Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 22:16:02 -0500
Reply-To: "Roy O." <keepsake@PANGEA.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Roy O." <keepsake@PANGEA.CA>
Subject: Re: Painting my 83.5 Westy
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Tips resulting from my experience with having my Westfalia professionally
painted two years ago:
1. Ensure that the body shop/painter does a good job sealing openings such as
the fridge flue vent before sanding. Grit will find its way into countless nooks
and crannies in the van's interior, especially in cupboards, floor areas behind
cupboards and the cabinetry around the fridge. For the longest time, I found
sand in the fridge door shelves in spite of vacuuming and vacuuming and...
2. This is a good time to remove the rubber covering on the passenger and driver
step to see if there's any rust under there.
3. Ensure the bumper ends are mounted such that they don't rub against your new
paint job. Sometimes things don't fit exactly as they did before remove. It was
necessary to trim the bumper ends on my van to prevent "chafing".
4. My van was painted from the drip rails down. It's virtually impossible to see
the seam where the old and new paint meet.
5. I had the body shop sand and repaint the propane tank stone shield. I used to
do this myself every two years by hand. The professional job is holding up much
better.
Roy O.
'87 Westfalia
('till death us do part)
-----Original Message-----
From: Joe L. <jliasse@TOAST.NET>
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Date: Tuesday, August 10, 1999 10:54 PM
Subject: Painting my 83.5 Westy
With the paint resembling a heavy dusting of talcum powder looks like
its time to bite the bullet and have it painted. Finances being what they are it
was a choice between Macco and Earl Schreibe; Earl won (yeah, I know but they
seem to do a pretty good job for the money).
I intend to do a good prep job myself before letting them have at it
but I am wondering what to do about that area of the Westy above the rain
channel that the pop-top rubber rests on. The ideal I suppose is to pull the
entire top off so they can reach the area but I am hoping someone here has a
better idea.
Anyone ever have a paint job with the top on and simply masked off? How
did it turn out?
Any hints, suggestions or "watch out for...."s will be appreciated.
