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I believe you're right Ray, I've seen some historic info somewhere (don't remember where) that says the T4's paint was the first mass production application of IG Farben's new "zweischist" (two-stage) color coat/clear coat system. Judging from the paint in my trunk, it looks like they got it right the first time.

I wouldn't exactly say that they got it right the first time. My oldest brother was a painter at the local VW dealer here in Arkansas in the 70's and early 80's. He told me of all the cars he had to repaint under warranty because the clear coat would peal off. The Scirocco's had the same problem too. It took a few years for them to get the formula right. He was telling me what we were going to do right when we repaint my 412.

Too bad VW had trouble at first with their 2-stage paint. They weren't the only one. Ma MoPar and others had big trouble with their first 2-stage finishes. It took Chrysler 10+ years to get the paint right on the minvans after the big reformulation in the late 80's. I've got a '94, and the color coat started coming off the primer when it was 5 years old. My '85 started going bad in '95.

MGVWfan wrote:I believe you're right Ray, I've seen some historic info somewhere (don't remember where) that says the T4's paint was the first mass production application of IG Farben's new "zweischist" (two-stage) color coat/clear coat system. Judging from the paint in my trunk, it looks like they got it right the first time.

Ah, the VW 'Zwei-Schicht' colors. The exact translation is more two-layer than two-stage, but you probably mean the same by it: a base coat and a transparent varnish on top of that.

Yep, that's what I meant, base coat/clear coat. Good clarification.