Itinerant Air-Cooled

A PO of my bus, for reasons that still elude me, decided to paint several panels of my low mileage, original paint bus - with the wrong color. And I think he/she did it with a rattle can too.

Here is what it looked like when I got it:



I couldn't stand looking at that any more, but I didn't want to take it in for a complete repaint or anything either. So, not really knowing what lay beneath, I sanded the mismatched paint off.

I began with 1500 grit, but it was slow going. So I went down to 1200 grit. To my surprise, there were no areas with filler or primer below the bad paint. Just nice original color. It was a little thin in places, so I took it slow. And I took the opportunity to pound out some of the dent in the door.

One panel done:



Both panels done:



Door dent pounded out a bit:



After the 1200 grit, I did 1500 grit, then 2000 grit. Then I used some rubbing/polishing compound on a drill mounted buffer pad followed by a few coats of wax.

It is nice to have my bus all one color.

Tim

That is bizarre. But nice work. World of difference to the good.


neal

ruckman101 wrote:That is bizarre. But nice work. World of difference to the good.


neal

X2! Glad to see you're back in a bus (I'm sure Ken Madson is too!).

Looks great Tim. Maybe Elwoods door damage is doable???

Glad your still with us!!!

Barb/Elwood
up in Idyllwild , good day run from you.

But I do have a dirt driveway

Good work, Tim! I'll take thin original over repainted any day.
Colin

Amskeptic wrote:Good work, Tim! I'll take thin original over repainted any day.
Colin

Agree. But one issue encountered with this method is that you lose the very slight orange peel texture that the original paint job had. The panels I sanded are just flat and shiny. It is hard to get a photo of this difference, but you can see and feel it pretty easily in person.

Again, even without the orange peel, this is way better than the mismatched, rattle can spray that was there before.

Elwood wrote:Looks great Tim. Maybe Elwoods door damage is doable???

Glad your still with us!!!

Barb/Elwood
up in Idyllwild , good day run from you.

But I do have a dirt driveway

I don't know Barb. Maybe it is. Shoot me a picture. I'm just 'down the hill,' plus I have an aunt in Hemet.

Tim

Very nice job. I have a somewhat similar situation, but the PO had the entire bus painted (except for the driver's rear panel). It's been an annoyance for 18 years. Must be a Dakota Beige thing...

Some day, when I have more time than sense, I might start sanding.

Nice work!

The mystery was getting to me and I was wondering if maybe the bus had graffiti? Would you have found the naughty writing (if it was naughty writing) when sanding or would that have just come off without your realizing it, along with the rest of the bad paint? Cause I could see someone temporarily painting over something particularly foul (or trying to clean it off and making it uglier if not doing it properly) and then not ever getting around to doing it properly? Curious!

Looks much better! Nice job

Amskeptic wrote:Good work, Tim! I'll take thin original over repainted any day.
Colin

I had a similar situation with an 83 Vanagon I bought. It was that nice two tone brown. the reddish one, Assuan Braun, Sahara Biege.. Someone had rattled canned the whole lower color flat black. I experimented and was able to remove every bit of it with Gumout Carb cleaner, plastic razor blades and paper towels. The expensive blue ones are perhaps less likely to cause scratches, but not what I used. I have no idea how much time I had in it, but perhaps 30 hours of work. And the original paint is near perfect except for about 3 damaged sots. I haven't even waxed it yet and it is just beautiful.
Original is only that way once.
Al Brase

69doublecab wrote:razor blades what I used.
Original is only that way once.
Al Brase

I should have thought of that, seeing as I am a champion of razor blades. The plastic double edged allowed you to skive the old paint off?

I used my fingernails over several weeks to scratch off the greeny green respray on the BobD's nose. If a double-edged Gillette would have done it, heck.
Colin