# '65 VW notchback - The reason I discovered DW!!



## Fonz (Jul 2, 2012)

I have enjoyed cleaning, polishing (by hand) and showing (on a basic level) aircooled VWs for 20 years now. Mainly just using the standard off the shelf stuff from Halfords (AG, Megs, etc.). However, when I returned from 3 years away in Australia I discovered my VW notchback - which had been stored in a friend's barn/workshop - was looking a little bit dirtier that I usually let my cars get. (secretly though I was loving it.... it seems my brain sees it as, the more filthy the car, the more satisfaction there is to be gained from cleaning! ...I couldn't wait to get stuck in!







 ).

Here it is when I got it back to my place....










Outside, roof rack off...



















I had also stored my black KG away, and whilst it was not allowed to get anywhere near as dirty, it will still need a thorough going over. However, I'm building up to that one, as I want to make sure it's done properly.

As the notch is a nice light colour that appears to hide scratches fairly well, I decided I would use it as a bit of a test bed for trying out new (to me) things, such as claying and some scratch removal. Thankfully, due to a deep scratch it had picked up, I could see it had very thick paint!

All this was before I had found this forum however, and before I'd heard of such things as two bucket techniques and so on, so it all seems a bit :newbie: now, but I guess it'll all be good to compare to for my future reference. That said, adding a few minor scratches and swirl marks in the washing process was not a great worry at the time, as there was far worse to deal with.

Anyway.... time to get washing... all be it with 1 bucket of warm water, a sponge and some turtle wax - wash n wax, after first rinsing to try and remove some of the loose dirt. Then dried off with a chamois. 

The pictures actually make it look a lot cleaner than it actually is, but that'll become clear in later close ups.



















It was nice to see it with the dirt out out of the way, but there was still a lot of crap on it, including what seemed to be some sort of roof tar that had dripped on it. Yes, this is after the wash...










If you ran your hand across the surface of the paint it felt like sandpaper. So I tried some T-cut on it to see what affect it would have....










You can clearly see the area it cleaned. But it still felt bitty even after the polish. That's when I realised that the tiny rusty spots, which I thought was stuff coming through the paint, was actually lots of fallout from where my friend must have been using an angle grinder nearby (  ) and it was the fallout that was rusting.

So I got myself down to the shops and picked up some Meguires clay. I've always wanted to have a good chance to see what a clay bar can do, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. It was pretty slow going, as some of the grindings had bedded themselves in pretty good, but holy crap did it ever make a difference!!  The paint suddenly felt like silk!

In this pic you can just about make out the patch I've cleaned on the left. Also noteable is the colour of the clay on the roof compared to the unused bit in the box (and that was just after doing that little corner of the roof!).










It's took a while, but I eventually got the whole car clayed. Then I decided to start taking the indicators apart, to get in all the nooks and crannies, and polish the insides of the lenses and clean up the reflectors. The dust seemed to have got everywhere.










Then it was onto the the front.

Pulled them all apart, polished the body behind the rubber and cleaned and polished the housing inside and out.










The bumpers were looking pretty filthy even after a wash, so I attacked them with someof Peek's metal polish and a whole heap of elbow grease.

The lenses were looking pretty grubby too, so they got a polish as well.

Before...










after....










Much easier to see through. 

Might have to continue the rest of this a bit later.


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## Gruffs (Dec 10, 2007)

Love these cars and these threads.

Get on it man. I've seen far too many shiny Porsches lately.


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## Marky-G-66 (May 31, 2012)

I would love to own that:driver:...:thumb:


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## Zetec-al (Feb 28, 2011)

thats cool! nice work too.


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## jlw41 (Jun 5, 2011)

wow what a car! good work man! :thumb:


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## NornIron (May 12, 2007)

Nice Notch, and good work in rejuvenating it :thumb: Is the Commer yours as well?


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## Machine_Valet (Apr 1, 2012)

Well want it, tried searching some for sale but found none 

Great job btw


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## borinous (Mar 25, 2010)

Looking good and looking forward to further updates


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## herbiedacious (Sep 27, 2010)

Great to see a standard Notch. My biggest ever regret was selling my '63 1500S.Can you post up a pick of the push button switch panel,the guys on here would love it. 
Great looking car.Thanks for posting:thumbup::thumbup:

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2


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## carrera2s (Jun 28, 2009)

Fonz, cracking car and cracking thread will follow. Credit to you for posting updates!:thumb:


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## dooka (Aug 1, 2006)

A proper dub, none of that silly water business ..
I miss my old Notch ..


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## stangalang (Nov 27, 2009)

That's a classy motor, I love it


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## Focusaddict (May 31, 2010)

Gruffs said:


> Love these cars and these threads.
> 
> Get on it man. I've seen far too many shiny Porsches lately.


