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Bugeye bodywork

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Rut

Rut

Obi Wan
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Well, this could be about any car, but I've contacted an experienced painter regarding stripping and painting my BE. What's the best order to do things? The shop will be able to blast and paint the car, but I have some metal work to do, floors need replacing, etc. The painter instructed me to cut out and replace the parts and then bring it in for blasting, priming and painting. Do I scrape, grind, and wire brush the car to get ready for metal replacement or have it blasted first? How do I best determine the condition of the inside of the sills, a and b posts, and other hidden areas? Since I'll be doing a lot of the work myself and it will take time, what's the best way to protect the exposed metal from rusting? I ground down a small area inside the engine compartment to find out how many color changes there were and the car rusted inside a week, so I prepped and primed.
Thanks, Rut
 
FWIW I had mine blasted and epoxy primed then body and paint
 
If you do not have it stripped first, you will not be able to see all the areas that need metal work. As JP said ... have it blasted and primed. Do your metal repairs, and then send it off for finish work.
 
Trevor and JP,
Those are my thoughts as well and I don't understand the logic in the instructions I was given. The shop that's going to do this is very well respected and does a great job. I'll follow up with additional phone calls and get more clarification.
What I would like to do is disassemble the car down to the body, have the suspected areas blasted so I can replace any metal and get a better idea of what's needed. After that, take it to the body shop for the rest.
Thanks, Rut
 
Rut, An Angle Grinder with a 28 or 50 Grit Flapper Wheel will make major progress in very short time rather than sand blasting which is far less controllable especially as you won't be the one doing it. That's the way Frank would do it. A rub down with Brasso pads leaves a residue behind that will inhibit rust. Someone will correct me with what is in the Brasso pads that inhibits rust but it is a common household chemical.
 
I followed a similar plan as Trevor, JP, and that you have planned. I took my car down to the shell too. My only other suggestion is have you thought about sand blasting yourself? The equipment cost me less than $300. I already had a 5 horse compressor. I have seen many poor paint jobs at car shows, mainly because of bad prep work. Even though I was not talented enough to paint the car itself, I knew I could ensure a better paint job by doing much of the prep work myself. Nothing is worse than doing all that work and spending all that money and then seeing rust peaking through in a year or two. I have seen shops that sand blast cars warp panels and just plain miss critical areas too, creating more metal work and inviting rust to make a cameo appearance later. Having my own blaster allowed me to blast one area at a time that I knew would have to be replaced/repaired. After I finished the repair, I sand blasted again and then quickly covered the area in epoxy primer. Sand blasting is dirty work. Because of this and the fact that removing all the sand later is a pain, I stripped the bulk of my car as Jim described. I used the sand blasting in areas that the sander would not get. Again, what ever I stripped, it was covered the same day in epoxy primer. By the way, don't be discouraged if you find a whole lot more work once you strip your car down. Better to find the damage now than after your paint job.
Kevin
 
Thanks again for the great advice! I thought about sandblasting myself and I have the little HF $50 'suction' blaster and a 30 gal, 2 hp compressor. The air compressor is a couple of years old and can barely keep up with a die grinder. I think it's rated at 5.7 scfm @ 90 psi and 7 scfm @ 40 psi...not too strong. I would love to be able to do the prep work and even have the plans for the double engine stand rotisserie so I can move the car in and out of the shop. I don't have a welder yet either, but I've always wanted one. What always happens to me is this: Cost of the job vs cost of the tools, etc. It's just built into my brain and I've spent more money on more stuff to do jobs that have never been finished...I've got great intentions. Since I brought that up, what size compressor and what size MIG welder do I need?
Thanks, Rut
 
You can get by with a samll MIG Welder runing on 110 VAC as lonng as it is on a 20A Circuit. I got a used one paid $150 and spend just about $100 for a tank and gas for MIG Welding. Pay to rent a tank form welding supply as they will not refill the ones you see that are prefilled.

As far as a compressor I just ran across this new one Campbell Hausfeld VT6271. A 208 VAC Horizontal 26 Gallon Tank Compressor that puts out over 10 CFM at 90 PSI. Sears has them for $499 right now on line. Shipping is pretty high but if you pick up at Sears Store you can get away with minimal shipping cost. Amazon has same compressor sometimes "used". Based on reviews sometimes these things get damaged in shipping with air regulator getting damaged. After reading reviews guessing that the used designation likely refers to one damaged in shipping and parts replaced. I saw on of these compressors "used" on AMazon last week at $394 including Free Shipping. Unfortunately I was not quick enough to grab it.
 
