Damn I'm tired boys!!!! What started off as a simple back window swap and repaint of the '54 Chevy Kustom's getting way deeper. I really am trying to get this car as nice as I can and to that end I bought a 3M Stick It long board. The only things I used before then were a short pad and a DA sander. I've got REALLLLLY long quartes on my car on account of the '56 Packard taillights and only until I went to town with the longboard using 36 grit paper did the blemishes start coming out. High spots, low spots and waves, and the roof and hood need plenty of work too. I can't remember who recommended the Z-Chrome primer, but it's the ***s. The adhesion is incredible and the build up is tremendous. Thanks for the tip. So anyway, now I'm down to DynaGlazing and Bondoing the low spots, most of the **** gets sanded off but it's taking forever to sand and fill, sand and fill, forever and ever. Unfortunately I don't have an airboard and my puny compressor couldn't keep up with it anyway. I'm trying really hard to get my car done for The Round Up, wish me luck.
(Elton John playing in the background..."...I'm Still Sanding..." ) Good luck, Bro...show us your work as ya go!
I just got through with my ride Nads,I had the 60 Gallon compressor though, and air file.It seems like it's gonna take forever , just keep plugging away.Hope to see you at the Round up bro.
Alright Nads! You wait, you'll have those muscles built up in no time. I'm not quite "at one" with my long board yet, although our relationship is much better then it used to be.
Somehow I was expecting to see the Duke hangin' 10 at Pipeline... They named a wine after my sanding skills....Ripple! "Put your hand on there. You feel it?" "Yup, it feels like a friggin car..." Mahalo
[ QUOTE ] You will appreciate a really straight car from now on..... [/ QUOTE ] Yea, and I used to wonder why body work cost so much till I actually did it myself.
[ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] You will appreciate a really straight car from now on..... [/ QUOTE ] Yea, and I used to wonder why body work cost so much till I actually did it myself. [/ QUOTE ] HEAR, HEAR!
Knock it down with the 36 before it kicks all the way. It clogs the sand paper real quick bit it will cut real fast. Just be carfull not to tear it off. Go lightly compared to when you are sanding when it is fully hardened. And then Make sure you skim the entire area each time. don't try to fill low spots in the middle of a area you are working. And lastly guide coat the filler each time too, it will make things go faster and take the guess work out. Have fun
[ QUOTE ] Knock it down with the 36 before it kicks all the way. It clogs the sand paper real quick bit it will cut real fast [/ QUOTE ] This method will cut your time in half. I haven't used my air file in 5 years or more. The paper plugs, but keeps cutting. Try it, it will blow your mind how fast and straight it cuts.
[ QUOTE ] now I'm down to DynaGlazing and Bondoing the low spots [/ QUOTE ] Do a skim over the whole length of it. If ya try to just fill the low spots each time, you'll be chasing the hills and valleys forever. Seems like more work, but will save work in the long run. Also, don't rely too much on that glazing **** - It will cause problems later. It is just meant to fill small pinholes, and tiny stuff like - just use the filler not the glaze for the actual straightening part.
Just a little tip from the boatbuilding world. It is possible to thin out bondo with acetone. Then you can apply it with a brush to make a thin even coat on larger areas. Just make shure the bondo gets enough curing time, and dont forget the hardener before you mix in the acetone.
I think at some point you need to get past the 36 grit or you will keep pulling up low spots after I make a few p*** with with 36 grit I switch over to 80 so I don't have to keep filling and using to much filler and If I have any places that need a bit much I usaually use some short strand gl*** first before bondo, as it has less shrinkage but you need to work it as soon as it skins over do not let it sit over night as it gets harder than Germs head... fatchuk
One trick to clean the sandpaper is to use a coat hanger and make a loop and smack the board a few time and it will knock the bondo out. The sand paper clogs when you knock it down early but the sandpaper isn't actually dull yet.
Timebandit, better for thinning Bondo is polyester resin. When I had my shop, I named the shop dog "Bondo the Wonder Dog". What a piece of ****. Wayno
I use 40 grit instead of 36. It's a small difference, but I think I can feel the surface better, and the scratches are easier to sand out with 80. I use guide coat as soon as I've knocked the surface off. I use powdered guide coat after 80, you guys should try it, I use the powder all the way thru priming and blocking.
[ QUOTE ] Somehow I was expecting to see the Duke hangin' 10 at Pipeline... Mahalo [/ QUOTE ] Nope, Brootal (almost) hanging 5 on a ****ty onshore day will have to do. I thought it was about surfing too. Good luck with the bodywork though Nads.
