The Tortoise gets a Nose Job!
Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 6:55 pm
Greetings from rainy, tropical northeast Ohio! It's been a while since I've posted here... life has been quite busy!
The paint on the nose of my 78 Westy has been bad since I bought the Bus in 2005. The paint was blistering and lifting; finally a big chunk peeled off. When I saw how much rust was traveling under the paint, I decided that it was time to refinish it.
I took it down to bare metal with a rotary sander, sandblasted the rust pitted areas, rattle-can primed it, filled the dents, and tried my hand at spraying the finish coat with an HVLP spray gun in my garage. THAT was a misadventure that I will never repeat for the sake of my lungs and brain cells, at least not without building a temporary "paint booth" with good ventilation. (I did use a respirator, but by the end, the smell was starting to come through.)
I also took the opportunity to remove the spare tire carrier from the nose, which I've been wanting to do for a long time. The VW emblem is from my very first Bus, a '71. It fills and covers the holes drilled for the spare tire carrier perfectly!
Here's a couple of pictures of the work-in-progress and the final results. The color match to the Maaco paint on the rest of the Bus is not perfect, but pretty darn close. Up close, it's clear it's a first-time amateur's work, but it still looks better than it did! Overall, I'm pleased.
The paint on the nose of my 78 Westy has been bad since I bought the Bus in 2005. The paint was blistering and lifting; finally a big chunk peeled off. When I saw how much rust was traveling under the paint, I decided that it was time to refinish it.
I took it down to bare metal with a rotary sander, sandblasted the rust pitted areas, rattle-can primed it, filled the dents, and tried my hand at spraying the finish coat with an HVLP spray gun in my garage. THAT was a misadventure that I will never repeat for the sake of my lungs and brain cells, at least not without building a temporary "paint booth" with good ventilation. (I did use a respirator, but by the end, the smell was starting to come through.)
I also took the opportunity to remove the spare tire carrier from the nose, which I've been wanting to do for a long time. The VW emblem is from my very first Bus, a '71. It fills and covers the holes drilled for the spare tire carrier perfectly!
Here's a couple of pictures of the work-in-progress and the final results. The color match to the Maaco paint on the rest of the Bus is not perfect, but pretty darn close. Up close, it's clear it's a first-time amateur's work, but it still looks better than it did! Overall, I'm pleased.
