Badger

Progress is kinda slow as per "Pat Time" but it is starting to look like a car again.


Engine compartment ready to be painted:




Engine compartment is painted. Looks okay (pics hide flaws), probably too nice for a daily driver still.




Prepped for engine/trans install.




Engine installed. Thanks to Eric V. for helping me get it in there w/o damaging anything. Went in as smooth as a baby's bottom.





I'm headed out now to pick up powder-coated firewall panels, steering column and a few other pieces.

holy crap that looks awesome.

how did you prep it? spray method?

blkaplan said:

how did you prep it? spray method?

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Rubbed it down with Dr. Pepper wipes and clove ash

blkaplan said:

holy crap that looks awesome.

how did you prep it? spray method?

Click to expand...

After the "bodywork" was done on left front corner I the scuffed entire engine compartment down with a red scotch brite pad and Castrol Super Clean. I sand any nicks, scratches or wear marks smooth with wet 220, then wet 400. Once I was happy with everything I did one final red scotch brite and Castrol Super clean scrub down and blew it dry with compressed air.

Pulled into garage, removed, taped and papered everything. Once I was ready to shoot I wiped it down with a pre-paint safe solvent to make sure I got all the possible grease type stuff off. Mixed the paint and painted it.

I used the cheap Harbor Freight HVLP gun (I've seen it for $9.99-14.99 on sale) with a pressure regulator and a disposable water trap attached to it. I actually did a little research on cheap guns and many professionals have one of these guns as an emergency back-up and they are impressed with it, especially for the price. There is another one that comes with regulator, but they all say to get this one and regulator separately.

Gun: http://www.harborfreight.com/air-to...ow-pressure-gravity-feed-spray-gun-47016.html

I can't find the regulator or filter online. Mine look just like this: http://image.classictrucks.com/f/12...aint_gun_painting_tips+using_a_air_filter.jpg

This paint gun stand comes in handy also: http://www.harborfreight.com/air-tools/air-tool-accessories/gravity-feed-spray-gun-stand-34958.html

Painting:
Several light coats until all areas are covered and one final "gloss" coat.

Paint: The actual paint was only $60 for a quart with hardener and reducer at my local auto paint supply store. It's a cheap urethane paint called Omni?
Took me 1/3rd of the quart to do what you see in the pics. I still need to do the core support and probably hood hinges.

If you have areas that need filler primer, I use the cheap Omni filling primer and the same gun. It's really pretty thick and only costs $35-40.

If you have small bare metal spots it's a good idea to use a self etching primer first. I just buy a spray can of SEM Self Etching Primer and mist a couple light coats on. It doesn't need to cover fully, but it should all be misted everywhere there is bare metal. It's ok if it's still kind of see through.

Questions? Clarifications?

And just to clarify since the above post makes it sound so easy, it is a lot of work. The pickier you are, the longer it takes. It's also easy to lose focus or get burned out.

Not including the body work and removal of parts, I probably have a good 12-15 hours into prepping and painting so far.

Worst by far is the polishing of the nuts/bolts/washers/brackets that need to be plated. I have about 15 hours into just standing in front of a bench grinder with a wire wheel and cleaning and polishing all of that stuff. I also purchased as many new nuts/bolts washers as I could. I only re-use the factory ones if they are cosmetically different than what I can get at True Value Hardware store. Engine and engine compartment I have spent about $140-160 just on new flanged nuts and flanged bolts. I would buy online in bulk, but there are so many different sizes it's easier to make a list and go to store and pay retail for them.

When can you paint my car?

At the rate that thing is being built, never comes to mind.

looks amazing. great work.

Excellent! Your attention to detail is unlike any other build i have ever seen.

Amazing work!

Do you clean the gun, or at $10 do you just consider it a disposable wear item? If not, how do you clean it?
How much compressor would I need to do something like this?

