BODY.

I was under no delusion how much time this would take.
I was finished painting the frame (Day 1) by 10 pm.

I was just finishing the prep work outside the paint booth by 10pm on day 2. Started painting at 1:30 am. Rolled into my driveway and hauled myself to bed at 6am in the morning. Made for a long day/night.

Started the day roughing the panels up with a Roloc disk to get things shiny. Last minute check for rust and bits of original paint. However, primary purpose was due to limited visibility when sandblasting. Can't see shite. But I can see shiny metal go dull through visor - thereby knowing what I've blasted and what I've missed. Its still up on the custom saw horses that is at a good working height.

Leaving its home for the last 2 months. Was able to time it in between atmospheric rivers that have inundated the area for the last couple of days. Note - it is back on the pallet trolley I built to move it around.

Sitting under covered area and being degreased prior to moving into hanger/paint booth. Yellow plane is a DHC-3 Single Otter that has been re-built after crash landing in Alaska. Needed extensive rebuilding as landing gear punched through fuselage. White outline in background is a WW2 Catalina Flying Boat that is getting prop overhauled prior to being ferried to new owner.

Playing peek-a-boo through the emergency exit.

Swapped out frame for body in booth.

Body by itself ready for final solvent wipe down and tac cloth.

Glamour shots of bare metal. Note - wetted down floor.

Witching hour struck and midnight came and went......

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04 DEC 2023 - TECHNICALLY DAY 3 (1:30AM) - PAINT DISASTER OVERTED.

So, I had a 1/2 a gallon of Valspar Epoxy from 3 years ago left over. Went to get another gallon of it with quart of activator and reducer.
https://www.valsparrefinish.com//primers_other_VP50.jsp

Found out prices have gone up by a factor of 2X.

A gallon of the paint + Activator + Reducer = $450.00 CDN (Or $331.00 USD if we are talking real money).

So I used 1 quart on the bottom of the pan and 1 quart on the top. Figured I'd need 1/2 a gallon to do the body.

I mixed up a batch, waited the required induction time (fancy word for chemical reaction) and then started spraying. Ten minutes in I went to adjust the flow to get more paint and the adjustment screw flew out of the gun and then got caught on the the sealed hex nut holding it in gun.

WTF????? - I am looking at 200.00 worth of paint with a pot life of 90 minutes. This is NOT the time for the paint gun to shite the bed....

10 minutes of swearing I get the bent circlip back into shape and gingerly install it in gun. Add pressure - and out it comes.

Take 2 - fiddle for another 10 minutes and I get it to stay in gun. But now I still have the original problem. Not enough paint.

Reduce the fan width to match paint flow ) 3" and what should be a relatively easy paint job now turns into a job of epic proportions.

Annoyed as heck I send it. Job got done but it was painful - literally. My little finger started to develop a blister from cheap paint gun trigger that had sharp chrome edges. On came utility gloves - and full blown blister was avoided.
Turns out a chromed circlip had bent inside the adjusting knob. How that happens with only a finger and thumb is beyond me. Binned the gun after job done and am now looking for a better quality set.

Paint job turned out ok. Saving grace is I'll be doing body work over it and cutting out rusty sections. Thank providence for not being final colour coat.

5:30 am results.

Went home to sleep and came back at 4:30 pm to get the car ready to leave the paint booth.

Positioning frame under body.

Needing energy boost to complete the task.

As there was only one of me I needed to move stands, go back and forth to lower body onto frame, and then get whole lot onto the pallet trolley.

Area cleaned up and ready to be sent back outside under covered area.

As a final bonus, the new pan bolts matched up perfectly with body holes on replaced outriggers. Rust is no longer camouflaged and stand out like a sore thumb against pristine paint.

Now to start contemplating patch panels and repair schema.......

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29 DEC 2023 - PATCH PANEL PRIMER DAY

Had a day between Xmas and New Years where I was able to prep and paint the various pieces and panels.

After the last fiasco with the paint gun, it was binned, and a new spray gun took its place. Results speak for them self.

I was joined in the hanger by my son who was replacing his headlights on his Miata.

Purchased sheetmetal that arrived as early Xmas gift. Spent the extra dollars for the thicker OEM thickness.

Hung the various bits and started priming.

In between the first and second coat I went to provide technical advice on headlight installation.

Back to second coat

Headlights installed, final adjustments to be made.

Had some left over paint so I quickly degreased some additional parts.

Went to the mainland for the New Year and upon my return, brought the parts home for eventual installation.

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22 MAR 2024 - WAS NOT EXPECTING THIS

I've been busy at work so all I have time to do is clean and powder coat bits and pieces such as pedals, shifter, e-brake, front suspension, etc.....

In may head I have been psyching myself up for the amount of cutting and welding I will have to do on the fresh epoxied body.

Major areas include package shelf, triangular pieces supporting it, the inner wheel wells (rear), rear apron and front clip c/w spare tire carrier and left front quarter that was wrinkled in an off road encounter with what looks like a ditch or maybe a curb.

Not that any of this is insurmountable with time and/or money.

My estimate is 120-140 hours of metal work to get body ready for filler.

Fast forward until 2 weeks ago. My Facebook marketplace suggestion pops up and I see the following for $400 CDN.

The ad was one of those posting for a friend type things. Took over a week to get the original poster to return my inquiries. Then another for the owner to get back to me.

Am told it is a 1980. Posted this plate on another posting where I asked people how to figure out when this was built.


The colour, was apparently available for 1 model year (1979) so the story I was given may be plausible.

I am heading up island this Saturday am to pick it up with a friend and son.

While there is some rust holes at the bottom of the windshield and the heater channels are shot - the rest of the car appears to be in relatively good shape. Does not appear to have been hit either front or back and everything other than the sills looks in solid shape with no perforation or rust holes.

I am looking forward to the 2 hour drive to pick it up. In the meantime I have to finish the "frame" for my friends trailer so we can get it back home.

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MARCH 2024 - Unicorn Find - Retrieval and First Wash in 4 Years - MISC work

Friend had 1/2 day opening between work out of town travel trips. Saturday 23rd was the only day available. Conscripted my son to the chain gang.
He retaliated on the day of the big move by sleeping through his alarm. He put us 1/2 hour behind schedule before we even set out of town.

Weather was horrible. Had to slow down travelling up island as standing water on road was causing cars to hydroplane. This in a place where we are used to a lot of water.

2.5 hours later, we ended up in Qualicum Beach.

With the help of the seller (Thanks Chris) we were able to manhandle the body up the ramp I built onto the 2X4 frame that was just finished the night before.

Note - didn't want to be the jerk neighbour, so I assembled it in my kitchen so the kids in the surrounding houses could get to sleep. Wife was less than impressed with the impact screw gun noises.

I'd gone up couple days before just to check things out. So it took us less than 30 minutes to strap things down and head down back island. We had made up for the lost time and were on our way.

With help of son and friend Mike G we got home just after noon.

Fast forward one week - the first wash in 4 years and evaluation of how bad the rust worms are.

On another note - just modified donated autoclave to allow for the powder coating of the smaller parts.

Starting to reassembly the front struts with shiny black powder coated parts.