V8 Super Beetle Project

[V8 Super Beetle]

Sanded the rear clip, radiator tin work, the front clip and engine bay. Now I just need to sand the cowl and it'll be ready other than glazing a couple little spot. I still need to give her a slight bath to completely get rid of all the sludge. I should be good to go for SOME paint this weekend.

[V8 Super Beetle]

Looks like I'll be painting the fenders this weekend, IN COLOR! Possibly the hood and deck lid as well if I get the time. Wish me luck!

[lookatme]

WHOA THERE FELLA !!!

now before you go and get all excited with the paint you need to stop and back away from the color REAL slow.


if youre going to go and paint the colors in your avatar, you should stop, and make sure that you take all the time that you possibly can to get ALL the stupid imperfections out of the body. BLACK is THE most unforgiving color for a car. take an extra week, maybe two to get the surface as absolutely close as you can to perfect.

take your time, get it right.

other than that. looks good.

good luck. ;D

[V8 Super Beetle]

I hear that. I'm aware that black is the most unforgiving color. One of the reasons I'm not doing anything black this weekend. I just painted the fenders hugger orange. ;D Orange is more forgiving. I will be painting the black hood and deck lid soon though, but not this weekend. I've gone over the car with a fine tooth comb and everything is looking really good. Nothing showed up in the orange

Here are the results of my paint session. I did one coat of epoxy primer to seal everything and to give a uniform color to paint over. I then sprayed 2 coats of single stag hugger orange and two coats of high solids clear.

I'm pretty happy with the way everything came out, but I did get a little orange peel in some areas, some trash, some solvent pop going on, and a couple of mess ups.

I laid the paint on a little too thick and have some sags and solvent pop going on as mentioned. I do and have planed to sand the panels with 400-600 grit to take care of any orange peel and then spray a wet / over reduced coat so it'll be pretty glassy. Sanding the paint will remove the imperfections.

All in all, it came out decent.




You can see a little bit of the solvent pop. I laid the paint on a little too thick. That's okay, nothing that can't be fixed with a little cutting.










Gotta fix this. It wasn't the best idea the way I hung the fenders with the plastic and all. No biggie. The fender beading will cover most of it, but I still plan to fix it right with a little rubbing and some touch up spraying.






A little more solvent pop. Tis cool. Will be fixed.




I also did a little video so you could better see the results.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEPALNDafsI

[Mock1racer]

WOW!! Looks really good ! That's a brite color dude. For the first go-around I think it's comming along great. Why not use a finer grit sand paper for the orange peel and the runs? Like an 600 or 800 ? Is that too fine to buff that out? I'm just askin cause i dont really know.

[lookatme]

looks sharp. but definitely something way finer than 800.

[V8 Super Beetle]

Thanks guys! Well, I'm not cutting and buffing. What I've planned to do, and really need to do since I have a few problem areas, is wet sand the surface with 400 and 600 to get rid of the orange peel, solvent pop and the few sags. I'll sand it until it's a smooth matte look with no imperfections. Then I'll spray an over reduced coat of clear. It'll go on wet so it'll have a slick as glass look even more so than now.

If I were just cutting and buffing, I would hit it with 1000 - 2000 grit and buff. But I really don't plan to do that. Maybe later on cause cash is tight right now and I don't have a buffer which cost $$$.

It'll all turn out nice. My brother was saying I should leave it as it, but as of now it's a 10ft paint job. I want at least a 2ft paint job, if you know what I mean.

[jtss10]

I wouldn't over reduce your clear coat. You'll be better off using 2 or three wet coats with adequate flash time between coats and then a wet sand and buff. You wont get the solvent problem you've been having. The flatter the paint surface, the better the reflection and shine will be (that's what you've been block sanding for isn't it)? The job will look so much better. Also if the temp is high use a slower reducer, the clear will flow out flatter (smoother) and wet sanding will be so much easier. I've been following your project from the beginning , Looks great .

[V8 Super Beetle]

Thanks for the advice and for watching my build. Sounds like you know a decent amount about painting.

See, I really don't plan to cut and buff. If I can get it to have the same shine minus the solvent pop, I would be 100% happy. This will be a driver and not a show car, but I would like it to look it's best. I have no real world experience painting, but I've read of people sanding with 400-800 grit after two coats of clear and then spraying an over reduced coat of clear, "flow coat", which will lay smooth like glass.

I used a medium (70-80º) activator and reducer. The temp outside when I sprayed was 65-70º, slightly cooler than recommended, which from my understanding will allow the paint to flow and lay better but increases flash time.

