The Y73Bug - '73 Super Beetle

I've finally been making some progress on my Bug the last month and a half or so. Over the weekend I finished cleaning and restoring the pan. I took the whole pan down to bare metal using a wire wheel on an angle grinder mostly and then coated the entire thing with POR15 followed by a top coat of Chassis Coat Black. (Not really necessary since the pan won't really see direct sunlight but I wanted to be thorough.) Along the way I also patched a few small holes with POR Putty and reinforced the rear half of the passenger floor pan with fiberglass fabric. (Where the majority of the pin holes were.)

A few pictures:

The before shot of the top:


The before shot of the bottom:


After shot of the top:


After shot of the bottom:


Many more photos of what I did can be found on my Bug's website: http://www.y73bug.com/page5/page31/page31.html

Looks good!

Big update time.
With the help of my father-in-law's truck and motorcycle trailer the Bug was dropped off at American Stripping on Cary Street Monday evening and came home Friday night. It cost me a little more than I had initially expected but there were three layers of paint plus several layers of primer to strip off.

I researched various methods of paint stripping and one of things I found was that everybody you talk says their method is best. I considered soda blasting but the only place that does it locally, Soda Blast of Virginia quoted me a pretty high price and I also wasn't crazy about having the neutralizing process afterwards that could have left water in hard to dry crevices that could cause rot later.
I also tried using chemical paint stripper myself but it was messy and even with a respirator I was worried about the possible health effects of it.

Ultimately I went with American Stripping using volcanic ash. The turn around time was quick (it helped that they're not very busy during the winter) and I'm very pleased with the result. It wasn't cheap but it was thorough and uncovered a number of small pin holes I never would have found otherwise. With the amount of paint that was on it stripping it down was pretty much the only way to get it to a point where it could be painted again. It also restored the metal that was burned in the engine fire so that paint will properly adhere to it. They also coated it with Ospho afterwards to keep it from rusting until it's painted. (Hopefully in a few weeks depending on when the paint guy can work me in.)

Photos:

In the trailer. She just barely fit inside. There was less than a half inch of clearance with the door shut.


In the blast booth at American Stripping.


Post stripping shot. A number of small pin holes were uncovered around the rear.


Another post stripping shot.


Another post stripping shot with my father-in-law's trailer in the background.


Quite a bit of body filler uncovered on the front quarter panel. At some point in her life she got hit up front. Inside the trunk there are some creases and dents where the metal was repaired.