Share this:

Here we have the almost finished up ’79 Beetle. We still have to give it a good cleaning and wipe down the inside. Believe it or not, but its sort of dusty around here. We also still have to get the factory sport wheels mounted. Other than that, its pretty much ready to roll.

Wheel day

We are putting the finishing touches on the beetle. Now that the body is wrapped up, its time to get the wheels done. We had to strip several layers of paint off of these wheels before painting them. Once all of the old paint was removed, we prepped them and set them up in the booth for painting. First Paul sprayed a coat of epoxy sealer over the metal. Once that was dry 3 coats of paint was sprayed followed by 2 coats of clear coat. I must have missed the picture of them cleared, Ill try to get one tomorrow with the tires mounted. If we can get those back early enough, they will be installed tomorrow as well. Only leaving a good detail before this little bug is ready to go back home.

Beetle paint day

Today was paint day for the ’79 Beetle. This morning we pulled it into the the booth and masked off what didnt get painted then meticulously wiped it down to remove any contamination and to clean the surface for paint. Paul then sprayed a coat of PPG urethane sealer over the entire car. This provides us a uniform surface apply the paint over. Once that was dry he sprayed 3 coats of base coat color onto the car followed by 2 coats of PPG clear coat. As you can see it really turned out nice. Tomorrow we will paint the rear fenders and the license plate light cover. It would have just been too tight to try to fit all those in the booth for painting today.

Bug gets primer

Today we sprayed a few coats of primer on the ’79 Beetle. Everything went very smoothly except for that left rear fender. While we were prepping it for primer, we noticed a small split or crack in the paint. When I tried to sand it out, the paint just kept flaking. After about an inch or so of sanding I decided to use a blower on it to see if it would peel. Sure enough, the paint  started flying off in sheets. We were able to blow most of it off but some did stick. The paint that was left was shaved off with a razor blade scraper. You can see the results there on the floor in picture 5. No worries though, we were still able to get that fender in primer as well today. Next week we should be able to start blocking this primer out and prepping the car for paint.