Thanks for the thread, it's great inspiration.

adrianpike said:

Do you clean the gun, or at $10 do you just consider it a disposable wear item? If not, how do you clean it?
How much compressor would I need to do something like this?

Thanks for the thread, it's great inspiration.

Click to expand...

Haha, yeah, at $10 for a new gun I sometimes wonder why I bother cleaning it.
I guess the only reason I can think of is that you become familiar with that particular gun and settings and it's nice not to have to start from scratch on settings again.

When you buy the paint or primer, they usually sell you a gallon of reducer (included in the $60 quote above) which is a lot more than you will need for a quart of paint. You can use that to clean the gun. When I'm done painting I empty out gun of left over paint, pour about an inch worth into the cup on the gun and slosh it all around. Then with no air hose attached I pull the trigger on the gun and let the reducer flow out the nozzle till empty. This removes most of the paint/primer if you do it immediately after painting. I then fill it about 1/3rd the way up with fresh reducer, slosh it around again, hook it up to the air hose and put a rag over nozzle and fire it into rag or blue shop paper towel. I use the soaked rag to clean the outside of the nozzle and entire gun. I switch back and forth cleaning outside and spraying the gun until I'm satisfied it's clean. Finally I wipe out the cup and lid with a clean blue shop paper towel. That's all I do. Takes about 5-10 minutes. I have used this gun 5-6 times with no problems.

I have used a 120v Craftsmen 30 gallon compressor and it worked fine. With the HVLP gun you are only spraying at 20-30psi. Anything smaller and your mileage may vary. Bigger is always better.

Make sure you have a clean water trap on compressor, the air tank is freshly emptied of water and you use a disposable water trap at gun.

Don't spray WD40 or similar anywhere in the vicinity for 2 days before you paint. Guaranteed to cause fish-eyes from across the room. That stuff floats like no other.

Some bits back from powder coating on Friday.




Passenger firewall installed. Not too happy with the length on the bolts, I'll probably change them out for the next size shorter. I didn't really notice the zip tie on the engine harness until this picture. Definitely be changing that out to a black one.




Driver's firewall installed. As you can see I need to fix the wiring harness near the plug from a previous owner/shop's repair still. I'm leaving the brake system alone for now, it will be prettied up when I do the front suspension so I'll have to live with the ugly master cylinder and brake lines for now. Also waiting for the strut mount nuts to come back from plating, you can see one missing and old one on there now just holding it together for the time being.




Sorting through some stuff I had plated previously. There are other items in there that don't belong to Badger obviously.

Holy crap, thats more detail then i could comprehend. Nice work!

Just stop it will you! More ashamed'ness of my cars I don't need!

Awwwwww yeah.

so, you gonna scrap the undercoating of the car and paint it?

Looking good man

when are you going to make the glass airtight box to put around this car?

It is so damn pretty.

TIPSP said:

so, you gonna scrap the undercoating of the car and paint it?

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Funny you should bring this up. I have acetone/laquer thinner stripped under coating off of VW T3's and then polished the original paint before.




Was on my parent's OG euro delivery squareback:

You're a ****ing nutcase.

Karl Buchka said:

You're a ****ing nutcase.

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VW's were pretty simple cars. Best way to clean and detail a nice original one was to completely dis-assemble it, make all the original pieces as nice as possible and then put it back together again. I have always enjoyed doing this kind of stuff.

I remember doing my green 65 notchback in 3 weeks to make a big show in Los Angelos. Bought it in Los Angelos, trailered it home to central CA, dis-assembled it, cleaned it, rebuilt top end, carbs, brakes and seats. Finished putting it all back together around 5pm on friday. Drove it around the block once, went inside to shower and pack, then headed out 8 hours one way to the show with 2 buddies. Only problem we had was that the starter went out while down there and we had to bump start it a few times. Stopped by the previous owners house while we were there. I think they still think I was lying to them about it being the same car.

I wish I still worked that fast. Now it takes me 6 months to do an engine compartment...