Quote:

Hi Exit, I was wondering how many quarts you think it will take to do your whole car. I have a 73 Super Beetle that I'm thinking of trying this on. I have a compressor and gun to shot the jams and under the trunk and hood with. I also have a HVLP turbine system that I was thinking of trying. I read on the samba that evil box has had good results with these systems.
Charger thanks for this method.

Barry



it's funny how you have to come to moparts to discuss this when i posted it at the samba and the mods deleted it, let's just say they're not openminded as are the moparts mods, they are by far, the best moderators i have ever seen. That's one of the reasons i really am almost ashamed to have a beetle, the vw fourms are so mis-behaved, unlike moparts. sorry about the rant, i just had to share that with you guys.

as for painting the bug, i used about 1/2 a gal, the big can of paint, it's a gallon right? that does'nt include what i had mixed that i threw out, i'd say just a little over 2 quarts should do it, but buy the big can, it's cheaper, plus you have a endless supply of touch up paint, or if what happens to me happens to you; you need to paint a fender due to a little booboo then you have the exact paint match!!! Allthough i can say that i've used another can of the same color about 2 yrs apart and the color was an exact match, what ever you do, don't leave your left over paint outside to freeze, that ruins the paint, don't ask me how i know.

as far as spraying on the paint using one of those turbine systems, i'd say run away grasshopper, my expirence with them is that they work great for 5 mins, then start to spit, splatter paint unlike a traditional compressor/HVLP gun (which i have used ALOT), and that is a much better, more consistent system by far. But if you are going to spray, go thru the extra steps and use auto paint, the huge advantage to the "roller" method is that it's almost too easy, clean, easy, and of course easy and clean!!!! I've sprayed alot of cars in the past (over 20 for sure),and yes, it works great, looks good, but it's a huge mess and now i have no where to do it where i could get away with it, in the house i'm in now i would for sure have a complaint. The last car i sprayed was my dads 71 beetle back in 2001, using duplicolor single stage enamel, here's a pic:


71 beetle (car above) before paint:


and of course my 74 beetle which was rollered in 2000, here's a recient pic of that:


74 beetle (car above) before paint:




you can see a slight differnece in shine, one thing i can say is that bright colors are very good to use this method, dark colors are harder to pull off, and need alot more work in both prep and final polish, if you have the skills like aussie, then do black if you dare.