Full respray / questions / thoughts

Hi All

I’ve been the owner of a nice Mk1 GTi clipper now for over a year and now it comes to have a look at getting the car respray done.
The old owner had it living in a garage but towards the end it was outside so it’s got a lot of surface rust..

Reading around on the forum and the internet there is a lot of talk about stripping it back which I’m happy to do.. the question here come to how.. soda blasting looks to be a good way but do I need to do the internal too?? The chemical deep gets different reviews and some feedback saying that it’s can cause issues down the line..

Would be good to get some thoughts on this from others who have undertaken such works ??

Thanks All



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There are pro's and con's with each method.

There are
CO2, Dustless, Sand, Media blasting.  It can strip the paint and any bondo to bare metal,  that needs to be sealed after to prevent oxidation after.  You can find external corrosion but not internal to the rockers and such.

There are Chemical strippers that are not Eco-friendly,
There are also 2 different styles. spray/roll/paint on or Sprayed/Dipped.

Con's
Hazardous to Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, and you need to take precautions, ie: rebreathers/filters, Gloves and suits needed… (Although they make eco-friendly strippers now.)

Dippers take everything off, as it is submerged usually.
The cons is that it will remove the wax in the cavaties that aren't that easy to re-spray.

Not all are the same, and they all have different prices

Some of the newer Dustless ones use re-cycled and vegetable materials ie: re-cycled micro-ground Glass, and Nut Shells that are powered.

(in the Oldie Days I can remember using Ground walnut shells to remove corrosion from Turbine Blades on Aircraft…) Now they are using it to strip paint.  ECO Friendlier than heck.

So it all depends on what is needed, removal of exterior paint only, or corrosion inspection…..

Just my 2 pence.

Blasting and dipping is usually when you are doing a complete rebuild of a rotten shell and have totally stripped it, esp the dipping.

For a respray of solid car with poor paint and minor rust blasting/dipping is over the top. 

Thanks two you both and I think by the sounds of things I’m best off just getting it sand or soda blasted back to the metal again.. I really want to see if there has been any body work repaired over the years.. I’ll stick some pictures up too with the post so you can get a idea of what I’m dealing with


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Just from those couple of photos you've got issues there.
Did the car spend a lot of it's life along the coastline somewhere or a coal, oil plant?

Having studied the photos and understanding that there will be more issues to come, I'd play the smart but long game.

Sand first and then if it's clear that you need to go further then do it.

At this point in time you and us are not sure going by what we see!


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Golf Cabrio said

Just from those couple of photos you've got issues there.
Did the car spend a lot of it's life along the coastline somewhere or a coal, oil plant?

Having studied the photos and understanding that there will be more issues to come, I'd play the smart but long game.

Sand first and then if it's clear that you need to go further then do it.

At this point in time you and us are not sure going by what we see!


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X2,  as where you are showing it as "rusty" what is on the under side of those support bars that we can't see.

Because if you kill the exterior rust, what is on the back side that will come through later…..

The first on is the bonet, top side with the next two being just below the windscreen where the bonet meets this panel, the the last one is under of the bonet.

I brought the car about year or so from someone down near the coast.  They had it sorted away for over 7 year in a garage however the last 3 months they had ti it was moved outside in the winter months.  The rain took its toll on the paint and just made it worse.  Then i hand to store it for 6 months before my garage was built in a temp cold damp garage of a mates.

The paint well its old and lost it shine, but most of the rust has been caused by chips / scratches etc over the years.  I'm happy to sand blast the external panels down to see what is under. What about the underseal ??  Is it worth removing this ?

And please ignore the underside comment… of course this would be taken off


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simong said

The first on is the bonet, top side with the next two being just below the windscreen where the bonet meets this panel, the the last one is under of the bonet.

I brought the car about year or so from someone down near the coast.  They had it sorted away for over 7 year in a garage however the last 3 months they had ti it was moved outside in the winter months.  The rain took its toll on the paint and just made it worse.  Then i hand to store it for 6 months before my garage was built in a temp cold damp garage of a mates.

The paint well its old and lost it shine, but most of the rust has been caused by chips / scratches etc over the years.  I'm happy to sand blast the external panels down to see what is under. What about the underseal ??  Is it worth removing this ?

Well to catch up with Brian's comment first but I'm sure you know this anyway.
Rust is like an Iceberg, whatever you can see it's only a third of what's there.

The rest is underneath it!

Now coastal conditions are the worst possible for metal as you can see. Damp is always bad news!

But don't for one minute fall for cold is bad because it is not.
I live in Austria and my cabby spent the 1st 22 years of its life living in the mountains, the last 6 with me in Vienna. We saw last month even we saw sustained temperatures of below -10 and down to - 18.

However we see very high temperatures in the summer but most of the time the air remains dry, not damp.

If you won't the very best storage conditions go to the Arizona dessert.

So on the the underside, well rust will find a home where ever it finds metal.

Have a good look and dig around because although it may look sealed on close inspection you may find that there is rust even underneath the seal, so take your time when looking.

Nothing worse than a cracking looking Mk1 only to find that the rust has eaten the guts out of it!

Does happen.



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What year is your car?

Normal for the bonnets to go rusty underneath, bonnets only bolt on with 4 bolts so easy to change or clean up/de rust that panel.

It's the rear wheel arches, rear valence, and the fixings of the rear beam is where you want to look for rust, check the main body of the car.

Do you have the plastic body kit on the car?

How much money do you have to spend on it, stripping/dipping and full respray is not cheap…?

It’s on 1985/6 it’s on a C
It looks like most of it’s surface however I will have a dig around the places that you said.
It’s only got the front & rear bumpers no side skirts..
I think I’ve come round to the idea of a soda / sand blast the whole thing back..
As for the money well that depend on what the back to metal finds..


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