skullandbones

I have gone about the body work thing a little differently than most I have read about on this forum. I suppose it has partly to do with my agenda which was to drive for a while before finishing the bodywork. I have done that since I have a thousand miles on the car while having just grinded the seams and doing a minimal amount of body filling and sanding along with a coat of hot rod black primer. So now I decided to do round two by going back in and improving the areas that I had worked before but with a goal of getting the curves consistently matched from panel to panel. That has been a lot harder than I anticipated. One of the things that has helped is using a flexible sanding board and a good quality grade sand paper. The other thing is widening my filler pattern to feather out the curves better. I think that is a common amateur mistake to under estimate the size of the band of filler to allow for the surface matching. So doing it more like the dry wall guys do it is the general idea (wider is better).

I ran into a problem with some contaminated filler or something in the process that was contaminated. It resulted in me taking out a complete area of filler and starting from scratch due to the breaking out of the bad areas that did not cure or whatever caused the problem. Keeping all implements super clean can make a big difference. Other than that little setback most of the work has been productive, at least, for someone with limited experience with this sort of "craft". It is definitely one of those disciplines that requires patiences, consistency, and skill level. I am learning the patience, gaining some consistency, and learning my limitations and staying well within that range. One example is the point at which you think you are finished. I have found that there is a point at which I can no longer tell exactly if the curve is completely perfect. So I have resorted to a technique which was shown to me a long time ago by a body man. I am utilizing a gloss black lacquer coat I call a "check coat" on the whole body. I know it sounds like a lot of work but it is worth it, I think. The black paint reveals every little defect you can imagine from pinholes and scratches so small you wouldn't believe it to the more obvious defects like dimples and low spots. The good thing is that my defects from the first phase to the second have gotten very small indeed. I am glad that I am not seeing a 12 inch flat spot that I missed. One of the problems with working with lacquer is it tends to orange peel so I have been fightning that. The first coat was a disaster so I sanded and started over by using every little trick to remove the orange peel (slow thinner, misting thinner on the finished coat, etc....). So now that I have a coating of paint with a little orange peel (heat and how humidity in AZ don't help), I can manage the next phase which is cutting it down with 1200.

The cutting of the check coat was better than I thought. It looks much better than the primer and if it weren't for the scratches and other minor issues I have with the body, you could say it's not a bad paint job. Since it's main purpose it to act as a finder for defects, the role as a real paint job has to take a back seat to the whole process. It doesn't hurt to cut an polish it as it will make it a lot more presentable while I am doing the more detailed body work. I cut it today to a smoother surface and tomorrow will detail those areas that I missed. Then I will polish the whole thing to get that real shine partly for looks but above all for the added feature of showing off those small imperfections. The combination of the consistent smooth surface and the black background in good light is priceless for spotting defects. I think I will spend quite a bit of time documenting the issues by pics and also measuring the locations of the areas I will work. I will sort of be like surgery as I will be taping off a small section at a time and working it with glazing putty and blocking once or twice. The telling step will be the repainting of the area and checking to see if the defect has disappeared under the new coat of black paint.

Well, that's a good stopping point as I need little breaks in the action to keep a mental state for this body work thing. I look at it as step by step improvements. Of course, I can't wait until I have a black undercoat with a nearly perfect body underneath. That's the goal before choosing a final paint scheme. I will add some pics after polishing as it is a little dull after cutting sort of like one of those old black bowling alley balls.

Thanks,

WEK.:cool::cool: