Removing aftermarket paint to get OG paint

[Pau]

Well, well,
just following thick green paint removal.

Decouraging because it has been a lot of work but the result is not what I expected. Anyway, having good meditation time doing it.

Then I tested passenger's door

and face

Interesting. So I kept on going on face lifting...

_________________
Freedom for the Catalan Countries
Si ens destrossen les contrades alçarem les barricades !!*!!

[70bus]

Glad you are sticking to it! Yes, it might not be what you'd hoped, but if lucky you will find something you can work with. And certainly better to get off all the old Bondo and know what lurks beneath!
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Craig K
70 Neunsitzer
65 Pritschenwagen
"If Von Dutch was alive, he'd walk in there with a pistol and shoot these people." - Robert Williams

Raul the 65 singlecab

Karl the 70 nine-seater

[Pau]

Thank you.

Today I spent 7 hours to do only the half of the lower part of the nose. It is very long and ungrateful. I got from this:

To this:

And you can see I didn't do much of the details. Sides/angles are tricky because red painting is thin. I will let the lower 10 cm. Repair has been done.

Pfff! Sometimes I think that if I was earning money instead of peeling the bus, I had enough money to let somebody else do it.

I start having a right arm like a single teenager .
_________________
Freedom for the Catalan Countries
Si ens destrossen les contrades alçarem les barricades !!*!!

[67BygoneBug]

I've been working on my 67 Bug, and it would be great to get some of your professional opinions on whether the zenith blue is just faded or if it's primer. I posted two different photos below though with different lighting on them to help.

I used a bit of the Easy Off which worked to some degree with a fine steel wool pad, but certainly isn't easy! There are a few layers, with the top one being an attempt to match the zenith blue (unsuccessful, in my opinion), which is on top of a turquoise colour. I believe below that is the primer and then the OG paint, but am not 100%. The OG paint is in good condition however on the inside luckily!

[Pau]

Hello 67BygoneBug,
I can't give you a professional opinion, but I am doing the same to my '60 bus. If you are talking about your grey shadow on the driver's side, I wouldn't go further. If you look to my pictures, your one looks like the panel in front of the gas door (you see all layers). After that, you have a thin lay of black (I don't know what it is) and then metal.

I can't tell you if what I found is the same for every VW.

I hope it helps you.

Cheers.
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Freedom for the Catalan Countries
Si ens destrossen les contrades alçarem les barricades !!*!!

[_Kodiak]

I started experimenting with a small spot of Goof Off graffiti remover on my Doka. Really like the way it has a patina with the red rubbing off. Originally I was planning to make it as clean as possible and get back to the brilliant orange. But on second thoughts, maybe a patina would make the job easier without having to remove every bit of red.

I must have read 30 of 50 pages in this thread so wanted to share my experience and say thanks to all the advice, words, and considerations everyone has shared. Always appreciative of this community.

I’ll share more as I go.

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1987 Syncro Sunroof - EJ25
1986 Syncro Doka (Traded)
1983.5 Westfalia - EJ22 “Kodiak” (Sold)

[martyrg]

I have been looking at a way to strip the paint from my bus. The previous owner did an inexpensive (cheap) respray of the bus. I came across this: https://shopus.coopersstripclub.com/shop/stripping-packs/

Their videos look promising. "My Friend Pete" over at D.Y.I Auto School / SW Rod & Custom did a side by side compairison against Aircraft Stripper and Coopers. The Cooper's did much better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=145qkNioH6U Pete liked it, and he doesn't like anything!

What do you think?

[_Kodiak]

[_Kodiak]

[Pau]

Several months after the las post, some updates:

Green is almost gone. I have to finish details like under belt, around front lights, decklid details… (the longest part!). I realise that I have no pictures. I will post them to show how much bare metal I found ! There are some little parts that I will sandblast.

And I did what I should not: I tried the white painting because it was too white to be true and was also cracking as the green one…

I found this nice white pointing out. That look interesting to me.

