MK4 body fitment and pre paint work

[broku518]

Hello,

So here I come again. I built my car, and been driving in gel coat for over 2 years. Always planned on having someone else to do the body prep and paint.

Now I am considering doing the body fitment and body work myself. I live in Florida and the summer can be brutal, so this is considered my off season.

Can someone share some existing forum treads please? I would welcome really basis steps and pictures.

Thanks!

[GoDadGo]

Broku,

Like you I'm a bodywork newbie, but have I friends in the industry who are quite skilled so I had a huge advantage.
My car just went off to paint last week, but the the last videos I posted of the body work done by my friend Sammy.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8m-MdRZvaH45Y6h4orIm7w/videos

If you need a paint shop down in South Florida then 65 Cobra Dude (Henry) may be able to point you in the right direction.
He's a professional builder and his shop is in Port Charlotte Florida.

Steve

[broku518]

Thank you! I am researching the steps. Would you happen to have some steps what to do first...second...and so on?

[MSumners]

The recently posted YouTube videos from FFR seem to be a good start.
I watched them but as a note I will not be doing my own bodywork and paint. In no way am I experienced in body work and paint but watching the videos may give you a general overview.

[Ernie67]

Broku,
I remember going through that phase, but at the same time I was building the go-kart, I was buying and reading a lot of those SA Design books on painting. I will say it is not that hard, in fact a lot like fine woodworking, drywall work without a flat panel anywhere! I am working on my second body now, due to a fender-bender. Did you purchase any tools or materials yet? How far are you into this?

Ernie

[tony]

I ended up fitting the panels and rage gold filler for bodywork. Then sent to painter to finish the primer and painting . Probably saved them 1/2 time if they were to do everything.

[GoDadGo]

Thank you! I am researching the steps. Would you happen to have some steps what to do first...second...and so on?

1...I laid blue painters tape on either side of the parting lines so that I'd focus all of my efforts on the lines.
.....I used a 2" Mini Dual Action sander that I got from Harbor Freight to take down the parting lines while keeping the rest of the body safe.
.... https://youtu.be/_3sLamdkIFg
2...Once the lines were gone I sprayed a trace coat of paint over those areas and began blocking the Gelcoat to get the body as ready for the filler.
.... https://youtu.be/meBYeI96_A8
3...When I started to lay down the Rage Gold, I hit the limits of my ability so I begged my friend Sammy (The Sam Man) to save my project.
.... https://youtu.be/6QXWP5H8mT0
4...After the Sam Man finished the heavy lifting, I hand sanded the doors, hood and trunk to perfect the panel gaps.
.... https://youtu.be/po1Bb2_XDDk
5...After that we spayed the back side of the body with Upol Raptor Bedliner to protect it from the elements.
.... https://youtu.be/FVMCA4_UZHU

The car is now at my pal Ernie's place (Dependable Paint & Body) and has been primed, blocked, primed and blocked again.
My friend the Sam Man, who's been working at Ernies for over 30 years, is going over every detail with their painter.
With that said having friends in the business has really helped me with this final stage of the project.

[mcwho]

Would be glad to give opinions on this. I actually put out a poll as to how much people were spending.

[broku518]

Broku,
I remember going through that phase, but at the same time I was building the go-kart, I was buying and reading a lot of those SA Design books on painting. I will say it is not that hard, in fact a lot like fine woodworking, drywall work without a flat panel anywhere! I am working on my second body now, due to a fender-bender. Did you purchase any tools or materials yet? How far are you into this?

Ernie

I was watching those videos, making a list of tools to get from Harbor Freight, including air compressor.

[broku518]

1...I laid blue painters tape on either side of the parting lines so that I'd focus all of my efforts on the lines.
.....I used a 2" Mini Dual Action sander that I got from Harbor Freight to take down the parting lines while keeping the rest of the body safe.
.... https://youtu.be/_3sLamdkIFg
2...Once the lines were gone I sprayed a trace coat of paint over those areas and began blocking the Gelcoat to get the body as ready for the filler.
.... https://youtu.be/meBYeI96_A8
3...When I started to lay down the Rage Gold, I hit the limits of my ability so I begged my friend Sammy (The Sam Man) to save my project.
.... https://youtu.be/6QXWP5H8mT0
4...After the Sam Man finished the heavy lifting, I hand sanded the doors, hood and trunk to perfect the panel gaps.
.... https://youtu.be/po1Bb2_XDDk
5...After that we spayed the back side of the body with Upol Raptor Bedliner to protect it from the elements.
.... https://youtu.be/FVMCA4_UZHU

The car is now at my pal Ernie's place (Dependable Paint & Body) and has been primed, blocked, primed and blocked again.
My friend the Sam Man, who's been working at Ernies for over 30 years, is going over every detail with their painter.
With that said having friends in the business has really helped me with this final stage of the project.

Thanks, I watched your videos :)

Right now I started taking the trim apart. I am removing them and labeling for later assembly. Also making a list of tools from Harbor Freight .

