I tip my bonnet to you

I got my sanding discs out last weekend and started cracking on with stripping the bonnet and uncovered a myriad of sins that had been lying in wait below the old flaky layers of paint...





There was excessive filler all over the panel that was as deep as 4/5mm deep in places! To speed up the process I used a small screwdriver and hammer to gently chisel away a bulk of it before finishing off with the sander. In the photo below it looks like a microscopic canyon of some kind!



In some places the years of opening, closing and general flexing of the bonnet had caused a few ‘laughter lines’ to appear on the old girl.



I suspect that Gretch had probably suffered a front end shunt at some point in her past because, below the sediment of yet more filler, were an abundance of small dents in a horizontal band that indicated a crude attempt at panel beating!





I have a feeling that as I really get into the stripping process I am likely to discover a multitude of botched repairs. Here is the first which is located on the top right corner of the bonnet (see photo below). Once I become confident with welding and making repair patches from scratch I shall make a far neater job of this area.

Who needs chrome when the VW badge can look this good!