Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2007 17:02:07 -0500
Reply-To: Roger Sisler <rogersisler2000@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Roger Sisler <rogersisler2000@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: how to choose a body shop to paint my westy
Maybe you should try polishing compound first.Not rubbing compound.That VW
OEM paint is sooooo nice.That little ding on the rear is almost OEM.So
many Vanagons have it.Mine did , and now has it again after getting the
westy repainted. If you can buff it up(and you probably can),you are
far,far better off. That old gingerbread does not age as well.
I am a convert here, but you can remove that grungy chrome locking strip
around the windows.I know where you can get new stainless steel bolts and
screws for the exterior.A Westfalia has about 280 fasteners on the
exterior.Get some new hup caps and go campimg.
I did a posting a year or so ago about finding a body shop.Basacially ,
tour the Vanagon with the shop owner. Use a pencil and circle each and
every ding and dent you want corrected. Then say you want the windows
removed and the holes in the window channels to be brazed in. When you and
the owner agree on exctly what is to be done, ask for the price.If yo are
unhappy aboutthe finished product, you can complain.this is much beter
than saying "aw gee, I thought you were going to fix that,and paint this".
I think there are about 250 items that should be removed befor painting.
If you do not want to remove them,expect to pay , or get them oversprayed
a bit.It is a good project to do this a bit at a time and learn how they
go together.I know a person who has a 91 with 26k origional miles .He said
it was almost perfect and GW said it was the best they had seen in
years.He repainted it and did not remove the fiberglass top.Paid
$5000,still. Lots of money to do it only half way right. Set up a personal
account with go westy for your gingerbread.The telephone operators will
know its you by the way the telephone rings when you call.It dosent take
long for them to get trained.A ringing cash register on their end would be
tacky,so they use a computer simulation.There is no excape from the
finished repaint to not measure up to the old ginger bread.Expect to add
$500 to the final product, for detail gingerbread.
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