You can do a lot with an old paint job on a VW bug, the secret is knowing what simple steps to take. Here are four steps that will make your project car new again.

If the car is all one color, a simple washing and waxing can work wonders. When approaching a ‘distressed’ car, appearance is very important.

Any rust spots must be ground away until bright, shiny metal shows and there is no rust anywhere in that area. Even a little rust can grow to a much bigger spot. Here the old Neil Young lyric, ‘Rust never sleeps’ applies. It’s true, rust doesn’t sleep. It can be cunning, baffling and powerful.

After clearing out all the rust, weld in replacement sheet metal. Fiberglass can be used and is an often used replacement. The fiberglass itself doesn’t rust, but it expands and contracts with temperature at a different rate than metal.

Therefore it is bound to break free of nice shiny bare metal eventually and give rust a chance to start again. ‘Bondo’ is a brand of fiberglass filler or putty that is often used.

Fiberglass is lighter than steel and more rigid. The rigidity is good and bad. It’s good in that it’s rigid, it holds it’s shape. It’s bad in that it is easily shattered, especially on a constantly flexing, bending, jarring car.

After the rust is addressed, the paint job requires attention. A through washing before painting is one of four steps to take before painting.

After washing, once the car is dry, wipe it down with lacquer thinner.

Be sure to tack wipe the car. This is wiping the car down with tack cloth (sticky cloth) to collect all the dust and loose crud that you do not want to get permanently in the paint.

Another step is to mask off the parts of the car you do not want paint on. An example would be the windshield glass. This also includes many other small things, lights, chrome, name plate, door handles, etc. This step can be a pain in the neck.

Do not let the tape get in the sun or even real hot. That tends to make it sticky and a *lot* harder to remove.

Paint away! If not doing the whole car in one shot, tape off the parts not being done that day to prevent ‘overspray’ from finely misting over the other surfaces. Such a mist will dull the finish of already done surfaces.

If just adjusting a dull finish (and not painting), there are a few varying degree of ‘wax’ to apply. At the more benign end of the scale is simple, ordinary car wax. At the extreme other end of the scale is rubbing compound.

What you are doing is removing the top (few) layers of paint on a very fine scale. Removing the top layer usually is sufficient to strip away all of the dulling crud on the car and polish what’s left. How much stripping away you want to do will determine whether you use ‘wax’ (light buffing) or rubbing compound (heavy stripping).

With a little TLC, your old VW beetle can shine once again.


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