The journey of a new 1970 Westfalia owner. The fixes begin.

[wcfvw69]

This project is like the energizer bunny. It keeps going and going and going... Meanwhile, I'm reaching the "I'm flipping sick of it" stage..

On the drivers side rear corner, I sanded all the metal and paint down and then treated the surface rust w/a rust converter/sealer. Once it fully cured, I skim coated the previously dented area up to smooth it's appearance out. I used a fine, finishing filler which sands easy.

This passenger side corner had some remaining rust between the battery pan and rear fender wheel. I had to remove the rest of the body sealer and found it. The rust was removed and treated.

I started sanding the rest of the engine compartment prior to repaint. It's pretty tedious work. The goal was to scuff the original paint in the compartment w/320 sand paper but the original factory paint is not thick in the compartment and there were a few nicks that had rust under them.

After a few hours of sanding, I did a quick tape off to spray some high build primer inside the compartment and on the outside corner.

The is the drivers side rear corner. It looks MUCH better skimmed with filler/sanded and primered.

This picture is off the passenger side in high builder 2k primer.

Just some other pictures of repaired areas back in primer.

I'm just shocked how time consuming this project has become. Granted, I've had to fix a lot of previous poor work. It still burning up a lot of time..
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Decades of VW and VW parts restoration experience.
The Samba member since 2004.

**Now rebuilding throttle bodies for VW's and Porsche's**
**Restored German Bosch distributors for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored German Pierburg fuel pumps for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche fuel pumps or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche distributors or I can restore yours**

[khalimadeath]

Proper paint and body work take time, it looks like your doing a great job. You have some single stage mixed up for final coat or what?

[wcfvw69]

[wcfvw69]

I went to the automotive paint supply house. I needed some L87 Pearl White paint for the engine compartment and engine lid back. This was the original color of this bus. I'm going to repaint the bus in that color in the near future.

While I was there, I asked about them mixing up the paint and then putting it into spray cans. She said no problem. I did this because I don't have a small paint gun. I struggled to prime the compartment because my gun was too big.

This morning, I caulked the battery trays/pans. I let it dry for an hour and then the instructions said you can paint over it.

I was able to really get a lot of the urethane primer in the joints of the battery pans after the rust converter. The caulking was put in after the primer had hardened overnight. Hopefully it will hold back the rust for decades to come.

I then used a shop vacuum to really vacuum out all the dust, dirt and debris from inside the compartment. This was followed by wiping everything down with a water based grease remover. The spray cans with the automotive paint in them worked really well. They laid out the paint very nicely. I did a light coat, let it flash then followed it with a second, heavy coat.

It looks SSSOOO much better than before. I'd imagine it's what it looked like when it was new 46 years ago.

I then moved onto the engine lid. It too looked horrible. It has some surface rust at the seams. I sanded it down and used various sanding discs to remove all the rust. I then followed it up by soaking the seams in a rust converter/sealer. I'll follow that up with a couple of coats of urethane primer and then paint. After it's painted, I'm going to shoot inside it some rust preventer.

_________________
Contact me at [email protected]
Follow me on instagram @sparxwerksllc

Decades of VW and VW parts restoration experience.
The Samba member since 2004.

**Now rebuilding throttle bodies for VW's and Porsche's**
**Restored German Bosch distributors for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored German Pierburg fuel pumps for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche fuel pumps or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche distributors or I can restore yours**

[khalimadeath]

Nothing better than fresh paint. My bus was also perl white. I wish I would have done the same when I painted my engine bay.. I sprayed it krylon gloss white

I was thinking of ordering from this place, https://www.paintscratch.com/cgi-bin/order-form.cgi hows the price comparable from going to a local paint shop?

[wcfvw69]

[khalimadeath]

Lol sanding is the worst, I refinished my pop top after the PO took a belt sander to it and made a ton of groves. That was a fiberglass dust nightmare, I had to buy a real mask for that one.

[wcfvw69]

[wcfvw69]

I had a chance to play w/the bus over the weekend. I needed to work on the rear apron. I knew it had some dents, dings and surface rust on it. If I had half a brain, I'd of realized I could have saved myself hours by taking it to get stripped/blasted by a media blaster.

Here's the beauty! Ain't she purty!

So, back to being not so bright. The whole underside was covered in a layer of surface rust. Thankfully, no rot. I used various things to strip the rust off the back of it. What a pain. I was cussing myself while I spent 2.5 hours removing the rust.

Then, I had to knock the dents out of primarily the bottom edge.

Once it was straight and rust free, I sprayed it with a rust converter/sealer. I'll put a coat of urethane primer over it as well as the paint. The bottom edge will need a skim coat of filler to get it nice and straight.

I then blocked out the corner of the bus followed by another thick coat of primer. I'm hoping it will be the final blocking/coat.
_________________
Contact me at [email protected]
Follow me on instagram @sparxwerksllc

Decades of VW and VW parts restoration experience.
The Samba member since 2004.

**Now rebuilding throttle bodies for VW's and Porsche's**
**Restored German Bosch distributors for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored German Pierburg fuel pumps for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche fuel pumps or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche distributors or I can restore yours**

[richparker]

Looking good!!!
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[wcfvw69]

[Vee Dub Nut]

Looking good!

Got a link for the connectors and crimping tool?
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74 Transporter (EJ25 Swapped) - Build Thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0

See all my VW pics on Instagram @ vee_dub_nut

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[wcfvw69]

[wcfvw69]

[wcfvw69]

[Tcash]

My bad.
Bus is looking good
Tcash

[Vee Dub Nut]

[khalimadeath]

Wish I would have seen those connectors before I redid all my under dash wiring! damn.

EDIT: Also what rebuild kit would you recommend for an OG 30pict 3 carb? I don't want to use crappy empi gaskets and stuff.

[wcfvw69]