Made a start on reassembling the headlights now the lenses are cleaned up and the chrome polished on the rims. They've been in bits in a bag in the shed since about 2003. Making a quick shift kit using part of a bay gearlever cobined with the original bug one. Does away with the stupid quickshift plate i'd fitted years ago, looks stock so my kamei centre console will fit and still has 40% reduction in throw.
Been trying to create enough space in the garage to be able to get all around the bug to paint the outside. Camper seemed like the only option for the storage of painted parts and panels. Managed to put a little scratch on the bonnet next to where the chrome trim will sit though by catching it on the overhead cupboard.
Rear wings sanded and stoppered ready for paint. Brought them in the house to dry and warm up after wet sanding them.
Got the rear wings painted today: Managed to get a massive run on the edge of the wing. Not sure how to fix it at the moment. Gonna leave it a few weeks to dry fully. Painted the outside of a bug while i had paint in the gun.
Spent a few hours in the garage this afternoon sanding the primer on the outside of the shell and stoppering any pin holes i found. Only managed to get the 2 front 1/4s done plus a windscreen pillar and the scuttle.
Got the rest of the outside of the shell sanded today ready for some paint tomorrow. Weather is forecast 11C and dry with virtually no wind. Roof took a lot of sanding: Rear 1/4 sanded: 12.3C inside the garage with no heating on just seems wrong for December .
Added more painted panels to the interior of my westy to create enough space in the garage to walk around my bug. Masking tape and plastic dust sheets used to mask it up, then degreased and tack ragged before a light coat of paint. 3rd coat (no idea what happened to the 2nd coat piccy): 4th coat: Shot 4 coats on the glovebox lid and filler flap too:
Had a small 2x4" patch of microblistered just above the door. Planned to sand it back and respray the area again but put some heat on it beforehand and they disappeared. They'll be back again i'm sure but i can't remember exactly where they were now to sand the area. Front wings definately need resanding as theres microblisters all over them as i left them in primer in the damp as i didn't have the space to spray them. Atleast i've got enough primer to do them and the doors once they're sorted.
Sanded back the paint on the roof and found the microblisters were in the primer so had to go this far back to sand them out. Few tiny ones on the windscreen pillar but luckily only in the topcoat. Had to sand this much of the wing to get rid of them though. Other front wing still needs going but its not as bad. Gonna get it primed tomorrow then hopefully topcoated on thursday.
Warming everything up with a fan heater or electric bar heater for an hour or so beforehand. Doesn't help i'm working in 80% humidity though.
Managed to sneak a couple of hours in the garage today and got the roof reprimed where i'd sanded the microblisters out: Gave the wing 4 coats of primer which should give me enough paint to sand it back smooth: and primed the dashboard grill i'd cut the 80mm hole out of for a rev counter. I also primed a couple of small brackets i'd mislaid when i was painting last.
I cut out the grill on my 1500, 1970 beetle, back in the day. and fitted a Tacho the same as you did. Araldite'd a sheet of polished aircraft spec. aluminium to the back side of the grill, looked good. Tony
I've got the original mesh to go back behind the grill. Just need to cut a hole in it and find a rev counter to fit.