Harbor Fright has a US660V, 12.85 ACFM @ 90 psi, 220v, 3.5 hp compressor, 60 gal vertical tank, 130 psi max on the tank, for $400. You can get a 20% discount ticket off of their adds (that's what I did). Buy the extra year warranty, a couple of bottles of compressor oil, tax and you're still out for under $400.

This model may not show up on their web site so check with the brick and mortar version of HF.

NFI but I am very happy with mine.
 
Just a word of caution: If you are going to do a major rust repair and panel replacement yourself, you should be of a mindset of looking forward to the work itself rather than getting the car on the road. I learned to do body work and painting, which I really enjoy, by trial and error in the garage. It is very useful to learn these skills. However, the first car I did major repairs on was a TR3. It took me so long to get all the work done that I was sick of the car by the time I got finished and passed the car on to my father-in-law. Anyway, if you look at it as a project and chance to learn some things, it will be fun. If you want to drive it in 12 months, find a good local shop. Jim
 
Oh, and I forgot to mention: Don't overlook the enjoyment of learning to paint. I bought one of the turbine HVLP kits and have painted the TR3, a dune buggy, an old Mini, my Bugeye, a couple of bikes... The prep work is drudgery, but the painting is fun. Doing all the prep work and then not getting to paint is like--well, I can't think of what it is like--but you miss out on the fun part. Jim
 
I'm doing my bodywork and paint myself, including stripping. I have the same HF air compressor described by Jim Browne and also a blast cabinet, soda blaster and sand blaster. In the end though, I used this to strip the car and it worked great:

https://www.harborfreight.com/electric-paint-remover-65990.html

I bought this HF HVLP gun:

https://www.harborfreight.com/high-volume-low-pressure-gravity-feed-spray-gun-66222.html

and this paint:

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-UP322/

and this primer:

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-UP232/

so far I've just stripped and sprayed the primer, but came out great
we'll see about the finish work and final paint, but at this price I can scuff it an take it to a pro if I can't get it to come out. Doubt I'll need to though. Lots of fun learning to do it all.

Fred
 
Good luck! The good thing about learning to do it yourself is that you're not being paid by the hour, so you can spend as long as you like to get it right. If you get a drip or run, you can sand and do it again. If you are doing a basecoat/clearcoat, the clear goes on and settles out like glass. Jim
 
Thanks Jim.
I bought the single stage paint from Summit. It is interesting that this paint is designed as a single stage but is also compatible with a clear coat that they sell for this system. So basically it can be single stage or base/clear. Some have said it is much nicer looking if the clear is used, others like it as a single stage.
I plan to spray the single stage and see if I like it. If not enough depth or gloss, I'll shoot it with the high solids clear.
You're sure right about the paid by the hour issue. I putter around the shop pretty leisurely most days since this is my "fun" not my "work". If I was getting an hourly rate it would sure be an expensive restoration!
Fred
 
I cut out all the bad metal on my Bugeye and then sent it to a sand blaster. The guy I use only does cars and did a grate job. It being summer I repaired all the sheet metal and primed it. I made a cart with casters on it so it would role onto my trailer for trips to the welder. I could put the car on it right side up or down. I called it a pancake restoration.

https://i.imgur.com/9Vjrz.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/9Vjrz.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/pcZxc.jpg
 
Bill
How heavy is the body shell? How did you place it on the cart, especially upside down?

I see here some have turned the car on it's side to work on the bottom. Won't this crush the body panels?

Fred
 
Body shell is not heavy -like 250? Lbs. I know two of us put mine on a trailer (and i made my rotisserie out of 2X4's) three would have been better to carry it but it was doable.
 
John-Peter,
do you have any pics or diagrams of your rotisserie?
thanks
Fred
 
Fred,

I've got a couple of rotisserie plans I've saved. Send me an e-mail and I'll forward. <span style="text-decoration: underline">thistle_3619@yahoo.com</span>
 
Fred add_ after thistle
 
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