Shouldn't have bought this but it was only about 15 miles away and advertised for a good price.

I saw it advertised on Gumtree back in June and didn't think anything of it until it was re-advertised on Wednesday for a lower price. A chat with the owner led to him giving me first dibs and i went to view it today.

Firstly, it looks rough as! Although the awful paint job is probably the best thing about the car. Underneath is gold and it's been camo'd with model paint so it could be easily removed if necessary. The original gold is coming through in various places and it doesn't look to have been keyed before painting it with camo! The seller reckons that some elbowgrease with a pressure washer/hairdryer etc will have the terrible paint removed. Here's hoping!

Anyway, he bought it last year to do a rally in it - the MOT expired in February 2014. The owner didn't do the rally but has carried out the following work:

Headgasket, cambelt, water pump, head bolts, rebuilt the head, spark plugs etc. New clutch in late 2013 then sat up since Feb 2014.

Hasn't been driven since this work as it needs a new carb.

So I have the job of getting it fit for an MOT and hopefully having some fun along the way. 68k on the clocks, 2 sets of keys; no rot (from what I can see!) and a 1.3 5 speed. Quite chuffed.

At least the plates are original which is a good sign as are the rims. Good luck with getting the paint sorted.

Makes me even more gutted for missing out on it as I thought a respray was at least on the cards lol

Good luck with the project. If you ever get rid I may be interested in it unless I track down another one

John

If it snows in the town you'll lose it with that urban camo!

Looks like a solid starting place for a long term project

You don't get loons for nothing these days, it's a good start!

I'd try a small area with some acetone first. Think of acetone as powerful T-Cut. It will wear through the factory laquer if you persist but you wouldn't carry on that long. The model paint should be acrylic, and acetone should melt that off far quicker.

So the car arrived yesterday, the recovery bloke dumped it on my neighbours parking space which meant I had to dash home from work and move it in order to keep the peace!

Here she is this morning. Looks a state but I have some acetone on the way which I will try carefully in an inconspicuous area first...

Once I have the engine working I think i'll put her in for an MOT - at least that way I can have a list of (potential) items to work through in a systematic fashion.

Apart from the paint job, the body work looks like it shouldn't need much work at all.

Nice little winter project anyway :)

Looks like the paint had decided to take itself off! What colour is it underneath, white?

Does this have the old stop-start technology and the Formel-e overdrive and MPG gauges?

Looks like the paint had decided to take itself off! What colour is it underneath, white?

Does this have the old stop-start technology and the Formel-e overdrive and MPG gauges?

It's gold :)

No stop-start or economy gauges sadly. I think this is just Formel E trim level.

That's a great project Martin. I'm only sad that you will have it looking better than mine in half the time.

Loons FTW!

What a great project! Looking forward to seeing this progress.

So the car arrived yesterday, the recovery bloke dumped it on my neighbours parking space which meant I had to dash home from work and move it in order to keep the peace!

Here she is this morning. Looks a state but I have some acetone on the way which I will try carefully in an inconspicuous area first...

Once I have the engine working I think i'll put her in for an MOT - at least that way I can have a list of (potential) items to work through in a systematic fashion.

why post apicture of a new beetle?

Started with the acetone yesterday. It's weird stuff! Used the bootlid as a testing ground. Applying with a cloth didn't do it any good so I poured some directly onto the bootlid and managed to get some off. Wiping it off only made the melted paint reapply itself so i'll need to perfect my method and scrape it off.

Currently looking into safer methods - thinners are next on my list to try.

Ah, okay. Worth a try. It's difficult not knowing the paint type. The acetone should still come in handy for cleaning bare metal parts - just don't use it on plastic!

Thinners is a good shout. Might take a while though.

3M adhesive cleaner is another one - i painted a 99E Stanley knife Ford Coral beige with acrylic rattle can, then used a marker pen to do patterns. When i wanted to clean the patterns off and start again, i used this stuff. After a few patterns it had worn the paint down to the metal. I don't know if it's acetone or 2K thinners based but i'm now thinking the latter. Might not be the cheapest option, though..

Tempted to get the wet and dry out and take the camo off that way - i'll be left with a satin/matt gold finish which wouldn't be too bad in my eyes!

surely there is a better way than doing it like that...then again if your very careful with a fine grade you might be able to take the thick off and then machine polish it, Then any light scratches in the original paint will polish out too

Is there not a chemical designed to take model paint off?

EDIT: wikihow says to use an antiseptic disinfectant like dettol to remove model paint from metal and plastics but they say to actually place the item in a bowl filled with it so it soaks a good while which obviously you cant do...unless you have thousands of litres and a bowl the size of a house :P

Edited 25 November, 201510 yr by wizardmanjm

If you're not too bothered about the paint finish you could wet and dry it off and then clear coat it. You would usually flat back before clear coat anyway. You'd just need to be careful to not go through to primer

Things got serious over the weekend - I removed the bumpers & grille and attacked her with a pressure washer. I'm pretty happy so far, a lot of paint was able to be removed. She's looking better now! Next steps are to carry on with the pressure washing as well acetone for the areas that don't want to budge, such as the bonnet and passenger wing.

be interested to see this - as mine is that colour (the real colour) and I have the formel E spoiler in the garage and wondered what it would look like on (car is up north at the mo)

Ahem. retro, if you fancy selling the spoiler, let me know

Popped a battery on and checked the electrics this evening. All working apart from reverse light. Simple fix all being well, hopefully just the bulb or reversing light switch.

Think i've found a carb as well!

Update: Working carburetor purchased, I went for a replacement Pierburg 2E in the end.

The pooberg is not known for it's reliability but mine wasn't too bad after I had it set up. Always seemed to bog down when starting off though. There was mention that it might have been a split diaphragm but I never got it fixed. Also the auto chokes can play up so worth checking everything is free and working before fitting. You can test the auto choke by passing hot water through the choke

Cheers, yeah I want to get the engine as original as I can first then i'll see what needs to be done after that. Ordered a new carb flange mount as well.