Recommended Paint Job in SLC area (Ogden)?

[ElSketchmobile]

Hi all - my '73 Westy is still on it's original paint and has spent the last year in the salty, windy, harsh sun of SLC Valley. It's in fantastic shape, coming from California and Montana, but after a year in AK (with some time on the coast) and this last 18+ months in the SLC area, those little bits of superficial rust are telling me that it's finally time to spiff up and protect the metal before anything gets too deep.

I've searched around a bit, but struck out on results...does anyone have a link for a thread that would guide me through what I need to know? For instance, how far do I really need to take this job? Is it essential that I strip and sandblast, grind away, etc? Or with only minor surface rust, am I ok to slap the cheapest fix that I can find on there? Budget is of concern.

And lastly, does anyone out there have a recommended service in the area? I'm also very open to doing any of the work that I can myself, or working alongside any of you who my have a shop and the patience for me to help out.

Thanks in advance!
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'73 Campmobile
1.8 base, 2lt mod on reclaimed '74 engine, code CB
Dual Weber 34 ict's (worn, torn, leaky and searching for an economical replacement)
009 Distributor with electronic ignition

[SGKent]

[orwell84]

[ElSketchmobile]

[SGKent]

[[email protected]]

[ElSketchmobile]

Well, let's just imagine for a moment that this is actually my daily driver that I've owned for 22 years and paid $100 for (yeah, that included the paint that was already on it). In that time I've driven this thing all over the American West, the Canadian Rockies, back and forth to Alaska, and lived in it for extended periods a number of times.

All told, I've done two rebuilds and recently had a replacement motor installed...a second set of carbs, a few brake jobs, etc. In the end, I'm still only around 10k into this rig over those 22 years...get the picture? There's no way that I'm going to drop that kind of cash for a restoration quality paint job.

All I really want to do is preserve the metal and freshen up a bit...definitely no cork-sniffing going on here.
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'73 Campmobile
1.8 base, 2lt mod on reclaimed '74 engine, code CB
Dual Weber 34 ict's (worn, torn, leaky and searching for an economical replacement)
009 Distributor with electronic ignition

[[email protected]]

Anything less than $5k, and all the stuff coming through your paint now will be back in a few years, and you’ll be that much lighter in the wallet. It’s great you’ve only put $9900 into it in 22 years, but you’re not going to get done what you want done for $500-$1000. And anything worth while will have your vehicle tied up for weeks/months, so if it’s your daily, you’ll need to improvise.

[busdaddy]

[orwell84]

There is a huge range of quality and price in bodywork and painting from concourse level to just plain bad work. Any decent body shop will care about what your bus will say about their work when it’s out the door. I had this experience calling a local body shop on the phone. He didn’t want to paint a bus that I had prepped. At first I was pissed, but then understood. I think it’s one of those face to face things. They have to look at your bus, find out what you expect and decide what they can live with sending out the door. I did this years ago with the car when I was a student. The shop sent me home when I brought it in for paint and told me what I still needed to do. It came out great and we were both happy. A lot of shops won’t have time for this shit, but I’m sure you can find someone to work with you.

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[SGKent]

$20K was a very high quality almost show bodywork and paint. I found another shop after months of looking and the total was about $10K by the time we were done. You always find rust; there is no such thing as a VW bus without rust unless it was recently restored for a lot of money.

Good luck on finding a pair of shoelaces for $700 these days. Freaking set of tennis shoes are $150 these days.
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“Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin

[ElSketchmobile]

[skills@eurocarsplus]

you will be in for a reality check for materials alone....that's the point.

if you have just surface rust, buff the hell out of it and clear coat it...works well for the patina crowd.

or just touch it up and leave well enough alone. it isn't about having the means to do it, it's realizing the cost of quality and being able to have a bus look fantastic in another 20 years. materials, parts and labor are not ever going to get cheaper
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[orwell84]

There is tons of information on bodywork and paint prep on the internet, though I can't think of a specific place to sent you. As you probably already know, you can save a lot of money by doing metal work and prep yourself. having a nice coat of paint put on is kind of the easy part. Most painters can get good gloss out of a gun if they are doing it for a living. Don't do tremclad. Single stage urethane is a much better option.

A lot of times there is more work in the prep than expected. Surface rust often turns out to require welding. Replacing the window seals is also a good idea. There is often rust through in the window frames that allows water in to migrate and rust distant places. If preservation is your goal, then not doing this work makes no sense. I had the kind of respray you are talking about in the early 90's but left all the original seals which were shot even then. I couldn't figure out why it had rusted out in some of the same places I repaired until years later when I removed the window seals. Water moves in strange ways.

Seals and trim add a lot of expense and labor. The cab doors on their own are an ass ache. I could never afford to pay someone for the time I put into just one of them. But it's the same deal with preservation. Your time and money are wasted if water is still getting in.

I would ask around in your area, then check out a few of the recommended shops. I think it's still one of those face to face, word of mouth kinds of things.

Good luck with your bus.

[SGKent]

[ElSketchmobile]

[OB Bus]

ElSketch: You have a PM.
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Larry in OB
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!
69 Westfalia and 2002 Eurovan Camper.

[calvinater]

If you enjoy tinkering with your bus, why not enjoy painting it?

Check out the paint and bodywork forum , youll fond many have had success with the horror frieght hvlp system
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"Albatross"!

[airschooled]

The best thing you can do for now, is to wax the existing paint.

Any flagrant rust can be treated to STOP the rust for now, with a phosphoric acid or similar product. Dupli-Color Rust Fix is my favorite; but you can't just spray it on all willy-nilly. Rust has to be scraped, cleaned, and then the Fix applied. Wait 24 dry hours, and top coat it with a good automotive enamel, and you can get a decade out of it with no new rust coming back.


This was three or four years after a $10k paint job.

Here's that same spot, four years after I worked it:

The same paint job, different window, in 2016, six years after paint. Looks fine, right?

Wrong! The paint just flaked off in my hands.

I had the windows out again this year, and all the repairs are holding up. Point is, you can do a lot with a little, if you read the directions and respect the chemistry. But cheaping out on prep is the KILLER of paint jobs, and a total waste of money.

My favorite way to save on paint is to do the disassembly of the car yourself. This means removing all glass, door handles, interior, and anything else you don't want coated in overspray. And you WILL have overspray with any budget. Blank checks are good ways to reduce it…

See you on the road,
Robbie
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