The front hood is not original to the 1967 bug. It must be older since it had a wide aluminum central strip, typical of a 1965 or older car. So it's suffered more years of abuse than the 1967 should have. The photo hopefully shows the hundreds of small chips. I'm not sure what to do about them. I've sanded the hood enough to remove old oxidized paint. I'd rather not grind down to bare metal. In spots where I was down to the old primer, I found it's pretty tough material. I'd rather save it.
Nobody offered suggestions so I was forced to go it alone. First I ground the tip using a hand grinder with a star wheel. It took three days to get the tip clean and now my grinder is dying. Then applied regular red primer I bought at the hardware store.
Today I walked in to the local Napa and picked up a paint-removing spray called "Paint and Decal Remover". It bubbled the paint nicely and I was able to scrape it off with the grinder. The spray didn't affect the old primer but I scratched it up in several spots. Now I'm not sure what to do next. I saw how flimsy the red primer is, compared with the original VW primer. I may have to remove the red stuff and cover the entire lid with black rust bullet. That stuff is impossible to remove. Hopefully it can act as a primer.
Sand it with coarse sandpaper (220 grit) until you get it as good as you can. Bang out the dents as best you can. Spray with high build primer available at any auto paint store. Go to town. get several coats of high build on it. Once dry, "mist coat" with any contrasting color krylon type cheap spray can paint. Like giving it the measles. This is your "guide coat". Get 320 or 400 grit sandpaper, wrap the sandpaper around a paint stick and use this flat sandpaper surface to try and sand all the guide coat off. The low and high spots will quickly reveal themselves.
Bang the spots up and down (gently) as necessary. Respray with high build primer. Re apply guide coat. Sand again, this time with 600 grit sandpaper. Now you should be getting close. you may have to use some bondo on some spots, but not much. When all is as you want it (any imperfection will show in the final paint), reapply the last coat of high build primer and finish with 600 grit sandpaper. Your now ready to paint!!
If you get to bare metal, seal it with a "self etching primer" before the high build primer. Lots and lots of work to get this right, but anybody that can apply enough elbow grease can do it. Keep us posted on results.
Why not remove all of the paint on the top? I've learned that it normally takes more time and effort to do part of a hood (or other bolt on part) than to do the entire thing.
This time of year is ideal to chemical strip outdoors.
Before going much further it is prudent to fit it to the front of your car to ensure the hood isn't twisted Or that your passenger side front apron isn't punched it.
Thanks for the help guys. I'm maybe 90% done grinding the old primer off the hood. I patched a few divits also. I used 1.5 cans of paint stripper to get the old paint off the hood. At $15 a can, that would really add up if I were to strip the entire car. I like how easy it worked so I'll probably use it to strip the dash and the louvered area above the engine lid. I bought the spray stripper to try after going through a stack of sanding paper trying to strip the first foot of so off the front of the hood.
Now that I'm nearly done, I wish I'd never started grinding the old primer off. That stuff destroyed my hand-grinder. I started on it because of the hundred scratches. I thought grinding down to fresh metal would be best. Now I know it would have been easier to coat the entire hood with a thin layer of fiberglass bondo. I think it's called Bondoglass. Once it sets, it's as tough as that old primer.
The front hood was brown and not original to the car. That paint sanded off fairly easy. It basically crumbed with the electric sander. I'm hoping the rest of the car has sturdier paint.
I thought I was about done but then realized I haven't touched the doors or rear lid yet.
Every step on this car has been a learning experience. Now I've learned to leave original primer alone whenever possible. Get it as smooth as you can, then use a flexible plastic scraper to fill in scratches with fiberglass bondo.
Try buying the stripper in gallon quantity in a can and paint on with a disposable brush. Much, much cheaper than spray cans and works just the same. Leave the stripper on for a long time. It takes time to work.
Bondo should really be used very sparingly if you want your work to last. It is worth it to take the time to do the body work and go the high build primer method. It won't cost much more (trading lots of bondo for lots of primer) and the results are much more durable. That said, bondo is not a bad thing.
