Thanks Merlin Cat, This hot weather is actually great for painting and I have made shady canopy behind my workshop for preparing the doors and loose panels. I thought it would be good practice for me to get all the pressures and settings right for the Epoxy primer and Cellulose Topcoat whilst working in good light on smaller pieces. The prep is done outside and the spraying in the shed after a thorough clean and hoover. I have used 3 coats of wet on wet primer left to well cure and then rubbed back with 800 grit wet then after thorough dry, panel wipe and tack cloth on go the topcoats, 2 inside wet on wet and 3 outside. So far the results look promising but I will let it cure for a while before I take any more action:
Hi Kev, Hope you can find the right conditions for the job, is is a complete respray and what types of paint have you in mind. I have started a separate thread "Paint System Dilemmas" to try and tease out the options.
Looking good Martin! I’m hoping to get the shell into high build primer next weekend. I’ve got it as flat as I can (or at least as flat as I have the energy for!). Just a few bits to fine fill this week. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Hi James it looks brilliant to me and I hope I can do as well. What sort of high build and top coats are you planning?
I’m going with Lechlar Green TI primer, it’s what my local paint shop recommended. Then lechlar base and clear. Think I’ll put one more coat of epoxy to seal the metal where I’ve sanded back to it, then hit it with high build wet on wet straight after. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Hi James, I am very happy with the Lechler Epoxy and also their cellulose which seems to be going on well and I look forward to seeing your progress with 2K. I have bare metalled the new panels supplied in black primer which I have decided may just be 'transit primer'. But otherwise the plan is to avoid removing sound VW factory conditions applied primer and possible some topcoat; need to see where the sanding and filler take me. Hence I think 3 x Epoxy and 3 x topcoat will allow for sufficient cutting back to get a good finish assuming I get the filler and stopper right. The doors have been a good learning ground and I have now top coated the cab pair: More sheen than shine from the gun, so some cutting/polishing to come much later when well cured. Also did the 'coal hole' and a third coat on the interior: But time for a break now as I have some other stuff to do over next 2 weeks, and best not to play any more until paint toughens up a bit,
Back to the grind, echoing James Lay's (Iris restro) sentiments preparation for paint is a long slog especially getting to those hard to reach bits. I have decided to do the roof and work downwards until all is primed and then spend a bit more time masking off for the split (pastel white over marina blue) topcoat. The roof and gutter are in quite good order, the van was resprayed at some time and I aim to remove all that topcoat and flatten the factory paint to a sound base. A couple of pics: The gutter is a complicated shape, outside the spotwelds there is a difficult trough and the concave inside to the gutter upstand is also tricky, best solution for sanding so far is this: Next some rust neutralizer and then I will probably mix some epoxy and use a small bent brush to get to the hidden areas a spray is unlikely to reach.
How big is your compressor Martin? I've got an air DA sander here you can borrow but it needs about 10CFM to run.
Hi Paul, Many thanks for the kind offer but I have an electric DA which works well and I am trying to keep the neighbours happy with less compressor noise. How is Desmond doing? Martin
Desmond is coming along, thanks. I have neither the pace or skill of either you or @JamesLey but he is moving slowly in the right direction. He is road legal now and I have driven him. Feel free to stick your head round the door, the kettle is always on and sometimes, if I've been good there are biscuits too.
Many thanks Paul, likewise pop in if you have the time. Don't worry Art, Desmond is too pretty for blobs of weld. I have now bare metalled the front and working back on the lovely front wheel arches ArtB sold me. The rear bottom and top of the arches have generous flanges to weld to the B pillar but the mid section has to be welded on the outside seam and needs careful work to restore a pretty straight line. So yesterday I made a little profile cutter from a piece of scrap with a seam shaped nib sticking out from a flat face and used it with a straight edge to cut back the filler over the welds which had been scored just deep enough with a grinder blade. That is not an easy read but a piccie shows all:
Just when you think all the welding is done you come across a Murphy! The lugs for the headlamp supports are in the wrong place; because the Brazil front is for different lights? or they just don't care where they weld them in? or just because I did not check before I painted the other side of the front!! So I could have drilled some more holes in the headlamp surrounds but they are nice zinc plated German bits in good nick and the longer but more proper fix was to drill a new hole in each of the big lugs that also take the bezel screw and remove a pair of lugs from each shell and weld new ones in, thinks must prime and paint weld spots on other side:
So I was going to brush some epoxy primer into the joint between the headlamp shells and the front panel but on closer inspection I decided that a fillet of seam sealer was more appropriate as there were some gaps and we need to make sure rain does not get behind. I continued sanding the arches by hand as the contours would not accommodate any power tools, aiming for bare metal. All the while asking myself, is it really necessary to remove the black primer on these good quality VW Brazil arches. Well here is the answer: Admittedly they are now several years old but rust is rust and better to eradicate at this stage. So more elbow grease, sandpaper and filler and finally we are ready for paint, two tidy front arches complete with neat B pillar seams:
Thanks Darron. Hi Andy, that's exactly what Dale our postie said! But better silver goes grey than brown so moving on with this excellent weather for spraying including gentle westerly breeze to ventilate and take fumes away from neighbours without picking up any dust. Spay booth made from lots of plastic sheet stapled to roof trusses and draped around perimeter, lots of blowing out nooks and crannies then vacuuming everywhere, panel wipe, tack cloths and finally more epoxy primer: Now its on old fashioned camper and I will be top-coating in old fashioned cellulose using my old fashioned Devilbiss suction cup gun which always means a few cc of paint left in the cup. So using my trusty 'back side' brush the gutters and some other impossible to spray bits like the bottom front lip of the wheel arch get the benefit of the dregs: Finally the neighbours are beginning to think we might have a camper and not just a pile of rust:
Fettling your Gills! Just how do folks deal with rust and preparation for paint inside the rear cooling scoops? Yes these rascals: I did some searching on TLB and elsewhere for great ideas but found nothing. So I finally stopped ducking the issue and started the attack with these weapons: Wire brushes especially the small rotary ones on a long shaft were quite good for loose scaly paint and rust but in the end I resorted to bead blasting with a fine glass media. I placed a plastic bowl on the battery tray and taped some sheeting around the base of the vent to capture the beads and crud and wore lots of PPE to stop being blasted by the ricocheting beads, initially being dismayed by the apparent lack of effect. However when I took my goggles and glasses off to discover a paint and rust laden cloud in the garage as well as some nice clean metal I was happy. Next some Rustings converter using long straight and bent brushes to get at the difficult bits. Finally I feel confident enough to consider moving on to paint.