Restoring the original paint on my '49 3A

I'm going to do a restoration that nobody never does, keeping the original paint, rust and patina. Tomorrow, I'm going to start stripping ALL the primer that someone sprayed my '49 with way back when. It just irks me knowing that there is real nice original Luzon Red under that red primer. I can see it on various spots on the windshield and the whole engine bay. I also know the chassis has real nice black paint too. They sprayed it over grease and mud, so it shouldn't be too hard to remove, but I'm not going to count my chickens before they hatch.

You can see some real nice paint by where the wiring comes through the fire wall.



I hoping that this jeep will come out like my 3HP Jaeger.

 

Good luck, post pics when you're done. By the way, that is one funky looking battery, is that 6 volt or 12?

I have always dreamed of restoring an old pickup that has a solid body but lots of patina and surface rust, like something that would come out of the deserts in the southwest. I would like to make everything brand new -- crate engine, new suspension, upgraded brakes, and nice wheels/tires. But I want to keep the original surface rust and patina on the body so it looks like an old, aged, beatup truck but runs and drives like brand new.

 

It's an optima red top 6V. I guess it is the best 6V battery on the market. It came with the Jeep.

That's a dream project of mine too. That and about 100 thousand others.

 

What method are you gonna use to remove the primer and other stuff? THere is a LOOONg thread over on the Samba VW board about removing stuff on top of the original German paint on buses and bugs, I can send ya a link to that thread if you can't find it.

 

someone on g503 did something very similar..he removed 2 layers of paint to reveal the original ww2 o.d......search on there...came out awesome

 

I'm going to use a good pressure washer for the frame and under the body. I found that out with the Jalopy's old frame. I pressure washed that prior to ripping the engine out. Some one painted it green. After I finished, all the green was gone and there was black under it. For the body, I'll hit it with the pressure washer just to see. Probably a good paint thinner or something will be needed afterwards. Guys do this with antique engines all the time.

 

Here's how the engine bay came out after some judicious elbow grease. The pressure washing of the frame didn't work so well. I also think I'm going to have to wet sand the body to...

Before:



After:















The original brown of the headlight buckets:

 

That creates an interesting "patina," after the power wash. Looking good.

 

I didn't pressure wash under the hood. I hand scrubbed it. It was raining out, that's why it is all wet.

 

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=76072

Check out this post for several decent ideas on how to remove primer, rattle can paint, etc. It is a huge post but the early pages seemed to be where the most of the info is. Hope you like VW buses.....cuz you will se a LOT of them reading it. R)

 

I like it.

 

Thanks Bill. I'll get some paint thinner when I'm out today. I have plenty of scotch brite pads. I think the rest of the jeep will be as nice as the engine bay.

 

Well, this project was a bust. I scraped a few test spots with a knife and there is no paint under it. Either bubba did a good job of prepping it or he saved it since the paint all peeled off or something. So I moved onto my next step, turn signals. The way I did it did not involve cutting a single original wire and it can all be easily removed at a later date. I used all cloth stuff so it looked stock.

I used a sparton turn signal switch off a CJ5 (with auto return that works!).



The harness on that was saved along with the plug for the flasher.



Art's (48cj2A) tail lights sure look good lit up!



And a video of the front arrow lights. They are really bright for 6V!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h78D8eBNVY

 

The arrow lights are cool. What is their origin, old school bus?

 

Arrow lights are too cool!!!

 

I got them from ebay, so no idea what they came off. My guess is an old bus.