Dads freshly restored 79 VW Bug Convertable

[35th Anniversary SS]

My father just had his 79 Bug restored from the ground up. We live in CA and he had it shipped out of state and it has been gone for at least a year for resto. After watching me go crazy on my SS with detailing he has asked me to have a go on his VW this weekend, one week after he got it back.

Im going to do this all by hand... there is waaaaaaay too much brand new trim and contours for me, being a newbie with a DA, to attempt using my borrowed Cyclo on the car. IMO the Cyclo is too bulky and big for this job.

Ive been given unlimited funds to purchase products to do the job, but I dont want to overwhelm him either. Knowing my Dad from now on Ill be washing and taking care of the car, which is fine. With new paint I dont think Ill need too much.

For what its worth the car is white... and it did sit outside a lot before he took delivery so just feeling the paint I can tell it needs a clay job. Im going to set him up with a nice line of assorted Megs products.

Im thinking about the following Megs products:

-GC soap
-Megs clay (I have this already)
-Hand Polish
-#7
-#20 (I can get it locally vs #21) or NXT tech wax
-Natural Shine vinyl/rubber protectant or interior & tires

Then leave him with some MF towels and a bottle of QD for "once in a while" detailing.

Any suggestions/comments would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[Murr1525]

Can you tell if thee are any swirls, etc in the paint? Unfortunately, new paint sometimes comes with them, you might want to pull out into the sunlight and take a look.

If all is good, I would at least recomend a mild cleaner, like DC#1. Even if you cant see it, you dont want dirt to get down and sit in the pores of the paint.

I really like #21 for a wax.

How fresh is the paint? Remember you do not want to seal fresh paint, that it will need 30 - 90 days to cure. Perhaps you should contact the painters, if it was still recent, to check on their recomended cure time. They may or may not have a clue, but may as well try.


A Lesson From White Paint

[35th Anniversary SS]

Thanks!

I meant to put that in there.... the paint is 6 months old. There are some swirls. My first look at it was in the driveway in the sun, I noticed the swirls then. They didnt look real bad but they are there.

I actually thought about the cleaner wax too... wasnt sure though. Should I maybe use that instead of the hand polish? Then finish with #7.... then go to sealant?

Thanks again.

[Murr1525]

Working by hand, you have two choices to remove swirls... ColorX or ScratchX.

Removing swirls on an enire car kind of *****, but here's how to do it...

What it Means to Remove a Scratch

How To Remove Swirls By Hand

How to remove a defect by hand with ScratchX

ColorX can also be used, but is not quite as agressive if you have lots of swirls to remove.

For your first detail, here is what I would probably do:

1. Wash
2. Clay
3. ScratchX
4. #7 Show Car Glaze
5. #21
6. #21 - Remember 2 thin coats is best.

There is no benefit to using 2 different polishes, or more than one coat. One coat of #7 is about the best you can do.

You can switch to a milder cleaner like DC#1, which is also cheaper and easier to use in the future after all of your swirls are gone.

If you want to use something like a cleaner/wax, you can. I highly recomend ColorX. But it is going ot be used more for quick details. Such as:

1. Wash
2. Clay as needed
3. ColorX
4. #21

You can see how it is a few steps shorter than the above routine.

Here is ColorX in action..

1986 Ford Bronco II - Extreme Makeover

Be sure to read this as well:

Suggested Products for Taking Care of a New Car



Helps some?

[35th Anniversary SS]

Awesome... thank you!

I have a couple tubes of ScratchX in my cabinet already so thatll work out good.

Ill grab the rest of the goodies today on the way home from work.

[rammsteinmatt]

please post before/after pics, as is usual.

[Monk]

Hope you know how cool your dad is.

Signed,
A Dad

[35th Anniversary SS]

My dad is a pretty cool guy.. kinda wish he was into muscle cars like I am but at least hes got a little bit of the "Car Crazy" bug (pun intended ) in him!

Welp.. heres some before pics.. I grabbed the car after work and decided to get started today. Unfortunately.. when I was further inspecting the paint I noticed a LOT of overspray on the car. I tried my best to get as much out as possible, some of it wouldnt budge... gonna try some more tomorrow. I actually had to have my wife run to Kragens and get more QD cause I ran mine dry trying to get it all out!

Hopefully these pics are good enough for befores... first timer with detail "before" pics.



















OVERSPRAY!

[LiquidBlack]

It looks like (from the pictures) that you have swirls. But my oh my, that is a beautiful bug. My neighbor has a 67 BW Bug, white as yours, original paint, but chipped in some places and rust on the chrome in others. It hurts me so to see it waste away like such. Everytime I walk by it I ask if he'd like to work on it with me, since I have the DA and such.