Prep work for painting

[nealtovsen@yahoo.com (Neal Tovsen)]

Thanks for the article, Allyn! A little too late for
me, but still good info.

Having just finished the paint on my '77 less than two
weeks ago, let me say that the "pre-preaching" Allyn's
article talks about is almost spot-on. You either do
it **right**, or you do it **cheap**. There is nothing
worthwhile in-between. However, the **right** method
only guarantees results for a newbie if you do not put
a deadline on your work. For a first-timer to do a
show-quality finish, plan on it taking MONTHS of hard,
laborious, messy work...

I decided to do it the right way, but in the end I
realized I did not have the unlimited timeline
required for a newbie to do a show-quality job. I'm
very proud of the result and I'm glad I did it, but I
will probably never do it again. The bottom line is
that I've spent several months of nasty work, but only
achieved results in the "pretty good" range. Fine for
me, but definitely NOT show-quality!

The reasons for this pretty much boil down to a
combination of (mostly) inexperience and (less)
limitations to what you can do without hard-core
professional equipment. Basically, even though I
thought I was doing everything "right", I had no
experience to tell me when I had accomplished
"rightness" and could move to the next step.

The best example of this is with body filler. Most of
my filler turned out pretty damn good, but some places
I thought were good showed up as un-smooth when I put
glossy paint over it. Yeah, I could do more filler and
more sanding and more painting, but that's where we
get into the "unlimited timeline" above. I also made
the somewhat poor choice of using metallic paint for a
first job. Metallic paint requires much more skill
when spraying, and I ended up with some "streaks" that
wouldn't have been noticable with a solid color.

In the end, I've learned that good paint jobs cost a
fortune for a reason. I also learned I'm too much of a
perfectionist to be satisfied with the results my
entry-level skills can provide, and I don't plan on
taking the massive amounts of time required to improve
my skills. Unless I just want a rattle-can job, I'll
gladly pay a pro next time. 

If anyone wants pics of the '77, let me know and I'll
post them.

Neal

--- Allyn <amalventano1@comcast.net> wrote:
> all the paint info you could ever want
> http://www.thebugshop.org/bsfqpnt.htm
> i plan to follow this guys leadfor saving $$ on the
> twin...
> enjoy
> Al
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Jorel Jackson" <jorel140@yahoo.com>
> To: "volkswagen scirocco" <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2002 9:09 AM
> Subject: Prep work for painting
> 
> 
> > Instead of driving my '87 16V through the summer I
> > think I'm going to take advantage of the warm
> weather
> > and prep it for painting. I'm not sure of the best
> way
> > to do this. I'm thinking of sanding the entire car
> > down, followed by coating it with primer. The
> primer
> > gets wet sanded, then I take it in for a
> professional
> > to paint the car. I did all this when I was
> eighteen,
> > a long time ago. The car looked pretty nice at
> about
> > one hundred yards. I need to do a much better job
> this
> > time. Any tips and advice would be greatly
> appreciated.
> > 
> > =====
> > Jorel Jackson
> > web site:  http://www.home.earthlink.net/~jomoj/
> > 1987 16v & 1985 8v Sciroccos
> > 2000 Neon ES
> > Jaguar XK 180
> > 
> > __________________________________________________
> > Do You Yahoo!?
> > Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax
> > http://taxes.yahoo.com/
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Scirocco-l mailing list
> > Scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> > http://neubayern.net/mailman/listinfo/scirocco-l
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Scirocco-l mailing list
> Scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> http://neubayern.net/mailman/listinfo/scirocco-l


=====
~Neal

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax
http://taxes.yahoo.com/