Is that the original white? It is ‘grayish’.
Thank you.

White paint was easier to remove than green one. So I kept on:

In ‘only’ 2 hours I did this (you might thing that I spent 35’ only for 1 air vent)

_________________
Freedom for the Catalan Countries
Si ens destrossen les contrades alçarem les barricades !!*!!

[EverettB]

The "Grey" looks like Beige Grey, which is the original upper body color for your Bus.

It looks like the White is easier to remove and might come out pretty nice.
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[70bus]

In the 'Idiot Book,' John Muir quotes an I Ching proverb: 'Perseverance Furthers.' Removing paint should be used to illustrate this proverb! IImpressive you have kept at it, and you are getting impressive results.

White seems to be the easiest to remove on my bus as well, and you will find the factory paint underneath worth the effort to expose.

Now, when all the old paint is gone, you may decide the end result isn't for you - for every 3 people who tell me my bus looks cool, one asks when I am going to paint it - and that's OK; all this work will have gotten you down to a decent paint layer to start from. All those layers on top of the factory paint would have made good results from a respray difficult.

I like buses that look worn, but not rattty. I also admire a full resto. It's your bus, so you get to decide what's right for the two of you...
_________________
Craig K
70 Neunsitzer
65 Pritschenwagen
"If Von Dutch was alive, he'd walk in there with a pistol and shoot these people." - Robert Williams

Raul the 65 singlecab

Karl the 70 nine-seater

[Pau]

Hello, thank you for your comments.
Due to an annoying lack of work, I was able to spend 3 hours with the rear panel. Not disappointed with the result.

_________________
Freedom for the Catalan Countries
Si ens destrossen les contrades alçarem les barricades !!*!!

[Pau]

hey, hey, hey!

It's been a while. here you have some more pictures about removing my aftermarket painting.

Surprises here and there, but I start loving its red/beige gray/ raw metal pattern...

3hours later

in one hour I did only the right corner of the nose.

I keep on going.
Cheers.
_________________
Freedom for the Catalan Countries
Si ens destrossen les contrades alçarem les barricades !!*!!

[70bus]

Did you paint "until you win" yourself or was that under the paint? :)
_________________
Craig K
70 Neunsitzer
65 Pritschenwagen
"If Von Dutch was alive, he'd walk in there with a pistol and shoot these people." - Robert Williams

Raul the 65 singlecab

Karl the 70 nine-seater

[Pau]

Haha! You do have culture! ( or is it g00gle? ).

That was unfortunately our son's illness time slogan. Unluckyly, we lost. That Westy is meant to be the accomplishment of our passion. I hope I will achieve it. But when I am with the brush and the steelwool, I have the feeling I am a little bit closer from him... "Irabazi arte!"
Thank you.
_________________
Freedom for the Catalan Countries
Si ens destrossen les contrades alçarem les barricades !!*!!

[Pau]

Hello!

Just keep on removing aftermarket paint. The top part is much easier, but there are much more obstacles ( windows, rubber door stoppers, belt line,...).
The low green paint was uncredibly THICK!!!

And yesterday I got this surprise. On the top of B-pillar, round corner of the passenger’s door window, I found this crack. It had been already stripped to bare metal in the past. No rust seems to be around. How was that possible?

Today's music track: Don’t give up. By Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush...

_________________
Freedom for the Catalan Countries
Si ens destrossen les contrades alçarem les barricades !!*!!

[vw356]

Looks like lead is spread over this entire area and it looks like the metal below and the lead cracked. My guess is there is a bad repair under this area.
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Current projects:
1950's Volkswagens!
51,52,54's,55,56's,57,58's,'60's And then a bunch of '60's, but the '50's are my favorites..

[Pau]

Thank you, but my technical English is as poor as the old repair… what does « lead » means in this case?

Thank you.
_________________
Freedom for the Catalan Countries
Si ens destrossen les contrades alçarem les barricades !!*!!

[Pau]

Good morning.
I attacked the front nose again. Last time: