ShopTalk Forums | Aircooled VW Tech & Restoration Help

Good afternoon Steve here and I have a 69 beetle, I am trying to remove PO paint and I have decided to have the whole car media blasted. I do know it gets evrywhere and is hard to remove in all of the small and tight crevases, but if I do so and to anybody who has, did you separate the hinges from the doors, leave them on the body, take them off all together, or leave the doors attached to the car? How did you do your car, and has anybody seen a repair panel for the dash that can be welded in, or am I looking for something from a wrecking yard? (cut dash)

ThankYou

I recommend doing something else...... Media Blasting can and many times will warp body panels. Especially if you don't know what you're doing.... If the shop you have it blasted at, can gaurantee the body will not be damaged..... Go For it, but make sure you get it in writing.... a lot of blasters don't do a lot of cars, and many hire some minimum wager to actually do the work, and with minimal training, they turn them loose on customers' parts and pieces..... I've seen some pretty messed up STEEL WHEELS from a noob blaster laborer.....

My choice for stripping a car would be to get the Stripper ball that fits a drill or grinder and go to town.... you have much better control, and can see what you're doing, without wearing your arms and hands down to the marrow.... Trust me though.... it's not an "easy" job even then. Just much easier than doing it all sans machine tools.

Soda blasting is a better option than sand, but it can still warp damage panels if you're too aggressive. Both can be done without damage in the right hands. Look for shops that specialize in restoration blasting rather than production blasting -- and get a guarantee.

A gentleman across the street from me has had many a beetle and suggests someone close who does media blasting and has done many a VW for him and knows the material, and has done his cars and had no issues. My thoughts have to do with the door hinges, take them off the doors and body or leave them on the car or door. I understand the skins can warp with a lot of hard blasting.

Thank you for all of your input

The hinges are welded to the doors. They can be removed from the doors, but if the hinges are still good leave them attached to the doors. If the hinges are bad enough to need replaced it wouold be easier (in my opinion) to get a different set of doors. Talk to the blaster and see if they want the doors on or off would be my advice.

If you're going to strip the whole car, I would remove the doors -- and all other removable body parts. As far as the hinges on the door, there is no benefit in removing the stationary (riveted) hinge half. The other hinge half can be stripped in place or stripped separate. I removed the hinge pins, stripped them separately, and reassembled the hinges with new pins before paint. It's better to paint the doors off the call as they often need to realigned after stripping, bodywork and paint.

Remove the doors. VW installed the doors before paint. So nothing but bare metal under the hinges where they bolt to the body. I just removed the doors off a '70 bug and there was nothing but surface rust under them on the door jamb.

Ok very informative

Thank You