I would love to lay 2-3 more coats of clear after sanding and then cut and buff the panels smooth, but realistically I'd have to buy more clear and the necessary equipment to do so. At this time I can't really do that do to the wife now staying home. Only one income now. Gotta watch my spending.

Does this not sound like a good plan to get the finish I would like?

[jtss10]

from your photos you did get good flow and gloss. when you wet sand start with 600 and work to 1000 grit, if you don't go through the clear just put on a couple of coats of clear. when wet sanding the water will be milky when sanding clear if you see color in the water you'll know you got into the base. the solid color your using it wont be a major issue, just dust on a light coat of color over the area that went through and re-clear the panel.your going to find the paint on the plastic on the body will will flake off easily the longer it's on he car. re-mask it or do the fenders off the car. you might want to cut in the inside of the door jambs, hood, engine cover jambs and anywhere else you want orange before you paint the sides so you don't have to open the doors. Also think ahead as to where the black will meet the orange in the jamb areas and make sure you have the orange color high enough to mask it off to have a sharp line where the colors meet. I'd paint he inside of the car (painting roll cages are tuff) and then mask the inside (at the window openings with card board or poster board) prior to painting the roof. You'll be surprised how much dirt and junk come out when doing top surfaces

[454bug]

The paint looks AWESOME Matt!!

It's great to see your progress. The color is poppin'!

It sure is gettin' me motivated...

Keep up the great work. You're giving me a lesson on amatuer painting. I really want to take a shot at painting myself.

Keep up the great work!

[V8 Super Beetle]

Oct 4, 2010 22:13:41 GMT -5 jtss10 said:

from your photos you did get good flow and gloss. when you wet sand start with 600 and work to 1000 grit, if you don't go through the clear just put on a couple of coats of clear. when wet sanding the water will be milky when sanding clear if you see color in the water you'll know you got into the base. the solid color your using it wont be a major issue, just dust on a light coat of color over the area that went through and re-clear the panel.your going to find the paint on the plastic on the body will will flake off easily the longer it's on he car. re-mask it or do the fenders off the car. you might want to cut in the inside of the door jambs, hood, engine cover jambs and anywhere else you want orange before you paint the sides so you don't have to open the doors. Also think ahead as to where the black will meet the orange in the jamb areas and make sure you have the orange color high enough to mask it off to have a sharp line where the colors meet. I'd paint he inside of the car (painting roll cages are tuff) and then mask the inside (at the window openings with card board or poster board) prior to painting the roof. You'll be surprised how much dirt and junk come out when doing top surfaces

Thanks for the advice. I've started wet sanding out the runs, the little bit of orange peel and solvent pop. It's coming out great so far. I have a nice flat matte looking surface to it, what I have done so far. I've started blocking with 400 grit to knock it down quickly. I'll then hand sand with 600 in one direction. I'm pretty confident with one wet over reduced coat it'll lay out nice and wet looking like before, but minus the issues.

After I have the paint sanded I'm going to leave the fenders out in the sun for a full day just to be sure all solvent has vented from the paint after scuffing / rubbing.

You're right, the water is a milky color where I have sanded so far. No color yet and the imperfections are coming out easily.

I've decided where I will mask off for the black. They'll be at the natural breaks / creases of the car. The black wont come too far into the door jams. Just enough so you don't see orange from the outside.

Thanks again for the advice. I believe I'm on the right track with the help of you and other experienced painters. There's so many way to skin a cat when it comes to paint it's unreal. I'm sure it'll all come out great!


EDIT: Forgot to mention, I plan to spray the interior and engine bay as one session. Then mask the car off at the windows, door openings, and engine bay. Then I'll spray the body.

[V8 Super Beetle]

Oct 5, 2010 0:28:17 GMT -5 454bug said:

The paint looks AWESOME Matt!!

It's great to see your progress. The color is poppin'!

It sure is gettin' me motivated...

Keep up the great work. You're giving me a lesson on amatuer painting. I really want to take a shot at painting myself.

Keep up the great work!

Thanks, Ray! I'm loving the pop of the hugger orange. In the sun it's a nice bright orange. During the night it takes on more of a reddish orange. Very cool looking for a solid color.

I'm glad to hear these updates are getting you motivated. There's something very rewarding about painting your own car and being happy with the results.

Feel free to ask questions when it comes time to paint and I'll be more than happy to help as much as I can.

[V8 Super Beetle]

I pulled some of the plastic away to see how the wheels look with the paint. ;D Can't wait...in due time though.

[matt123]

DUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT THING IS SOOOOOOOOOOOO SICK!!!! its just the fenders and it still is awsome! i cant wait to see the black on there with it!!