[miller7448]

The FFR video was extremely valuable to me especially the part about cutting the wheel wells. There are a few things I would caution about that you won't find in an official video.

1) There is always a risk on tight radius locations like above the dash and behind the seats that the worker placing the fabric mats onto the gel coat inside the mold does not press it in far enough and the gel coat ends up with no fiberglass support. Not a big deal to repair but would really be unpleasant to find one of them after paint. I thought I had them all but while moving the body into the paint booth we bumped the edge behind the seats and found another one.

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127861127864

2) Don't be afraid to go deep to remove the red wax material in the seems. To a large extent this is workmanship. I assume, after the mold is assembled the red wax like material is used to fill the gap between the separate mold sections. If it is not perfectly flat before the fiberglass mats are installed, the raised areas can protrude into the fiberglass. Some of these can even be an inch or so away from the actual seam. I can't believe anything sticks well to this material so I chose to remove it all.

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127865

This picture is around the gas cap. You can still see some of the wax like material deep in the hole.

3) Prepare to use a lot of filler. My drivers side door had a high spot in the top center area. Even though I took that spot down to fiber the rest of the door required filler to avoid valleys between that spot and the door edges.

127869

[broku518]

1...I laid blue painters tape on either side of the parting lines so that I'd focus all of my efforts on the lines.
.....I used a 2" Mini Dual Action sander that I got from Harbor Freight to take down the parting lines while keeping the rest of the body safe.
.... https://youtu.be/_3sLamdkIFg
2...Once the lines were gone I sprayed a trace coat of paint over those areas and began blocking the Gelcoat to get the body as ready for the filler.
.... https://youtu.be/meBYeI96_A8
3...When I started to lay down the Rage Gold, I hit the limits of my ability so I begged my friend Sammy (The Sam Man) to save my project.
.... https://youtu.be/6QXWP5H8mT0
4...After the Sam Man finished the heavy lifting, I hand sanded the doors, hood and trunk to perfect the panel gaps.
.... https://youtu.be/po1Bb2_XDDk
5...After that we spayed the back side of the body with Upol Raptor Bedliner to protect it from the elements.
.... https://youtu.be/FVMCA4_UZHU

The car is now at my pal Ernie's place (Dependable Paint & Body) and has been primed, blocked, primed and blocked again.
My friend the Sam Man, who's been working at Ernies for over 30 years, is going over every detail with their painter.
With that said having friends in the business has really helped me with this final stage of the project.

Hello,

I finished the parting lines, the DA sander works great. Overall I had to go deeper, as I saw some imperfections and bubbles. The worst area was around the gas cap.

Next I will tackle the wheel wells.


Question about - I sprayed a trace coat of paint over those areas and began blocking the Gelcoat what is it mean? I don't understand this sentence.

[GoDadGo]

Hello,

Question about - I sprayed a trace coat of paint over those areas and began blocking the Gelcoat what is it mean? I don't understand this sentence.

Broku,

1. After I knocked the parting lines down I shot a very light coat of flat black primer over the tops of parting lines.
2. I then used a 12" flexible sanding block and sanded those areas in an X-Style or Cross Hatch pattern.
3. As I sanded those areas the black trace coat was sanded off revealing low spots.
4. I kept blocking those areas until those low spots also disappeared.
5. I Did Not Sand Through The Gel-Coat!

Basically I smoothed out those areas as best I could before The-Sam-Man (My Bodywork Expert) came in to start the real body work...By pre-sanding and smoothing those parting line areas, it reduced the amount of filler needed to do the real body work...Just understand that I wasn't confident enough in my abilities to do the bodywork myself...It is why I got my friend Sammy to work on the car while I played the helper role.

Pre-Sam-Man Post Initial Sanding Video:
https://youtu.be/meBYeI96_A8

Also, please know that Sammy used about 3/4 of a gallon of Rage Gold, which most was sanded off, but understand that my body was phenomenal because it had No Major Voids Nor Had Any Parting Line Modeling Clay Contamination compared to most the bodies that I've recently seen on the forum.

Hope this helps.

Steve

[broku518]

Hello Steve.

Thank you for the detail explanation. It does help. I still need a long sanding block, but will likely use a pool noodle :)
I can definitely feel the lows now.

I ordered a 0.8 gallon of Rage Gold, hope it will be enough!

I do enjoy the work, like to see the progress. I posted some pics on my thread.

Thanks!
Martin

[GoDadGo]

Hello Steve.

I do enjoy the work, like to see the progress. I posted some pics on my thread.

Martin

Martin,

The bodywork stalled my project because I totally hated it.
Though I can float sheetrock lie a Pro, because I did a lot of it in my youth and again after Hurricane Katrina, I couldn't get the Rage properly on the car to save my life.
The Fibertech I could work with well, but the Rage Gold, forget it.

Good Luck & Hope You Are Better At This Phase Of Your Build Than I Was!

Steve