Grandma Mildred's 73 Automatic Perpetual Restoration

[orwell84]

It’s not often you get a lucky break with bus rust. A little poking and your suddenly ass deep in another sheet metal and rust sandwich. Today was different. So standing back, taking a photo and enjoying the moment.

Jalousie window aperture is factory perfect.

Did the rear window frames maybe 8 years ago. They were much worse. I figured out a way to fill some of the pitting with MIG welding. Quick zig-zagging with the gun puts a skim of metal of the pits. Did some patching too. Sad to have lost the smokers window. Many fond memories of tipping my ash into the slipstream. And that little ashtray! RIP chain smoking and campfire meals of canned Beefaroni and Jim Beam. RIP carefree youth and smoker’s window.

Panel is finally flat. Finished up with 80, followed by 180. Some voids and pinholes to fill with dolphin glaze. Maybe a quick going over with 220, followed by epoxy and high build. Gallon of ss urethane arrived last week. Onward.

[orwell84]

Moving along slowly. Hard to find the kind of time this work takes. Dragged the blaster out yesterday to chase out some rust pits and prep the seams for epoxy and seam sealer. Really adds to the time, but it’s worth it to not have it come back. Water tight and rust free matter more to me than how the paint ends up looking.

Shop gave me the wrong grit, so it was like shooting stones. Had some crushed walnut…too soft. Got it done with what I had on hand.

Rockers will need some more sanding and scuffing

Body lines are a pet peeve. B-pillar got a little lumpy welding in a new section and fighting in the wheel arch. With different panels, plus stuff you make yourself, you gotta cheat a little to make it look like it all lines up.

[orwell84]

I know it looks exactly the same as in the last photos, but it’s getting there. Lots of pinholes to fill and straightening out the seams. The panel edges actually line up which they never did before from the factory…Those big panels are usually lower at the edges and higher in the middle, but straight and is the only thing I can work towards without it looking off. B-pillar looks better after some sanding and filling.

A couple more more spots to glaze, then it’s :

80/180 with the long board
220 on a shorter sanding block
Epoxy primer and seam sealer
A couple gun-fulls of high build
A few days for it to shrink
Wet sand with 600 grit
Paint!

This will probably be the last of the big panels I will be able to paint outside this spring, unless I get a lucky run of good weather. Lots I cannot get done in the garage in the winter with use of heaters and hot lights, but not paint on big panels.

Also getting better consumables. Scrounging whatever is on hand wastes a lot of time in hokey masking and overspray cleanup.

[orwell84]

The weather has turned to crap and outdoor temps have fallen off a cliff. There are still warm dry days, but they are getting scarce. I need about two decent afternoons for primer and paint. The primer sanding can be done in the garage anytime after it has a few days to cure and shrink.

The joys of DIY car painting.

[orwell84]

Got some time and decent weather this weekend to do some seam sealing and get a coat of epoxy and high build on the bodywork I did. Wind was blowing and just barely warm enough. Some pinholes I missed and a couple stray blobs of seam sealer, so it’s going to need a few swipes of dolphin glaze and another round of high build. Not sure if the weather will cooperate for painting, but it’s a relief to at least get it in primer.

OCD question for body work people:

TDS for the high build I’m using gives 120-180 for coating bare metal and 180-240 for going over old finishes or body filler. I always read that as 240 being the finest grit that could be used if sanding before recoating for the primer to stick to itself (beyond the recoat window)

But that doesn’t make sense. Seems that even scuffing with a red scotchbrite pad would be enough, even if beyond the recoat window. My plan is to wait a couple of days, sand it with 320 and hit it again with high build. Any reason this wouldn’t work?

Thanks.

[jitbba]

You want as much bite for the primer as possible and red scotchbrite is not enough.

As far as grit before color, I personally like 600. 400 would be the least but expect more cutting and buffing clear
_________________
My other ride is a Zildjian

[orwell84]

[jitbba]

I guess I need to understand why you're doing another coat of high build. If it's small areas to cover burn through to body filler, you'll be fine. But if you're redoing an entire panel, maybe get coarser to be safe
_________________
My other ride is a Zildjian

[orwell84]

[orwell84]

Yeah, I’m overthinking it. Will block sand it dry with 220 and a guide coat, glaze over any voids or pinholes. Another round of high build followed by 320 dry/600 wet. That should do it.

[orwell84]

This long side is still kicking my ass. Tons of pinholes to fill as a result of inexperience filling entire panels and going cheaper on filler. Also, not enough high build, so I sanded through to filler on one panel. Going to hit it again with epoxy and a couple more coats of high build. I may have to roll it on if the weather doesn’t cooperate. A couple warm days coming up next week. May get it paint after all.

[orwell84]

This has been a really boring section of this thread…just like paint prep is probably the most tedious part of a bus project. The only update is that I was able to do another coat of epoxy and a couple more solid coats of high build. Doesn’t really look any different. Temps have been up and down, but a couple work lights have kept the whole long side at 80*.

