V8 Super Beetle Project

[Mock1racer]

Okay, now that's a pretty sharp hood. Tell you what, I'll let you give me that one and I'll give you mine for you to start over again,deal?

So what's next? You gonna paint the black on the car now? or, you gonna start with the orange and then tape it up?

[V8 Super Beetle]

LOL, uhmmm...only if the hood didn't take me about 10-12 hrs to do.

Right now I'm sanding the fenders with 400 and 600 grit to get them flat. Then I'm going to spray an over reduced coat of clear so they'll come out like the hood did.

After that, then I'll repaint the engine and paint the engine bay and the inside. I've decided to strip the engine down (alt., headers, carb, dist. cap, wires, throttle cable, etc.) rather than remove it so I'm not making more work than I have to. I can easily spray around it with these items removed.

Once that's done, I'll mask off those areas and paint door jams, the inner doors and the outside. I'll paint two coats of orange, mask for black, spray black, demask and spray clear over the entire out side. Once the paint has cured I'll wet sand with 400 and 600 grit, then spray a wet coat of clear.

I'm trying to get the whole outside of the car looking like that hood, hopefully.

[Mock1racer]

Did you ever decide to paint the interier? i cant remember.

[V8 Super Beetle]

Oct 26, 2010 9:35:58 GMT -5 Mock1racer said:

Did you ever decide to paint the interier? i cant remember.

I'm going to paint the inside with the hugger orange. The flooring will be painted black with some of that Master Series and then I MAY lay down black carpet. The jury is still out on that one.

[V8 Super Beetle]

Spraying the final flow coat.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9mdqpQQCbs


The results of the flow coat.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEU6vJaH10Y


First coat of clear on the fenders after color.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRO0agrxr14


Results of two coats of color and two coats of clear.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_UdqwZNqmQ

[302bug]

Man, this looks awesome!!! Can't wait to see it done.

[V8 Super Beetle]

Thanks! Me too.

[302bug]

So when are you projecting to finish the paint? And I knoticed that yu have to sit pretty close to the steering wheel because of you roll cage. Is this a problem? I have long legs so don't know that I could do the same. I do want to use some kind of roll bar because Im going topless but not sure what to do just yet.

[V8 Super Beetle]

I kind of did things backwards. I installed my rollcage and then my firewall. So it just came out how it came out. The frame, being that mine's a long bed extended cab, interfered with me moving the main hoop further back as well.

Oh well, it's a tight fit, but it's a hot rod. I'm 6'1", so I know what you mean.

[V8 Super Beetle]

Oh, I'm not sure about paint. It'll probably be another month before I'm finished the rate I'm going.

[Mock1racer]

Nov 1, 2010 8:34:59 GMT -5 V8 Super Beetle said:

Oh, I'm not sure about paint. It'll probably be another month before I'm finished the rate I'm going.

What?! Your'e making great progress, the fenders hood and decklid are done. all you have left is the interier, body, doors, engine bay, reassemble the engine...


maybe that is a lot huh?

[V8 Super Beetle]

LOL, I know. I'm just guesstimating. I've got my 1 year anniversary this coming weekend, so I don't see a lot getting done. After that, I have a gig and a wedding to go to. So there goes that weekend.

I sanded down the fenders for a final coat and sprayed them this weekend my gun was acting up in the middle of spraying cause something got clogged . So I had to quickly switch to my other gun, which wasn't all that clean, so basically I need to sand and redo the float coat.

It's amazing how thoroughly clean things have to be or it'll show up in your final paint. Doing a glossy paint job is a PITA, but it'll be worth all the work in the end.

Yeah, I'm going to need a full weekend just to do the body. I have to primer the whole car with epoxy, then I'm going to paint the inside of the car, the engine bay, and the outside with two coats. Then I have to wait 8 hours before I can even mask off for the black. Once I spray the black then I can do 2-3 coats of clear.

I'm going to give the body the same treatment as the rest of the car. Sand with 400-600 after the two coats of clear, and then do a flow coat so it'll come out nice and slick. ;D

If I wasn't being so picky I would have it done already, but I want it to come out the best I can get it. So yeah, another month. LOL

[V8 Super Beetle]

Quick update.

I tore down part of my engine (headers, wires, carb, throttle linkage, dist, alt., etc), so I can paint the engine bay, and I repainted the engine. It had gotten a little nasty looking since having broke the engine in having head a little leak here and there. Looks like new again.




I also repainted the headers. Last time i didn't follow the instructions so the paint flaked off. This time I followed them and baked the ceramic paint on @ 300º for 2 hours. Boy did that stuff stink up the house.




I sprayed the "final" flow coat this weekend but ran into problems. My paint gun was acting up in middle of spraying the first fender so I had to quickly switch to my other paint gun. Well that through me off and it wasn't all that clean. So I managed to get a couple noticeable runs and I have a lot of dust in my paint as well. Needless to say, I'll have to sand them back down, fix the problem with my gun (which I figured out this morning) and repaint. Two steps forward, one step back.










Ughh...if it aint one thing, it's another. It'll get there though, just not quickly. I'm just being picky. My wife says they look good for being painted in a garage, I think I can make it better though.

[matt123]

i think they look fantastic for being painted anywhere! especially sense you havent really painted before! great job man!!! i cant wait to see it put back together

[V8 Super Beetle]

Thanks! I went ahead and sanded the fenders with 400 and 600 to knock down the couple runs and junk in the paint. Took about a whole 2 hours. So I have the fenders sanded and ready for another coat. I'm sure they'll come out like I want this time around. I just got to remember to stop making newbie mistakes. LOL

I'm hoping to take a day off of work so I can paint the car. Maybe tomorrow or Friday. We'll see how busy the work week is. I need to finish painting before it gets too cold.

I heard a local radio advertisement this morning and it was about "The Coolest" VW contest. Winner takes $3K. Too bad it's this Saturday. I think I would have a decent chance of winning, I think.

More to come soon...