Photo – Project Westy Painted

After a few weeks of grinding, sanding, removing old paint, bondo, and fiberglass repair – the Keep Drifting Fun Project Wetsy is painted.

We asked our friends on twitter and fans on facebook what color we should paint the van. The answer was a resounding Orange. To keep it the stock/factory color.

It was important to quality of the exterior without spending a fortune. That limited us to a single stage (no secondary pass of clear coat) paint job and just basic DIY body work.

I stripped the entire van’s paint and ground off the surface rust with an angle grinder. After a week of grinding my skills improved. The photo above was from a few hours of work in a single day. Stripped and multiple passes made with different grit discs.

The front end was a mess of bondo and body filler. I ground it all out and started over. It was important to me to see what was left of the front end. The previous owner had the front spare rack drilled through layers of patching fiberglass. Fiberglass was no’t going to support a full sized spare wheel & tire for long.

On the backside of Project Westy there was some rot that went through to the engine compartment by the taillight/side indicator. It was easily patched with fiberglass cloth and filled with a new layer of body filler. The sheet metal was too thin for my welder. We tried to tack a fresh sheet metal cover over the rot, but it kept burning through – even on the lowest MIG setting.

This photo really shows the warped and aged metal panels on the driver’s side. Project Westy is not a show car and was never intended to be – its going to be driven… a lot. To the south east atlantic coast, up the atlantic coast, across the midwest, to the pacific northwest, to the Bonneville Salt Flats, through Nevada, and back to Los Angeles.

Besides this Project is about keeping things fun and this build was fun. Ask Pete, Aya, my neighbors, Hobo, and everyone else who helped out. There is something about a DIY project that is contageous.

Next steps are replacing all of the exterior components, pop top shell, install the new hardwood floor, and rear bench seat.

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