Budget Paint for Jenny's '70 Sedan

[unclewede]

If Maaco is like Earl Shieb, they will paint (not very well) the rims to match! Didn't notice any hub caps in your photo, but take them off before going.

[vwuberalles]

Or you could give that awesome existing paintjob a good buffing and enjoy it as is.
_________________
1973 Superbeetle: 1st car, owned since age 12. Update thread --> https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9919140#9919140
1967 Kombi: Owned since age 17, Dad's retirement project.
1966 Beetle: My new project. (SOLD) Build thread--> https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=678040

[[email protected]]

[madworks]

Ok, so I picked up the car on thursday morning (Dec 8, '16). At the shop I took a few photos and installed some of the body gaskets that were easy to deal with. Specifically the tail-light to fender gaskets, the License light cover gasket, the deck latch gasket. Also installed the wipers and the mirror. Attempted to install the trunk weather stripping, but it turned out to be much more difficult than I had imagined. I got part of it done and decided to finish it at home.

So, before I go too far, I'll remind everyone that this is a budget paint job and I had a good idea of what I would get. I'll say that it met my expectations but qualify this result as a '20 foot paint job'. I'm sure you'll all know what I'm talking about - it looks good at 20 feet but as you get closer you start to see the flaws.

This whole thing was a learning experience for me for sure. I see now that the result could have been better had I really done as much sanding as possible on all surfaces. It's clear that the time they spent on sanding was primarily to remove the line transitions between the three colors. I got exactly what I paid for - the lines are gone, but you can see that they must have done that work with a vibrating sander or some other tool - at the right angle you can see uneven surface.

All that said, I'm good with the result. While I can pick apart the work, my wife was absolutely giddy with the result. That is the most important part in my view.

When I dropped it off for paint, I also made an order from Wolfsburg West and from Bug-Eyed. These orders included fender beading, trunk and deck weatherstripping, lots of body gaskets and new running boards (the old ones were trash). It took me part of thursday, friday and saturday to install most of this stuff. At the reveal to my wife, I still have details to deal with - the bumpers and mounts need to be cleaned up and installed, the windshield wiper arms need to be painted for example.

So, here's how the car looked when I 'revealed' it to my wife.

So, you can see, it looks pretty good. I did replace the wheels as she really wanted the full moon hubcaps. I think it looks pretty good. She was super excited about it.

So, what about the details of the budget paint? Here's a few examples of 'the bad'.

I forgot to take a photo of the inside of the doors. Of course this job was exterior only so the door jams were not painted. When you open the doors you see a little bit of yellow and a bit of white - on both the door and the body. It's not horrible, but clearly marks it as a budget paint job.

So above I showed an image of the inside of the hood without the weatherstripping, it looks much better with the weatherstripping installed:

and the nose looks better too from a person's normal perspective:

I had mentioned about the fenders and how I remove the beading, but cut the bead and left the remainder. My hope was that it would increase the gap between the fender and body and insure some paint got down in there. FAIL! I should have listened to you guys and just removed it completely. Thankfully, it was only on this one fender, but this is what I ran into when I was removing the old beading:

Thankfully, the new beading covered that up so it looks pretty good in the end.

Anyway, I started this thread just for fun and to document this phase of Jenny's bug's life.

Thanks for all the comments and advice leading up to this.
_________________
----------------------------------
madwork's 1970 Baja http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=668092&highlight=
Madworks 1970 Classic Sedan http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=668073&highlight=
Madworks 1980 Vanagon Westy
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=672496&highlight=

[joey1320]

The absolute most important part is your wife's happiness. Glad she liked it

As expected, an inexpensive paint job proved it's worth. But as long as your wife is happy, that's all that matters.

