Black Betty... No Wait! How about Betty Blue?
I bought this Kombi from Jared 6 months ago, and since then, it has been gathering dust in the workshop,... until now. It was sprayed JET BLACK - inside and out. With black carpet lining in the front and back + drak grey door cards. It has been lowered to achieve a more aggressive stance and paired with a twin exhaust on a well tuned 1800 motor.
We had some initial thoughts that we might brighten up the engine a bit more and simply leave it as is... and maybe call her Black Betty. But as with every project we start, once you start sanding a little bit, the Kombi slowly reveals her secrets.
Overall the body condition looked pretty good, but there were LOTS of little dings, bumps, scratches and areas that felt a bit too bumpy for my liking. All the usual areas had suffered - bottom of the doors, sills, rear quarters, dog legs and the bottom of the windscreen. Fred Flintstone would have loved the floor under the drivers feet!
As we started the repairs, less and less black paint was left behind. In fact the more you work on each Kombi, the more they start to talk to you. Each stage we worked on revealed a lovely original powder blue, that on researching Kombis and colours is called Flipper Blue. My wife said, "that's a crowd pleaser!", but I reckon it will look drop dead gorgeous when she's finished.
So the final repairs are now completed, and the undercoat has been applied - at last! We hope to apply the dupont 2 Pac by Friday and start the refit by next week. The roof and window line will be a nice Dupont 2Pac off white, and the bottom will be Dupont 2 Pac Flipper Blue. As for a name, Betty Blue sounds pretty good! Will throw up some more photos when we're done!
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