Expecting a couple warm dry days in the 70’s, so I should be able to paint it outside.

I have figured out a workable way to prep and paint in the garage in all but the coldest weather. Judging by what I have left to do and the time it’s taken so far, I should be able to get it all done by spring.

[jlrftype7]

I really like the Clean Sheets pad in your picture for filler and glaze. Big enough, but not too big, and way easier than looking for cardboard or something else to waste on mixing and using Filler, etc.
It was a minor game changer buying it, along with a bench top sized paper/tape dispenser for masking. Speeds up the work and lowers the Frustration level....
_________________
'68 Westy- my first VW and vehicle/Bus- long gone.- sold it to a traveling Swiss couple....
'67 Type 3 Fastback, my 2nd car- gone
'69 Semi-Auto Stick Shift Beetle-gone
2017 MINI Coopers, our current DDs
‘84 Tin Top - Hilga....Auto

[orwell84]

[orwell84]

While painting, I ended up with a huge curtain run. Tried to use a trick I saw on YouTube of lifting off the run with masking tape. It made a bigger mess of heavy peel.

Started on this run. If sanding can salvage this, then the rest of it can be salvaged. I managed to get it flat without burning through. Got most of it flat, hit with the buffer and sanded some more. Usually, I’m too soft on the buffer afraid to burn through. But if you’re too dainty with it, the buffer doesn’t cut.

No point stressing about it. If it burns through, it’s easy enough to shoot another coat depending on how bad it is. It becomes a question of how much time it takes to fix little things vs spraying another coat. Also whether flaws in the paint will be noticeable or if you can live with them. Sometimes recoating just gives you another set of flaws to pick at. Most people looking at your bus will just see a shiny bus because they have better things to do than nitpick your paint. That is me once I start driving it again. I had this whole list of things on my scooter to touch up when I finished it. But once I started riding it, I stopped seeing them. Gonna finish up the cut and buff in the long side and move on to the next panel.

Run, be gone!

Starting to flatten out with no primer in sight

[orwell84]

Couple evenings of sanding in the rear quarter, mostly with 2000-5000 grit…as low as 800 for the runs and getting trash out of the paint. It’s kind of been a test panel for trying out different techniques as I was expecting having to repaint it. Anything worse than the peel I started with, I wouldn’t bother trying to save it. If this survives buffing without burning through, I’ll be happy with it.

Here it is after being sanded out:

A more honest photo:

Hopefully buffing will remove these scratches…

[soissisc]

That is looking really good, the hard work is paying off!
_________________
Mark

68 Westy
92 Jetta (oh it is retired)
99 Eurovan
05 NBC
06 Audi A3
72 Westy (I am going to fix it up)

[orwell84]

Thank you!

Paint! It drives me crazy. Sometimes it lays down perfectly. Other times it does crazy and unexpected things. This time it was pinholes left in the paint when the runs were sanded down…like grainy shadows of the run that was once there. So I looked it up, ‘cos I hadn’t seen it before. It’s called air entrapment which is a different thing from solvent popping. It’s caused by air bubbles remaining in the paint from putting on too much at too low pressure or moving the gun too slowly. I think in my case the wind also didn’t help.

https://youtu.be/ETf3O-14bmU?si=iEeebcxe0_X7dg3A

Learned a lot about buffing though. You have to buff with compound for awhile before getting out sanding scratches. The panel came out good, but there were porous spots left behind wherever there was a run. Also with the orange, when spraying too heavy, the yellow solids tends to drop out of the paint. Luckily, I only got this on the rear quarter where I tried to pile on the paint over the run. Hard to pick up on camera, but you can see it right where the lights are reflected.

I enjoy doing this partly because I like learning how to do new things and improving my skills. I might try out touching up and blending these spots just to see how it goes. Nice thing about having an iffy panel is that you can try stuff out without worrying that you’ll mess it up. Easiest would be to scuff and reshoot another coat on the 1/4. At this point, I’m going to move on to the other panels I have left.

One more thing. Sanding out every spec of peel is not necessary unless you want that wall of gloss look. All production cars have orange peel and reproducing different types and grades of peel is its own special thing in the restoration world. How much texture to leave in the panel is up to you.

[orwell84]

These are the last photos of the long side. I promise. This is how it came out after sanding and buffing. There are definitely some flaws in the paint, mostly from painting outside in windy weather. I may circle back and fix some of the them later on, but it’s time to move on to the other quarter. Can’t say I’m unhappy with it. If the rest of the bus comes out like this, I will have no complaints. Half the bus is in paint at this point and I feel like I can make good progress over the winter.

A big thanks to Clatter for his excellent thread on prep/painting and color sanding under adverse conditions. His thoughtful and detailed responses to my questions have helped me a ton. One of the best lessons from his thread is that if the paint goes to shit, you can fix it or do it again. Way better than kicking yourself for screwing up. Giving yourself permission to make mistakes makes it a lot less stressful.

[GERMANAIRE]

Lots of work for sure!! Comin out Great!, keep up the good work!!