+1:thumb: another classic VW.


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## Russ and his BM (Jan 1, 2008)

Great thread. You can see that despite the grime, the base car is in really good nick, so it should clean up really well.

Looking forward to the rest!


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## Fonz (Jul 2, 2012)

Wow! Thanks for the feedback everyone. Nice to see a few other VW lovers on here. 

I was living in Sweden when I found the car, and I was lucky that the previous owner had looked after it so well. I haven't had to do much to it (apart from lower it  )

NornIron - Yep that was my Commer (well spotted). It's sold now in order to be able to spend more time on the VWs. It was great, but every time I took it out something needed fixing.

Herbiedacious - Unfortunately it's not a push button model. Being a '65 it's the first year without.  . But still cool.


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## Fonz (Jul 2, 2012)

Ok, so here's the result of my bumper and indicator cleaning....










....and the rear bumper....










The notch had picked up a few scratches here and there while it was being stored, as has the Ghia. As mentioned before, I definitely wanted to try and have a stab at sorting the ones on the Ghia, but decided I'd have a go on the notch first to hone my skills (or lack of) with the hope that if I make any mistakes they wont be as noticable.

Started out, just on a small part of the roof, lightly using some 1500... or so I thought... except I'd accidently picked up a bit of 1200!  ... no worries... shalln't make that mistake again. Onto the proper 1500 and then some 2000 before trying out all the different types of polish I had collected over the years to test out their respective cutting levels.

These included: 
Megs - Scratch-X
Megs - Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner
AG - Paint Renovator
Autosmart - Fine Cut

Tried small areas of each by hand. Scratch-X, hmmm maybe it should just be called swirl-X, far too fine. Megs DCPC, not bad possibly still too fine. AG PR, good stuff, cleaned up the 2000 grit marks with relative ease. Autosmart fine cut, also worked well, maybe not quite as good as the Autoglym, but only marginal. Seeing as the small bottle of AG belonged to my neighbour, and I had 1 litre of the Autosmart, I decided to go with that.

Figured I'd try using a Clarke buffing machine I'd bought a while back, in order to save my arms a bit....










....but after a while I noticed it'd achieved next to nowt! I could do a better job, by hand, in a fraction of the time!

Anyway...here's the results of the little test....

Scratches (including 1200 marks  )....









....after 1500 and 2000...









...after the hand worked Autosmart...


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## Fonz (Jul 2, 2012)

It was about this time I realised I was going to need something with a bit more grunt. As the buffing machine was clearly about as good as a choc teapot, and I could only manage to get through tiny areas of the 2000 grit scratches before my arm gave way!

So I popped down to my local Machine Mart, to see what they had in stock. On option was a pair of rotarys from Clarke and a DeWalt, the later clearly looking like the better of the two, but with a price to suit. So I decided to google the DeWalt to see if anyone had reviewed it, and that was when I stumbled into this place! However, Machine Mart had a VAT free weekend that was running out, so no time for forum reading now, the review seemed positive, so back off to the shop, and I came home with this lot....










 :buffer:

Even with the light coloured thick paint, I was still a little nervous about using the rotary, so I spent the next two weeks watching you tube videos to try and work out the best approach. (not thinking, at this point, that that forum I'd stumbled across with the advice about the rotary might be able to offer some pointers  ). At least with the DeWalt's speed control that read in RPM, I would be able to follow the advice on what speeds to use.

Anyway, I masked off all the rubber, rain gutters, badges, vents and anything else I could see that I might not want damaged or burnt through, and very carefully, and starting on a really low speed, I set too with the compounding foam and the Autosmart Fine Cut (trying to use a good amount of the polish to make sure I didn't run it dry).

Results on the roof where the scratches had been were looking positive, so I continued, 1 panel at a time, very carefully around the rest of the car. I don't have much to compare the outcome too, but for my first steps with a rotary I was feling pretty happy.

Some before shots, after the claying stage, showing the rusting marks that the fallout from the grinder had left....



















A sort of 50/50.....










Roof before.....










Roof after.....


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## Fonz (Jul 2, 2012)

I followed up with the Meguiars DC paint cleaner on the soft foam pad, which brought it up to a nice shine. Then applied Meguiars Tech Wax with a foam pad, by hand (I figured I might as well try and use it up on the notch, as by this point I'd started reading the forum for ideas on what wax I might want to use for the Ghia







).

Now the paint on the notch was feeling fantasticly silky. So much so that I couldn't help but touch it any tine I walked past. :lol:

The wheels were removed, lightly polished and tyres dressed with Meguiars High Gloss Hot Shine tyre spray, but wiped over with a cloth to give a more natural matt finish. The drums and nuts were then tidied up a bit (I still wanted to leave a stock appearance to them though, so no painting).










I also gave the window and door rubbers a quick wipe over with the tyre spray, to stop them looking so dull. The interior got a good clean out and wipe down (using a bit of Jiff here and there) and mirrors and remaining britework given a polish with the Peek. Autosmart window cleaner was used inside and out on all the glass. Then it was about time to get it outside and have a look at the results.....






















































































































That's about that. Possibly not the best detail, but a great learning curve for myself, and an introduction to DW and a whole new level of cleaning possibilities! 

I have already been on the phone to Rich at Polished Bliss, who has been extremely helpfull and patient, offering me a whole heap of advice (when I'm sure he probably had a load of other stuff he should have been doing - Thank you Rich), and have been buying up products for the next project.  :buffer: 

Feel free to leave critisism/suggestions/advice. Always open to learning.


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## UBRWGN (Nov 25, 2007)

:argie:
Awesome! :thumb:


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## rtjc (Apr 19, 2009)

That car is lovely! I'm not too sure about my old Vee Dubs but that is a stunning wee car. I want one  

Nice job on cleaning it up, what a difference


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## NornIron (May 12, 2007)

Lovely finished result...:thumb:


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## AlexJT (Apr 13, 2012)

Amazing car!! I want this!


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## nethers66 (Jul 23, 2008)

What a stunning car and a superb detail


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## mjbchill (May 17, 2012)

Awesome wee car !!!! Love it


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## bug.mania (Dec 26, 2010)

love the notch quite a difference 

any pics of the commer in the background


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## andyb616 (Apr 19, 2012)

Epic read!! Epic car!! 

Really good results there and aint she a beaut too


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## lawrenceSA (Jul 17, 2012)

Lovely turn around - looks awesome!


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## dooka (Aug 1, 2006)

It's a shame you aren't closer. I would love to help you with this ..


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## murat (Feb 13, 2010)

great job


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## nogrille (Oct 27, 2005)

great car! Love aircooled stuff, but what on earth did you use the Jiff on?!?!


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## Fonz (Jul 2, 2012)

Thanks for the compliments everyone. 

The Jiff was used to get rid of some grubby prints on the vinyl sunvisors and door cards. Seemed to work, but I'm guessing there's probably some better stuff I should be using.

The rotary seemed pretty good to use, but I'm thinking for the next project I may take a step back and try a DA.


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## organisys (Jan 3, 2012)

Gruffs said:


> Love these cars and these threads.
> 
> Get on it man. I've seen far too many shiny Porsches lately.


Couldn't agree more!

Please take more pics and continue the thread!


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## nogrille (Oct 27, 2005)

Fonz said:


> The Jiff was used to get rid of some grubby prints on the vinyl sunvisors and door cards. Seemed to work, but I'm guessing there's probably some better stuff I should be using.


phew, not as bad as I was expecting! :thumb:


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## Fonz (Jul 2, 2012)

organisys said:


> Couldn't agree more!
> 
> Please take more pics and continue the thread!


That could be tricky.

About the time I was finishing the detail I had a message from a guy who had been looking for a notch for a while. He came and looked at the car, loved it and made me an offer. I've never really been in the habit of selling VWs, however, it was a good offer, and that combined with the fact I'd just bought something else as well kinda twisted my arm.

It was a really good notch, so I knew I'd regret selling it at some point, but putting all these pics up has made that happen sooner than I was expecting. 



















However, moving it on means I'll be able to spend more time on the other cars, so maybe I'll get a thread up on one of them in the not too distant future.

****.... I shouldn't have sold it.


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## Fonz (Jul 2, 2012)

bug.mania said:


> love the notch quite a difference
> 
> any pics of the commer in the background


Yes. (finally  )

This is the best I have though I'm afraid.


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## rob3rto (May 23, 2007)

Love the Notchback, fraid I can't say the same for the Commer, prefer your splitty in the garage.


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## Fonz (Jul 2, 2012)

The Commer was only ever a temporary curiosity, never intended to replace any of the VWs. 

It was fun while the split was having some work done. Nice and spacious/well equipped, and quite an experience to drive, but mechanicly there's no way I'd ever have one over a VW.


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## colarado red (Jun 5, 2008)

Nice turnaround


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## bazz (May 15, 2007)

great job fella


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## twoscoops (Mar 26, 2010)

Have to say that i had never seen this car before this thread and am totally amazed by it. A fantastic turn around on a fantastic little car. You have got me on the hunt for a good one now.

Cheers


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## Fonz (Jul 2, 2012)

They're not the most common of things, but they ride so much better than a Beetle, Ghia or early bus, thanks to the re-designed chassis/suspension.

Let me know if you want any help locating one or want any pointers.


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