1973 V8 Super Beetle Front Engine Conversion - 283 SBC

[V8SuperBeetle]

I made some good progress on the bug this weekend. I sprayed another coat of high build primer. I did a walk around video rather than MORE pics. You can hear my neighbors cammed 2000 or so reg cab short bed pickup firing up and passing by. Encouragement...the guy regularly has shoe polish numbers on his windows from the drag strip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFCUdxyZ3L0


I wet sanded the fenders, deck lid, hood, and the driver's side of the car, inside and out, with 400 grit. The fenders and deck lid need just a touch more sanding (pin holes) and it'll be ready for sealer, color and clear!

Some pictures of the sanded panels.












The plan when it comes to paint is to do it in sessions so I don't wear myself out. I'll do the fenders in one session: a coat of sealer, two coats of s/s hugger orange, and two coats of clear. Then I'll let the paint cure for a few days, wet sand with 400, and then spray an over reduced coat of clear.

Next would be the deck lid and hood, cause they'll be black, same process, and then I'll do the body.

So I hope to get the fenders in paint this coming weekend. Did I mention the weather has finally gotten cooler and is perfect for painting.

[V8SuperBeetle]

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEPALNDafsI