Bigger Fish to Fry

My exhaust work appears to be complete. I can not feel any leaks, can't hold my hand over the tail pipe for long, and I can't hear any strange exhaust leak like noises. That doesn't mean things are perfect though. Its been a while since I was able to run my van and it sounded good so I can't say if this is an old or a new problem but the engine doesn't seem to be able to find a comfortable idle. It isn't stalling or anything but my idle is not smooth at all. My hunch at this point is that it has something to do with my O2 sensor that I replaced when I replaced my exhaust. Perhaps my old one wasn't working corectly or maybe the new one is a bad part but whatever the answer is something ain't right here.

The good news is that I'm honestly not all that concerned. I'll figure it out eventually but I'm not in much of a hurry right now. In fact, I'm actually enjoying a bit of a power boost thanks to the new exhaust. It is subtle but it is there for sure. All things considered, I'm looking at this exhaust switch as a win.

Not wanting to just sit around an enjoy my van like a normal person I dove in to the deep end last weekend and reached the point of no return. As I'm sure any regular reader of my blog can tell, I've been completely annoyed by my paint and body work since pretty much day one. It is the one thing that makes me seriously consider selling my van and getting another. Its like the thorn in my side and I haven't been able to do anything about it yet because I couldn't find any way to get everything done without spending thousands and thousands of dollars. In fact, just for fun I called a reputable VW restoration shop that is in the neighborhood and sent them a bunch of pictures. I told them I didn't want a competition paint job but I wanted the van to look nice and shiney. They said no problem - that'll be around $15,000...

Clearly I'm not spending 15k to make my van pretty. However, my van not being pretty is bothering me. I'm at an impass. Fortunately for me, as usual, my wife is saving me from myself. See if it was my call alone I'd probably just buy another van. That other van would be nice but it would cost about 6k and it would have it's own bag of issues. Thanks to my wife this is not an option. This van is my van and I can't have another one end of story.

So I decided it was time to get creative. Creative is good and all but I'm not sure how creative gets me a $10k paint job when I don't even have a compressor or a garage. As usual the Internet is to the rescue. A few weeks ago I happened to catch an email on the Vanagon mailing list that mentioned a hand-painted paint job. I thought, ugh that sounds terrible! However, I loaded up the pictures and was surprised to see that honestly they weren't all that bad. I dug through the thread for a bit and I found a few links to various message boards discussing the technique. Evidently some body/paint guy decided to see how cheaply he could paint one of his old cars back in 2006 and decided to do an experiment. His parameters were to spend as little as humanly possible but to end up with something that could be mistaken for passable pro job. He headed down to the hardware store and bought Rustoleum, some mineral spirits, several 4" high density foam rollers, and a pile of automotive sand paper. He prepped his car as if he was going to send it to the spray booth but instead of spraying it he diluted his Rustoleum using the mineral spirits to the consistency of whole milk and used his 4" rollers to roll it on the car. He used foam brushes to smooth out any rough spots or hard to reach areas. When that first coat got finished he thought he had made a terrible mistake. The car looked terrible but he decided to continue the experiment. He then diligently wet-sanded the car by hand and continued applying coat after coat of the hardware store paint. It took him over seven coats but when it was all done, buffed, and polished the job actually looked good. In fact it could easily be mistaken for a spray job. Certainly not the show room perfect contest winning job but considering the guy used rollers and did the work in his drive way it was spectacular. His final cost... $50

This kicked off an Internet flame war. Pro painters were mocking his choices and saying there was no way that paint would last. Some people accused him of spraying the car and lying about it. Others wanted to try it themselves. Two years later and his paint still looks awesome. Since then dozens if not hundreds of others have given his technique a shot as well and have posted their results. To my eye it looks like you basically get whatever you put into the job. If you do the prep well, diligently sand, and give the paint time to set and breathe properly then you'll get a decent job. In fact, last summer Hot Rod Magazine decided to put this theory to the test and painted a car themselves using this technique. They were actually impressed and have even convinced some to say that they will never spray another car again.

Welp, I've decided to join the masses. In the past month I've done a lot of reading about the do's and don'ts of paint and prep. I've decided that I subscribe to the theory that you either go all out and pay the big bucks for the best paint imaginable or you do the job as cheaply as possible. Fate further pushed me towards taking the plunge when last weekend at the Lowe's I found three quarts of Rustoleum in a color that looks almost identical to my Van's original ivory color. I took this as a sign and went home and started my prep work.

It turns out that sanding a car is a huge pain in the ass. In order to avoid being overwhelmed or rushed, I've decided to paint the car in sections. Right now I am going to paint the cab all the way to completion before I worry about the rest of the van. I selected the front because it offers the least amount of body work and relatively few huge areas that will readily show off imperfections in my work while I am learning.

My first job was to find all the paint bubbles or anywhere on the front that looked like it might have signs of rust and I used my grinder + wire wheel brush to strip the paint down to the metal. Once exposed I used 60 grit sandpaper to remove any trace of rust. Next I decided that there were so many issues with my current paint job that it was worth the effort to do a full pass using 60 grit to take out as much of the old paint as possible. I'm doing all my sanding with a block or by hand. No power tools. At this point I have the entire cab sanded with 60 and I am about 90% done with a second pass with 180. I'm striving for good level panels at this point.

When I finish my 180 pass then it will be time to use the body filler to address all of the issues I've found and get something on the bare metal. I'll also put some rust inhibitor on any place where I've hit metal before I use any filler. I'm trying to avoid filler where possible but all of the problem areas are not places where I can reach the rear of the panel to hammer out the flaws. Once the filler is in place then I'll knock it down with 180 and then do a final pass with 320. I'm debating priming but lately I'm leaning towards rolling on the primer. I don't think that I have to do it but I'm not sure if I should do it or not. I may just end up spot priming the filler but I'm concerned that will lead to uneven color. I just don't know my paint well enough at this point to really know. My paint is also just a hair lighter than my original color so I was considering using a red rusty metal primer in the hopes that it would darken my final color just a touch. Regardless, I've got time. I'm really trying to take this job super slow so that I can get good results. The prep is taking a lot longer than I originally anticipated but I think it will end up well. I've got to admit that I am really eager to get that first coat on though.

I'll post pictures when I get around to uploading them.