How much should I take off? There are two layers of paint. On top is a crappy colour change to red, underneath the original orange, and in between there are bits of bondo filling in the odd hole. Once I am done with the chassis repairs (and replacing bondo with metal)I am going to POR what I can and then get her painted.

Whatever method I use, should I take it down to bare metal or just to the original primer and let the paint shop take it from there? What kind of surface should I put on the panels for the easiest paint job?

This car will never be concours, I just want to fix it right and get the best finish job that I can.

To save on the likely first post.

I would say strip to bare metal. It is hard to prove that they used primer. Only when you can see the bare metal can you tell what repair is required.

I used to have a tangerine '71, and thought it was the only one in Canada. The 914 was not officially imported until the '72 model. That made '71s very rare.

Bare metal. The painter can use what paint he likes then. No chance of reactions between different brands etc. And that way you can be sure you're not painting over holes stuffed with filler and glass fibre or newspaper

I'm thinking about doing the same to my LE. I would appreciate a step by step outline on the process you will be using. Thanks,

Paul

I would advise more caution. Doing a full-bare-metal resto is a BIG ordeal. If you're fully committed to doing one, then by all means, do so. However, if all you're trying to do is a freshening up, then simply removing the top layer of "crappy" paint, smoothing, and priming, will get you a finish that's nearly as nice for vastly less work.

You shouldn't be too afraid of bondo on any Karmann-built car, as a great many cars left the factory with bondo under the original paint, filling imperfections left either by the stamping or assembly processes. Anyone who's ever done even a cursory survey of the fender gaps at the rear wheels (for example), knows these cars were far from perfect even when new.

Someone once told me to take it down to the original paint color. Something about really good adhesion to the factory paint. Like lapuwali said, many cars had bondo from the factory. If you use a chemical stripper, you almost always have to take off the bondo because of the chemical contamination. Blasting leaves lots of material to shake out for a long time. Ask Sirandy about that.

What are your intentions for the car? Doing it right means taking it down to bare metal to make sure there aren't problems down the road. But if it's just a beater, don't worry about it.

my thought is:

if you're gonna invest a bunch of your time and money, don't short change yourself. I would hate to spend a couple Gs then next year think "I shoulda..."

If it were the difference between spending $2K and $3K, I might see your point. However, paying someone to do a bare-metal resto v. a respray over factory original paint is more like $5K v $15K. If you're doing all the work yourself, it's about 10x the work to do bare-metal than it is to do "down to factory paint (plus a bit)". The end result would be virtually indistinguishable if both were done properly.

If you're the type that has to do the very best job it's possible to do, then you wouldn't even be asking this question, you'd be stripping everything off and fixing even the stuff the factory didn't do "correctly". If what you really want is a nice-looking car that's as nice as it way the day it rolled onto the transporter in Germany, then, IMHO, you're short-changing yourself by doing all of the extra work.

If you're stripping the tub completely down, bare metal is the way to go. However, respray to me means take off the crap only as far as you have too in order to get good adhesion and shoot away. Unless of course as James stated, the cost difference is minimal. But I don't think you'll find that to be the case.

I am doing all of the work myself. Up until the final smoothing out of panels with a filler and then primer and paint. I will take it down to bare metal in a number of places, just because I have to in order to correct the PO bondo repairs. And by bondo I am talking about "there is a rust hole here so lets fill it up with bondo and paint over it".

Once I have it down to bare metal or to just below the factory paint what is the final finish I should leave on the car before handing it off to a pro? Sand with what grade paper and with what mechanism, by hand? orbital sander? etc.

Thank you for the input so far.


This car will not be concours, as stated. But I am hoping for something a little better than a "beater". I already have a pickup truck for that.

Do your rough cutting with a DA or board file with some 180-220. I wouldn''t send it to the painter with anything more than 320. Do not use "BONDO", use something polyester based like RAGE as it is less suseptible to shrinkage.

TAlk with your painter and see what level of prep he would prefer you give him. Don't assume.