Paul contacted us to finish his 1964 VW splitscreen camper project.
Paul owned the van since he was 18 and from the pictures on his blog had a lot of fun with her across the years. Originally Paul started the restoration in 1997 picking up pace in more recent years. 
If you visit Pauls blogspot you will see the level of time and commitment he has spent on his Bus. He learned panel beating skills including shrinking and stretching and fabricated many body parts himself along with machining mechanical parts and running gear upgrades such as the Porsche gearbox cradle.
The 64 only really needed us to check the panel straitness, correct a few bits that Pauls was unsure of and then perform the final prep before starting the paintwork.
Unsurprisingly with all the work Paul had already put in he really wanted to play an active roll in applying the paint, but naturally was unsure about painting the external services so he painted the cargo area.
As Pauls 64 arrived
Our work the VW splittscreen started with pulling the rear post out a few millimeters to correct a small prank Paul had. then it was straight on to first prep (No welding). Little bit of panel metal shrinking to loose some high spots and a very thin skim of filler then re-prime flat down and repeat.
Another full primer coat for rubbing down. Once guide coated any remaing high or low spots will be revealed.
Seam sealed 
Engine bay painted in BMW pepper white 2K direct gloss
The next job on the list was to paint the cab area and our first chance to use the GM black gold metallic from Pauls paint scheme.
Whilst I continued with the exterior preparation work Dennis prepared the removal panels, doors and lids both inside and out. The usual process of priming, sanding, priming more and sanding more was done before cleaning and painting.
Being two tone the body was painted in two sections the top half was masked off so the lower section could be painted in the BMW peper white. Once dry the masking was reversed everything was cleaned off and then the black gold was add.
With both the base coats on the roof was masked off and the black and white body was lacquered in one hit to avoid a paint join. 
First test of the GM black gold in sunlight 
The roof was sanded down and the van was then masked from the gutters down and the roof was stencil was applied 
Paul wanted the roof design to be subtle so we had some more Black Gold mixed but this time leaving the gold out so only a perfectly match black remained (Matt areas = sanded Black gold – Gloss looking design = just black)
Next a 3 inch faded black shadow was run around the gutters just to to the roof allowing the design to subtly fade in.
Next two masks where cut and applied to opposing corners. Although the designs are both similar they are asymmetric with subtle differences to help the design look correct in there front and rear placement. The top level designs where sprayed in the gold from the black gold and then highlighted and shadowed using the airbrush.
Before the clear coat Lacquer has been applied
Paul requested that we record the roof process. here is the video that he kindly put together.
With clear coat applied
With the paint work done the colour sanding / flat and polishing could begin. The roof had approximately 6 layers of clear coat applied to loose edges around the various painted design levels – Below is a picture half way through the flatting process. The darker outlines are the variation in clear coat height. once these outlines are gone the roof will be flat. 
Ready for customer collection
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