Auto Body Repair Help, Car Repair Advice, Auto Accessories Information – Eastwood Blog

When I first started working at Eastwood, one of the first products I got my hands on was the HotCoat Powder Coating System.  Having never been exposed to powder coating, I was a little skeptical of how much more durable it was compared to paint.  After I sprayed a few test panels, I was sold.  When the panels cured, I was told to take a pick hammer and hit the q-panel.  To my surprise, the panel had a nice indent, but the powder did not flake off.  Next, I was told to bend the q-panel in half.  Again, the powder did not flake off (try these simple tests at home….it is pretty amazing!!  You can also coat a piece of aluminum foil and bend that all around to see how durable powder coating is).  After seeing these two tests, I was sold and have been powder coating at home ever since.

Powder coating at home can be done for a relatively low amount of money.  All you need is an oven (I started with a small toaster oven and worked my way up to an old house oven), a compressed air source, powder, powder coat gun, and clean parts to coat.  Click here to see how easy it is to powder coat at home.

Working on old VW’s, I’ve been powder coating just about anything I can fit into the oven - pedal assemblies, engine tin, pulleys, wheels, hood hinges, sway bar,….even the gas tank for my ’62 bug (we did that in our large walk-in oven in our R&D).  Nick

Powder Coated Gas Tank

Hi,

Welcome to the all new Eastwood Company Blog.  My name is Nick Capinski aka “The Bug Guy” and I am Eastwood’s  E-Commerce Marketing Manager.  In addition to being an Eastwood employee, I am also an Eastwood Customer (since the early 90′s – first item I bought was Factory Gray High Temp Exhaust Manifold paint).

Since I can remember, I’ve always been into VW Bugs.  I’m not sure what drew me to them, but I remember drawing pictures of Bugs back in elementary school.   My dad had a Bug when I was about a year old which got stolen (never recovered) and my older brother and the neighborhood kids had Bugs….maybe that is what got me started.

I started on my first Bug when I was about 13 years old.  It was my older brother’s first car which he drove up until college when the original engine went.  He ordered a high performance longblock for the Bug, but was never able to get it to run right, so the car sat for a number of years.  After sitting for a few years, rust took over.  My brother was going to scrap the car, but  knowing that I had wanted a Bug, he told me I could have it if I fixed it up.

Growing up, I had a mini-bike and go-kart which taught me a lot of basic skills, but I still didn’t know much about fixing up a car.  Picking up every VW magazine and repair manual I could get my hands on, I learned as much as I could.

Together with my dad, I got the Bug running really well.  After it ran, I began tearing it apart.  Once it was torn apart, we realized how much rust the car had.  Not having a welder or access to one (not that my dad or I knew how to weld at that time), we visited the autobody vo-tech teacher that lived down the road.  He took one look at the car and told us to junk it and find another.  We began our search for another Bug and bought a running/driving ’71 Super Beetle for $600.  The guy we bought this Bug from was heavily into VW’s and showed us some of the projects he was tackling.  After seeing his projects, we decided that although the first Bug needed a decent amount of work, that it was still fixable.  We decided to tackle the first Bug as a long-term project and the second Bug would be my car to drive when I got my license.

Since this time, I have had over 15 Bugs, which is how I was dubbed “The Bug Guy” (presently own 8 Bugs in various stages of restoration/customization) and a 1977 Corvette (also currently restoring my dad’s 1969 Corvette Convertible).

Nick's First Bug as it looks today - 1974 VW Super Beetle