I have just started to prime and sand the body on my bug, but it is coming along well. I have got most of the outside done and have used Bondo on some of the small holes and to fill in dips in the body. If you do it right it will look very nice. I have not decided on what color I will paint it so if you have any suggestions that look good it would be great if you would tell me your ideas. I'm thinking lime green...

    I plan to paint my bug myself with a paint gun that my dad has. I have already put the primer on it and it looks good. There are only a few drips and that will be easy to fix. I have also started to sand it.

    Sanding is the most important part in a paint job. I just started today(9-19-01) and got quite a bit done. The parts that I sanded well are very smooth and nice. I just have a little bit more to put Bondo onto and sand smooth also.

    When you are sanding a car you want to wet sand it. This allows the sanded paint not to clog up the sand paper and it allows it to get smoother. I used the tap water hooked up to a hose and nozzle and sprayed it on there while I was sanding. This works very well.

    I just found out that you don't want to put to much paint in the rain tracks or else it will crack and come off. I had to repaint those when I put to much primer in them. We had to scrape them out and redo it to make it nice.

    I have my paint! It is lime green and is really close or is the color that I wanted. I'll have to see it once it is on the car. The type that I got is a base/clear coat system. Once I paint my car I will tell you how it went.

    I have painted my car and it went really well. The green went on great and it was perfect the first time. An idiot could do this and not mess it up if you spray it lightly and don't get too much on each coat. Just keep putting coats of color on lightly until the piece is covered evenly with color.

    The harder part is putting the clear coat on. You need to do this at the same distance away from the car at all times. If you get to close you will have runs and drips. If it is to far away you will get a mist and have to redo or re-spray that part. I have had this problem on some small spots on my bug. You would want to start from the roof and go down to spray over any mist there might be on the car. I didn't do this so there is some mist on the roof of mine.

    Some things that would help would be to have good ventilation to clear the mist out of the paint booth. While I was in there painting it I wore a full face mask with filters and it worked great.

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    These next pictures are of the final clear coat. I think that it turned out very well for a first timer. Once I get my pictured developed I'll get them on here too. Make sure you only put small amounts on each coat or else it will drip and you will have to sand those out. It is not very fun, I know from experience.

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    Now I have all the painting done and it is all together. Now that I know what I am doing it shouldn't be that hard to do again. These are some pictures of it finished.

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