Brush. Scrape. Brush. Wipe. (x1000) (whine)

[NavySEAL2B at insightbb.com (GGehrke)]

If you're doing a ground up restoration, you might look into
sandblasting.  

I know a lot of purists hate the thought of it, but I just finished
sandblasting my Mk1's interior from the front seats back and it turned
out beautifully.  It took me a while to get everything set up right (get
the right compressor, blasting media, move from a siphon blaster to a
pressurized tank style, set up a system of reclaiming and reusing the
sand, buying 5 pairs of goggles because the sand destroys them quickly)
and it still wasn't terribly efficient because my working area wasn't
too conducive to work, but once I got going it made VERY quick work of
all the stuff you're describing.  Adhesive*, paint and rust all come off
in one sweep leaving clean, satin texture metal.  I did this without
going for the true full restoration because of time and space
constraints, but I was able to get virtually all the sand out and paint
the area.  It also revealed a lot about the metal such as some
horrendous VW factory techniques.  I uncovered a couple giant masses of
bondo that I figured were applied by some hack fixing damage, but found
the original factory paint on top of it.  I'm meaning to write more
about my experience and post it to my website soon.

*sandblasting is NOT a good method for removing sound deadening
material, heavy body filler, or other such junk.  I found an air chisel
makes quick work of that, and is terribly fun ;)

Anyways, I was extremely pleased with how my sandblasting project went.
If I had the time and space, I would have completely disassembled the
car and sandblasted the whole body in one shot.  I estimate it could be
done at home in a couple weeks at most.  My compressor cost $350,
sandblaster was borrowed (~$150 value) and the media was uber-cheap.  I
was able to clean the sand out and prep for paint in about 2 days, and
shoot POR-15 over the whole interior in 1.  Bonded right to the bare
metal and I didn't have to worry about flash rust.  Except where there
were rust holes, it literally looks like a brand new car.

I have to admit, though, those deck lid shelf things had to go on mine.
I feel your pain.  I tried cleaning them before I had the sandblaster
and after a full day of work ended up drilling out the spot welds and
throwing them away instead.  Heh.

-Grant-
1980 in storage :(
Louisville, KY/Annapolis, MD



-----Original Message-----
From: scirocco-l-bounces@scirocco.org
[mailto:scirocco-l-bounces@scirocco.org] On Behalf Of Jeff Toomasson
Sent: Sunday, July 04, 2004 9:50 PM
To: scirocco-l@scirocco.org
Subject: Brush. Scrape. Brush. Wipe. (x1000) (whine)

Someone remind me not to do this again...if any of you think you're up
to the task to do a ground up restoration, I strongly advise you think
long and hard. And then when you're done, think about it again. Man,
this thing better turn out the way I envision...

I just spent all day of a holiday scraping adhesive from the C-pillars
and deck lid shelves of my mk1 (yesterday was spent removing the wiring
and fusebox). GAWD - it sucks. I thought when I finished my research
stint in college I would never have to mess w/ xylene again. My mistake.
I wonder how many brain cells I axed today...I swear that adhesive just
continues to cure over the 23+ years since it was installed.

What's worse is that I still have the doors, door and quarter window
bases and firewall to clean up and that's before paint prep. This is
definitely one of those "no end in sight" doldrum moments.

</whine>

:)  Jeff
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