Due to arrive soon

[94touring]

Just painters tape.

[94touring]

Back at it today. Have to mask the body tomorrow, but I have a good bit of prep done and a few dings filled.  On the rear bumper I tended to some cracking and found where it had been hit at some point, but rather than hammer it back out, they just filled it heavily.  I got it pretty straight and reduced the amount of filler required dramatically.

[94touring]

Moving along. Just a little more sanding to do and a couple things to mask and it's ready for paint.

[MiniDave]

Everything below that tape line will be that VW Blue, right?

I image sanding those louvers might be hard on the fingers?

[94touring]

Blue below the line, correct. The louvers just get hit with some scotch bright for adhesion.

[94touring]

12 hour day but got it done!  Well almost...have to paint a bumper and a side door needs a color correction where there was a mistake.

[skmini]

That does look good.  Almost makes me miss my bus.  Is that one panel all the way from the B pillar to the rear corner?  On mine it was two, I assume so they could use the same panels for LHD and RHD.

[94touring]

Yep one big panel. Although I suppose depending on the model, they could have made it 2 panels.  Some of these had cargo doors on the left side, which would use the separated panels.

[BruceK]

Beautiful color combo!

[94touring]

Did one side today.  I'll tackle more tomorrow.

[MiniDave]

Ooooh, shiny!!!!

[94touring]

Yeah buffed up nice.  The wavey-ness of the long side panel shows better now that the old orange peeled to hell white is gone.  I suppose you could spend forever filling and sanding to make it dead straight, but the meticulous bus people expect it to have subtle imperfections. 

Tried to get a before and after shot of pre and post color sanding.

[jeff10049]

Looks great, Those bus side panels always have waves even if you spend forever they will wave at different temperatures, and depending on how it's parked they're just too big and thin of a panel to stay straight.
I like the colors the blue looks a little like the speedwell blue on my mini but that could just be how it comes through the picture and monitor.

 

[94touring]

Actually here is Marina blue vs Speedwell.  Marina is on the can.

[BruceK]

Marina looks better but Speedwell is a cooler name! 

[jeff10049]

They are certainly different when next to each other Im with Bruce the marina looks better. On the bus anyway I can't picture the bus in speedwell but I can't picture my mini in the marina.

[94touring]

Depending on the light and angles, they overlap in appearance. I was initially going to paint the bus Speedwell with leftover mini paint, but it was running low. Then I bought the bug in Marina blue that needs a restore so that pretty much sold me on marina blue for the bus.  Keep it in the VW paint family and paint both vehicles with the same gallon of paint.

[94touring]

Went back and hit the side again where it wasn't quit perfect.  Took a shot of old white on one of the pillars too. 

[94touring]

New rear brakes.

[94touring]

Got the front back together.  Ended up replacing the turn signal assemblies. The old were so brittle they were falling apart on me.  Have a spare pair of new lenses now as a result. The black plastic bug screen thing behind the white grill was also replaced. Old one was also brittle and falling apart.

[MiniDave]

Looks really nice!!!

[94touring]

Bumper painted and drying. 

[94touring]

Well I just need a transaxle. Any day now...  I feel like I did a full restore over the past few months lol

[94touring]

Still buffing on this thing.  Went ahead and mounted the rear bumper temporarily to give it a little buff as well and see how it all looks. 

[MiniDave]

So which transaxle do you think will arrive first, the new one or the rebuilt one?