1981 Aircooled first go at bodywork

Thin bits of metal and bright blue light. Including glass & trim.

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TitchThompson
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1981 Aircooled first go at bodywork

Post by TitchThompson »

Roped the old man into helping me do some bodywork to my 1981 Aircooled yesterday.

I'm SO new to this, so here's my first go at doing some of the rusty areas.

SO here's the Van. She's called Pumpkin.

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Here's the worst affected area for rust. There are spots all over the body, and it's clearly had some filler work done before which rust has pushed out again, but we thought we'd pick one area to try first.

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And some closeups

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Scraped the rust off with a chisel, then sanded back the rough edges with some sandpaper.

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We used the Hammerite rust converter gel, which we had to reapply every 30 minutes or so for 3 hours. This converts the rust (iron oxide) to a thin layer of ferric phospate, which is inert and should, in theory, stop the rust from creeping. We'd actually meant to buy the Hammerite paint, but this seemed to work ok.

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Wiped it down with cellulose thinners. Think the solvents are why Dad looks so happy.

Filled the holes. We used Plastic Padding filler. This stuff goes off super quick, you literally only get 5 minutes to apply it before its not workable. I'll be using slightly less hardener in this next time.

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Sanded it back and used some more filler where we hadn't got enough in first time round. For next time, i'll definitely apply less filler. The more you put on, the more you have to sand off. Sounds basic. Rookie error.

Masked off the area.

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Sprayed with some white primer. I've heard you don't really have to do this, but thought we should any way. The primer went on a bit grittily, i guess this was down to my spray technique.

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Sanded it back and then started layering on the Orange. It is well worth watching some youtube videos on proper spray can technique. There is no way you can get as good a finish as with a spray gun, but if you keep a wet edge to your strokes without letting the paint run, it can look pretty good.

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We got our paint matched at a place called Westobys in Hull. It's not bad, there is a definite difference, but i'm pretty sure every panel on the van is a different colour, so i'm not too bothered. When we do it again, we'll do the whole panel.

Here's the finished result, with a before and after pic.

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Hammerite Gel:
http://www.hammerite.co.uk/products/rus ... er_gel.jsp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Plastic Padding:
http://www.halfords.com/motoring/paints ... 2wod1TILzQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Westobys Hull:
http://www.westoby.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Paul Southworth
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Re: 1981 Aircooled first go at bodywork

Post by Paul Southworth »

Looks like a nice neat job you've done there.
1988 1.9 DG Autosleeper Trooper.

normal rules
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Re: 1981 Aircooled first go at bodywork

Post by normal rules »

What did you use to spray? Aerosol or compressor gun
T25 autosleeper vt20 1.9dg 5 sp man 1985.

normal rules
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Re: 1981 Aircooled first go at bodywork

Post by normal rules »

And don't forget rust only appears on the outside in those areas AS A RESULT OF RUST ON THE INSIDE. Worth having a peek inside the panels if you can
T25 autosleeper vt20 1.9dg 5 sp man 1985.

TitchThompson
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Re: 1981 Aircooled first go at bodywork

Post by TitchThompson »

We used an aerosol. And yeah, this is only meant to be a patch job to test out our skills. Might get more adventurous and take a panel off next time.

windydubber
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Re: 1981 Aircooled first go at bodywork

Post by windydubber »

Fantastic effort! You've give me a nudge now to give it a try!
Great pics. Thank you.
1981 T25 2.0l air cooled Autohomes Kamper. "Bob"

mgbman
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Re: 1981 Aircooled first go at bodywork

Post by mgbman »

Great to see you are enjoying the van with your dad. I am well retired now and I had some great times helping my son do various jobs on his 1980 Aircooled devon.

At one stage I even had the van at my house so I could drive it and work on it of course!

After sorting out lots of panel rust, as you are, scraping, sanding, filling holes, using Vactan to treat the rust areas and the best bit was when we repainted the whole van using Rustoleum combicolour (Bamboo yellow and Ivory) using the roller method as shown on the club8090 forum.

We could not afford professional panel repairs and new paint job (cost more than the van was worth). But that Rustoleum roller painting is such fun and the neighbours thought we were a bit mad. Up the ladder roller painting the hitop. Paint tray in left hand, rollering with right hand, such a laugh, especially when I tipped the paint tray down my shirt and trousers and the paint soaked through and I had a yellow body for a while.

Enjoy the time with your dad.

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Dazco
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Re: 1981 Aircooled first go at bodywork

Post by Dazco »

Nice job there :ok keep on top of it
I need to do some work on mine but the weather has just been "pooh" so think I'll be putting it off till next year
Auto sleeper fitted with EJ 20 subaru lump

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