1979 VW Westfalia

[mfemenel]

Friday I purchased a Westy. It had been sitting out in a field for 8 years and I'm bringing the paint back to life and fixing rust spots. I have a couple of challenging areas I could use some advice on. The top on a Westfalia is fiberglass and it looks like at some point someone painted it while it was still on the car and they attempted to paint the bumpers as well. As a result I have some heavy overspray. Clay has taken off some of the overspray in the lighter areas. The heaver areas, like above the drip rail are still there. I also have the occasional drip of white paint which I'm not sure how to get off. I've been using a Waxmaster and Meguiars Detailing Clay, Ultimate Compound and Ultimate Polish followed by their cleaner wax (hand applied). Attached are a couple before/after shots
Advice welcome!

[jamesboyy]

Welcome to autogeek...the results you are achieving are great especially with the tools you have on hand I would keep on that path since it's working but just a get a aggressive clay bar to help out more, though to make the job easier I would get a DA polisher with pads, menzerna fg400 and sf 4000/4500 products with iron-x to decontaminate the paint from it's long sit as for the paint droppings you could try lacquer thinner if that don't help then you will have to use 2500 and 3000 grit sandpaper to remove those droppings

[mfemenel]

Thank you. Until I found this site I wasn't aware that there were different grades of aggressiveness for clay. Recommendation?

[jamesboyy]

I would say stick with your medium grade clay as it's working pretty well though if you can get a aggressive grade clay in case you run into a trouble areas then that will be great, and yes there are three different grades/levels of detailing clay Fine, Medium, and aggressive for instance Pinnacle Ultra Poly Clay is fine grade(used for maintenance claying), your meguiars clay will be medium grade(which removes almost all contamination) and there aggressive grade(which is used for vehicles that has 10 plus years on contamination) also do note you cannot use the clay once you dropped it on the ground, thought once your baby is to a level that you want it try out the numerous clay substitutes, and or water less/rinse less washes

[mfemenel]

Cool. Thank you so much for the info. I go the bumpers off yesterday, all heavy overspray around them as well. Much to be done.

[BillE]

How have I missed this thread?

Just want to say, LOVE the Westy! We were the proud owners of a '66 Westy. Horrible brakes, sore back from driving, etc; but what a neat RV!

I have a real soft spot (in my heart, not head) VDub busses of all kinds.

Bill

[mfemenel]

Thanks Bill. I'm learning to love and hate German engineering..especially the fuel injected kind.

[megacabcummins]

What a cool rig. Please post up some more photo's. We have a few Syncros in our club, and someone was talking about throwing Syncro running gear under a Westy just because they look way better.