Respraying a bodyshell

Tom from the Wolfsburg Weed Huggers VW club spent years waiting for an unwelded RHD beetle. Whilst down the Ace Cafe Tom found just the one and snapped it up. After driving it for a while the cars rear quarter got hit by a careless driver. Tom took this as a symbol and sent the car for repair and some additional bodywork. He wanted to keep the original or genuine period panels so the previous bodyshop started the work but never completed it. After this bad experience he contacted us to take control and complete the shell. Tom had already nut and bolt restored the Beetle chassis.

Body and parts as supplied. The first job was to widen the front inner wheel arches to accommodate the Toms narrowed beam that he wanted installed.

Then attention turned to the cars body shell. The old paint work was sanded back to a flat surface and all dents where repaired

We then coated the underside of the body in smooth stonechip to provide underbody protection.

Next the doors, bonnet, wings and engine lid all need repairing, Various items where welded or led filled depending on the condition of the part. (photo above is of lead loaded door corners).

The body shell is now primed. We tinted the primer to help the colour later colour coat.

The primer was then rubbed down to provide straight smooth surface for painting. First we painted the underside of the shell and the interior areas.

Mid way through the paint work

The two pictures above show the level of GUN finish that can be achieved. Having a good gun finish reduces the labour cost for colour sanding and also gives a great finish to the areas that you would not want to risk colour sanding.