Have fun!
_________________
1971 Super - Sold
1984 Puma GTC - Sold
1971 Campmobile

[Cusser]

Was that a Maaco job?? Looks pretty good to me, what's that run these days.
_________________
1970 VW (owned since 1972) and 1971 VW Convertible (owned since 1976), second owner of each. The '71 now has the 1835 engine, swapped from the '70. Second owner of each. 1988 Mazda B2200 truck, 1998 Frontier, 2014 Yukon, 2004 Frontier King Cab. All manual transmission except for the Yukon. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335294 http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335297

[madworks]

[Mos6502]

For the price, I think it turned out great. As long as it lasts a few years anyway.

[irun5k]

Hey, FWIW I think you did the right thing here. That looks fine and honestly as others have said the "perfect" paint job on a beetle is going to be several grand, ~5K. So much of the car is painted metal and the whole car needs to be disassembled.

So if you're not looking to spend 5K on a job that might be many times over what some cars are bought for, my take is to do as much prep work as you can on your own and go bargain. Why spend, as an example, 2K, since a job at that price point won't be perfect either.

I don't see how Maaco can make any money at all on a job like that. The materials (I'm guessing even for a body shop) are expensive and you can only take so many shortcuts on labor, the thing still has to be masked and sprayed, prep and cleanup, etc. They could have done better on the deck lid, but otherwise it looks like "mission accomplished."

One tip, you can get that paint color mixed up in a special 2K rattle can at your local paint store, or just get a quart and a cheap HVLP gun at Harbor Freight or even one of their airbrush kits with small compressor if you don't have a compressor in your shop. Over time as you work on the car you can start painting some of the other areas. With a little practice you can really fix quite a bit a weekend at a time. If you've got a good paint match, you would be surprised what can be done, I've fixed some small areas in plain view that body shops refused to touch, and you can barely tell. Wet sanding and polishing can work miracles.

[madworks]

[joey1320]

Do you remember the name of the color?
_________________
1971 Super - Sold
1984 Puma GTC - Sold
1971 Campmobile

[Buenos Diaz]

Looks great!
_________________
1967 21 Window Bus
1965 Beetle
2019 Atlas

[Baelfire]

Looks good from where I'm sitting! Glad your wife is happy!

[madworks]

[Cusser]

[andk5591]

Yeah - I had done that years ago with the custom mixed rattle can for a project so I could shoot the wheels body color. Research it first though, I think I had to "buy a quart" so, I had several cans made up. Wasnt cheap, but came in real handy. Car looks good - glad it came out as nice as it did.
_________________
D-Dubya Manx clone 1914. Ex wifes car.
Rosie 65 bug - My mostly stock daily driver.
Woodie 69 VW woodie (Hot VWs 7/12).
"John's car" 64 VW woodie - The first ever
Maxine 61 Cal-look bug - Ex-wifes car.
66 bug project - Real patina & Suby conversion
There's more, but not keeping them...

[67rustavenger]

For what it cost to have Jenny's car painted. I think it looks pretty good.
Yea your not gonna get a perfect paint job for that price. I'd be very happy with a 20 footer. I might do this next winter.

Regarding custom mixed rattle cans. I have had mine mixed at my local Napa. There was (in my case) no minimum purchase. The paint matched pretty well. So I was happy with the results.

Happy wife, happy life!
_________________
I have learned over the years.
Cheap parts are gonna disappoint you.
Buy Once, Cry Once!

There's never enough time to do it right the first time. But there's always enough time to do it thrice.
GFY's Xevin and VW_Jimbo!
2003 Astrovan? GFYS again, Xevin!
Don't let your bad ideas remain, ideas!

[Zundfolge1432]

[Cusser]

Scheib painted the hood on my truck a few years ago, satisfied with that too (I bolted it on).
_________________
1970 VW (owned since 1972) and 1971 VW Convertible (owned since 1976), second owner of each. The '71 now has the 1835 engine, swapped from the '70. Second owner of each. 1988 Mazda B2200 truck, 1998 Frontier, 2014 Yukon, 2004 Frontier King Cab. All manual transmission except for the Yukon. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335294 http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335297

[joey1320]