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PAINTS
By Mike C.
Coats of Many Colors
That’s what is usually on most VW’s after 30 or
more years in the wild and is certainly evident when you start chipping,
peeling, sanding, or stripping the old paint off to prepare the body for
that fresh coat of new paint. There is so much misunderstanding about
paint and bodywork by the prospective customer, when it comes to getting
your beloved VW repainted by the local Bubba’s Scratch N’ Match that
I feel like it’s my duty to give you fellow VW folks some knowledge
before getting sticker shock.
To give a little history, I started doing bodywork
and actually painted my first car 15 years ago. That’s when I
understood that a good paint job is nowhere nearly as simple as taping
off the windows and loading up the spray gun and blowing on a few coats.
Anyway, since then I have painted one more car (my ’74 Super Beetle)
and performed bod y work and had two more cars painted by friends. Let me
say that, with paint and bodywork, you get only what you
pay for and you definitely pay for what you get.
I’ll start by talking about the money involved.
After all, that’s where it hits any of us the hardest, right? These
days you can find paint jobs for as low as $100 for a blow-n-go to well
over $10,000 for a "street-rod" quality job. About 90% of the
money involves how much labor is put into bodywork, and that depends on
how close to perfection you want to see your project. The straighter and
more rust-free your ride is, the less labor will be required to achieve
that "no-dent" finish. Labor can run anywhere from $50 to $75
per hour and that is how it can add up so quickly. Bodywork is the most
labor-intensive portion of any good paint job. Also, the quality of the
finish that you see will be largely related to the quality of bodywork
underneath. Therefore, get a good up-front quote that is padded for any
surprise work that was not planned, and don’t rush the body shop. Let
them get it right the first time. If you learn some bodywork basics and
can do the bodywork yourself, some of the medium-priced ($500 +) paint
shops can put some excellent paint on your car.
Beetles
are probably one of the more difficult cars on which to perform bodywork
since every panel is compound-curved. The bolt-on fenders, however, are
cheap and easy enough to make total replacement worth the money. So,
unless there are only minor "parking lot dings", you would be
time and money ahead getting new fenders. Ghias and Busses are different
animals altogether, requiring cutting old panels off and welding new
ones, so you may want to leave this job to the body shop. Beetle roofs
are the toughest to tackle from a dent standpoint, so if you have a
dent-free roof or have plenty of experience already, then you have won
half the battle right there. The best advice I can give about bodywork
in this short amount of space is simply to invest in a how-to book on
bodywork. There are several out there that will all provide you with the
"right stuff" and basic know-how. Haynes has one specifically
for VW’s, so they will cover all the particulars of Bugs, Busses, and
Ghias. Even if you don’t do the work yourself, it will go a long way
to keeping you from being taken for a ride at the body shop.
Paints
are another issue altogether. All paint types are expensive, much of the
cost coming from our wonderful EPA mandates on airborne pollutants.
Lacquers are old technology, use a lot of solvent, and aren’t anywhere
as durable as enamels, but is very user-friendly to apply, repair, and
give a super finish when color-sanded and buffed. Acrylic enamels are an
okay step-up for durability, but are typically finicky to apply,
slow-drying, and not easily spot-repaired. My personal favorite type of
paint is the urethane enamel. Today’s urethanes are easy to use,
apply, finish, and are very durable. They are the most expensive,
though. A urethane paint system for a Bug (primers, catalysts, and color
coats) will run you around $600 minimum to get you from bare metal to
show-winner, assuming you bought all the stuff at the paint and supply
house and sprayed it on yourself. Single-stage paints (where the color
coat is the top coat) will cost less than two-stage, or
basecoat/clearcoat paints (where the base coat is the color and is
protected by a layer of clear paint). If you have a car you rarely drive
and keep it in the garage, then lacquer or single-stage enamels will do
fine. If it sits under the weather daily and gets driven a lot,
seriously consider the basecoat/clearcoat system, as it is more durable
and will retain its shine with relatively little upkeep. Keep in mind
that if you spray the paint yourself, get a good respirator and use it
religiously. Some of the paints contain isocyanates (read: cyanide) that
is poisonous to breathe. Breathing paint mist itself is never a good
thing to do, either.
I could write a book on paints, but I am limited to
the space in our newsletter. If you have anything you’d like to ask
about paints and bodywork, I’d be glad to hear from you and talk about
it.
Your VW Maniac & Tech
Specialist
Mike C.
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