V8 Super Beetle Project

[V8 Super Beetle]

Thanks, Chris! As you're finding out, there's a lot more to it than just laying down some paint.

Yeah, you can add as much or as little hardener as you would like. I generally work with a golfball size of bondo at a time. I then lay about a 1.5" strip of hardener on top, mix, and then spread. You'll want to keep some lacquor thinner on hand to clean up your spreaders each time. The body filler will wipe right off the spreader. Otherwise, when you go to spread filler next time it'll leave grooves in your filler.

It's hard to say the exact ratio of hardener to use. It'll take a little practice to get it how you want it. You can never really put too much hardener. It'll just harden super fast. You can put too little hardener though, which I have learned the hard way. Too little hardener will make it like bubblegum even after it's cured, which makes it hard to sand and it plugs up your sand paper.

Just be sure you have your surface ready to go before you mix the body filler and get it on there as quick as you can. There's a little leassure time, but it hardens quick. Which is a good thing cause you can start to sand it almost instantly.

Depending on how rough the surface is you'll apply filler to you might need to start off with 36-40 grit paper to easily shape the area. Then sand with 80 grit and finish it off with 150-180 grit. For some of my roof areas I had to lay bondo, wait until it was soft, NOT hard, and then shaped it right away with 40 grit. It makes it so easy to shape the panel. Then lay a thin layer of filler and work with 80.

I hope this makes since. It will once you start working with it. Be sure to dust the area clean before you spread more or it wont bond too well.

[V8 Super Beetle]

Just getting all my ducks in a row. I've finished up body work, as you guys know, and it's now time to lay some primer.




So I quickly whipped up some plans for a spray booth.




It will take up half of the garage and will be flush against the garage wall and my work bench, which will support the fans.




Lighting will be outside, as well as the fans and the compressor. I'll be sure to turn off the water heater and I will turn on the fans and lighting before I spray and after, once the fumes have completely exhausted.

All seams will be duct taped with the exception of the car entrance and side door. I will use painters tape there so it'll be easy to cut and reseal from the inside.

What do you guys think about the design and is there anything else I should consider? I will be using a 3M half-mask, a disposable painter's suit(s), gloves, basically covered head to toe. Is the 3M mask with the P100 filter the best half mask to use?

I want to be safe and would prefer to keep all fumes out of the house considering my garage is attached to my home and my wife and baby are inside. Can't ever be too safe.

[matt123]

Man its looking good. that booth looks like it should work great but u may want to consider putting another exhaust vent on the other side as well. i used to work in a body shop and they had a lower side drawing booth in there and the painter was always complaining about how it didnt have enough suction to pull out the excess fumes. I dont kno a whole lot about painting and i dont pretend too but it makes sense to me why you would want to almost put it under a vacuum in there instead of blowing more air in. just my 2 cents Good luck man its gonna look great!

[Mock1racer]

Looks like a good plan Matt, but maybe putting in another outlet is a good idea. You have a great layout but with two inlet fans creating the positive pressure, you have one fan pulling from the inside out with a filter on it. Your pressure drop with the filter may be too high.

I gues what I'm saying is you may have more going in than you do comming out, and if that's the case you will fill your garage with paint fumes.
maybe you could run a few tests with something harmless that won't contaminate your booth, like dry ice. Just to make sure your airflow is balanced and the booth is sealed.

[V8 Super Beetle]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I posted this on other forums just to get more response and a lot of people said the same thing. I should reverse my setup. One fan blowing in and two blowing the stuff out.

I think what I'll do is setup the booth and primer some small things first to see how efficient, or not inefficient the booth is. Such as the tail light housings, license plate light housing, and maybe a couple larger items like a fender or hood.

I like the dry ice idea. It would give me a good idea as to how things are flowing before I spray some smaller parts.

Lots to think about here. My main concern is fumes, my family, and neighbors. I might just have to suck it up, go to the extra trouble and see if I can't paint it in the production area here at work. The only problem with that is the area is REALLY bad.

[V8 Super Beetle]

It's FINALLY in PRIMER! I swayed away from my original booth design. No explosions, no fumes in the house, minimal overspray and fumes AND I'm alive. ;D

I still need to do the hood and deck lid. I stayed up til 2 am Friday putting paper down on the floor, hanging plastic on the walls and prepping the car. I stayed up until 5 am this morning painting. I was exhausted and too TIRED to finish the hood.

So far it's looking really good. Doesn't look like it'll need too much sanding, but we'll see. I still need to put down a contrasting guide coat.

When I went to paint I just left the garage door wide open. I made a bug guard which also helped catch some over spray. The duct tap didn't stick to the screen material too well. So when I go to do final paint I'll need to figure a better way to hang the "screen door".

The 33 gallon compressor I'm using kept up pretty well with the gun set at 40 psi. ;D When I go to do final paint I'll do smaller sessions. Fenders, then hoods, and then the car body. All in all it would've sufficed spraying the whole car.













The engine compartment is coming out pretty slick.






I used some aluminum foil to mask off the radiator. That way I can start it up, move it out of the garage to sand without having to worry about plastic melting to the radiator.








As you can see, I hung plastic on all the walls, laid some paper on the floor, and hung a screen door.






Worked like a champ and there was plenty of ventilation. The garage NEVER filled up with over spray. The was just a light mist, but it never got to the point towards I couldn't see. I wonder how well my other plan would've worked?

I still need to do something about more lighting when it comes time to do final paint. More soon.

[matt123]

Lookin Good man! ;D

[454bug]

YEAH MATT!!!

Looks GREAT!!!

[Mock1racer]

WOW!! Looks great Matt! All those hours of sanding payed off huh? Real smooth, gonna be sweet.

[V8 Super Beetle]

Thanks guys! I'm pretty happy with how it's coming out. The shape looks pretty spot on. No highs and lows that I can see. The high build primer really exposed a lot of the rough spots I missed (ie, 40 grit sanding marks). I'm going to hit the car with 180 and 220 wet next after I mist a guide coat. I'm going to try and tackle that during the week.

[V8 Super Beetle]

I sprayed the hood and deck lid last night. I did a quick video. My memory card was full so it's only a tid bit of me spraying. You know, for a suit that's made for people up to 6' 2", it fits me pretty tight and I'm 6' 1". LOL! I'll get some pictures of the hood and deck lid.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN6kBSLw4kA

[V8 Super Beetle]

Not as much progress as I would've like to got done this past weekend. Here's a couple pics of the hood and deck lid primed. Next I need to dust coat it with black and I'll start block sanding with 180-220 wet.

[matt123]

Its lookin awsome man. cant wait to see the black on there

[V8 Super Beetle]

Aug 24, 2010 18:07:03 GMT -5 matt123 said:

Its lookin awsome man. cant wait to see the black on there

Thanks! I can't wait to get some paint on too.

[V8 Super Beetle]

Quickie update...

I sprayed the car with a dust coat of black primer. I started wet sanding various parts with 180 grit. I'm hoping to finish wet sanding by the weekend so I can spray another coat of high build primer.