1955 VW Beetle (Oval Window) restoration

weekendwarrior · 05-10-09, 03:50

I am a classic VW Bug freak (I HATE the new ones), and personally own a '73. Well, I am a better detailer than mechanic, so I have an agreement with the shop that restored mine, that I polish the ones they paint, in exchange for free labor on my own Bug. It works pretty well, as they have put hours in my personal car over the time that I have had it.

This car is a 1955 Oval Window (rear window) Bug. The oval window, and split rear window cars are currently highly desirable among VW collectors. The owner of this car is going all out, restoring it to the same condition it was in in 1955 (no expense spared, and I'll tell you more about that later).

This car has been at the shop for a year now. The reason it is taking so long, is because the owner is tracking down as many parts from 1955 as possible...down to the wheel cylinders that go inside the drum brakes (you can't even see them, but he wants ones from back in 1955...not newer ones). The color is hideous in my opinion, but it is the original color. It is single stage paint - just like back in 55, and is Glasurit. He spent $900 on a gallon and a half of this paint...not including labor, just simply for the paint!!!

Currently the car has been painted, and the headliner is installed. The seats are being reupholstered, the engine is being taken apart, repainted, new gaskets installed, and will then go back in the car. The wheels are the original 1955 wheels, and will eventually be media blasted and repained.

The car was painted, and there was a good bit of orange peel. We wetsanded the whole car with 1500, followed by 2000. The goal was to reduce the orange peel instead of eliminating it, because there was orange peel in these cars back then. Here are some shots of the car wetsanded:

trunk

fender

Ohers

Fore removing the wetsanding marks, I did a 2 step. I wasn't trying to finish the paint at this point, simply wanted to remove the wetsanding. I compounded with 3M ECC with the Makita, and Purple Foamed Wool. I then followed with the PC, a white 5.5" LC pad, using the KBM method on the PC with Meguiar's 86 (Solo Polish).

Here are some in process photos:

half and half on the roof

trunk

fenders

Here are some photos after the first 2 steps, which removed the wetsanding marks:

TO BE CONTINUED...

weekendwarrior · 05-10-09, 03:53

Everything in the post above, took me 2 days to do back in February. I finally made it back out this weekend, to do a finishing polish on the car now that they have reattached the body panels.

Today I washed the car, and inspected. I found a few areas I missed back in February.

I started the day with an ONR wash. Here is the car after washing

Here are examples of some of the areas I missed

Someone put this scratch in it while it sat in the shop the past 3 months

For the areas I missed, as well as that scratch, I used the KBM method, on a 4" Orange LC pad, with the PC, speed 6 (M105).

I then proceeded to polish the whole car with M80 (Single Stage loves this stuff), a whitel 5.5" LC pad, at speed 5 on the PC.

Here are some afters in the shop:

That scratch was here

These are the 2 areas I had missed the first time...perfect now

Notice the chrome vertical piece that the vent window latches to. The owner found 2 of these in Germany, that were made in 1955, and have been sitting in a wearhouse ever since. He paid over $300 for just these 2 pieces (one for each door):

TO BE CONTINUED

weekendwarrior · 05-10-09, 03:54

It was overcast and rainy while I polished today. We got a break in the clouds after I finished, so here are some outside shots. After all the trim gets back on the car, and it is all finished up, I will do a final touch up and polish, and wax.

hood

All of us that are working on this car agree that it isn't a great color. It's just the car is so rare, it is a good idea to restore it to original...not change the color.

Thanks for looking!!!

jtford95 · 05-10-09, 03:57

looks great! A lot of work. Well worth the out come.

Accumulator · 05-10-09, 04:32

weekendwarrior- Thanks for sharing this, I'll be watching for updates (hope they don't mess it up when the put the rest of the trim back on).

I kinda like the color, it *look like* something appropriate for a '55 VW to me. But then I'm a sucker for good single stage anyhow.

I bet that paint is sorta fun to work on, and yeah...good call on the #80.