Wing man

In last month’s instalment, we explained that whilst it is now possible to buy very good new wings for early Beetles from a couple of suppliers, there’s a lot to be said for saving a set of original German wings. Whilst the ’62 Karmann we were working on for the Salvage Hunters Classic Cars TV programme had wings that were a mismatched colour to the original paint on the body itself, they were at least genuine VW wings so were worth saving.

In part one we outlined what was involved when it came to paint removal, metal repair and reshaping any dented areas; this month we will cover filling, bodywork, paint and indicator placement. Of course the reward for going to all the effort of doing this is that you’ll enjoy the added kudos of having ‘original VW’ items on your finished project.

01 Sand back rust converter

Okay, so picking up from last time, once the rust converter you applied has fully cured, lightly sand it back to remove any runs and key the surface for adhesion of the body filler and etch primer. We used 120 grit paper and a block and a foam backed pad for detail areas. We took a fair amount of the rust converter off, especially in areas that had shiny metal; we’ve found the filler/primer adhesion can be an issue otherwise. There were several areas where