[ QUOTE ] Timebandit, better for thinning Bondo is polyester resin. When I had my shop, I named the shop dog "Bondo the Wonder Dog". What a piece of ****. Wayno [/ QUOTE ] Havent tried that, but we make our own filler using polyester and micro balloons for larger jobs when making boat plugs etc. With acetone you can actually make bondo thin enough to spray it on. And acetone evaporates completely, very fast.
guess I must be the lame-o a****st the HAMBrs...I actually expected to read a post on bodywork... the powdered guide coat is a god-send, learned that it is a LOT better than the old rattle can method...never heard of using acetone to thin filler, our instructor at AVTI showed us by using lacquer thinner though, it worked pretty good... Z-chrome...ahhhhh, great stuff, when I was workin' at the shop where I did my internship, I used it on a '69 Z28...the stuff is wonnerful the one and only thing I have to submit here, that may or may not be declared useful, would be a home-made device for sanding rounded areas.... take any of your pick of liberal bleeding heart news magazines and lay it open, centerfold up, on the table. cut a section to the size of your preferred "stick on" sandpaper sheet (longboard works ok, but I prefer to tear it to half its length), then put 36 or 40 on one side, and something finer on the other....it's flexible if ya do it right, and works like a charm. I'm sure they make something like it that you can buy, but this one is cheap...if not free other than the paper..... some folks can use it, some cant....I had good luck with it workin on almost EVERYTHING that had rounded sections...especially fenders and a roof on a '53 chevy convertible... as for the one comment on thinning bondo with acetone...the concept of sprayable bondo somehow frightens me, and yet, at the same time, opens up a whole new world of possibilities....great for filling those pits after sandblasting or de-rusting something....sounds a lot better than spreading filler with a razor blade...anyone tried spraying it?
What is this Powder Coat you guys are talking about? And what is Z-Chrome? Never heard of this stuff.
Nads, that was me who suggested the Z-Chrome. Ain't that stuff cool! It can actually be used in place of applying a full coverage with putty to give the final sand. It also is a rust preventative. I applied it on the 37. Josh, Z-Chrome is a high build primer. It can be found at many auto paint supply stores. It's ***s.
Never thin Bondo or any filler.It will ruin it.[buy NEW "thin" filler if its old and thick.....the 12 dollars it costs is not worth sacrificing the products integrity.JUST AN OPINION.....
It's always a longboard day. No ripple to small or wave too large. 1966 9'4" G&S "East Coast" 2002 9'2" Atlantic "Hatteras"
Two things to stay away from when 'finishing' up your straight panels are glazing putty and air files. Glazing putty is laquer based and will shrink over time, plus it takes forever to harden. It will likely show up again after you get your shiney stuff polished to perfection. Air files are great for the preliminary shaping, but they have too soft of a pad and you tend to apply too much pressure when using them (they're heavy), in effect pushing your high spots down when sanding, you'll never get done! The long file is the only way to go, hey, nobody said it was gonna be easy, perfection never is! Good luck to your project, sounds like your 'in the short rows' now. -slacker Flatheads forever!!
I'm not using lacquer based glazing putty, I'm using catalyzed Dyna Glaze. And yeah once more Petejoe thanks for the Z-Chrome tip. It's about $75 a gallon, I actually ran out on my '54 Chevy. This chasing of low spots is getting me down, I'm so darn close I can taste it. The doors and front fenders on the car are in great shape so they'll need minimal work to get straight. The roof had a lot of problems on the sides. I didn't do the sides first time around because I didn't need to, but years later I saw cracking and discovered large areas of slathered on Bondo. It seems the previous owner dealt with Drive-In dings by slopping on filler. I worked the areas good with a hammer and dolly but because they're so flat and long it's hard to get them dead on. At least with my skill level. As you know I already destroyed the hood on this car when it blew open, but the the replacement hood I bought had also suffered a similar mishap. The new hood was definately repairable, but it took a lot of work. I wish I would have bought a better one instead of jumping the gun at the $20 price tag. It's taken way more in labor to fix than the dollar savings. That's a lesson learned. If you don't have the money to buy the best panels available, save up and wait, because the h***le's not worth it. And here's another thing I screwed up on. I already had my paint mixed to a stock shade of purple and THEN I found some metalflake. Well the two shades weren't even close, so I went to Finishmasters and had them match the paint to the flake. They charged me the price of a whole quart of paint to do this, almost $30. Man I was pissed, but here's another lesson I learned. I'm going to try and be more patient in the future. Thanks for all your tips.
Is z-chrome like MS Highsolids (glasurit)/K200? If so, is it cheaper? Sounds like the way to go... I can remember body cl*** in highschool... a few p***es with the long board, slap it on my thighs, a few more p***es... ahhh those were the dayz... Jay
[ QUOTE ] as for the one comment on thinning bondo with acetone...the concept of sprayable bondo somehow frightens me, and yet, at the same time, opens up a whole new world of possibilities... [/ QUOTE ] You asked if anyone has sprayed it..... You already did...it's called ZChrome. Polyester sprayable filler.
Couple of tips to make em straight. I do a lot of black and dark colored cars, so people are usually trying to find flaws. Always skin the whole panel and then board it so you aren't chasing low spots all over the panel one at a time. While you are in the co**** grit go at the panel in 2 directions 8 o'clock to 2 o'clock and 4 o'clock to 10 o'clock. Takes out the ripples better. One other thing, if your panel is lumpy top to bottom it probably won't show, but it needs to be straight front to back. Bodywork can make you crazy striving for perfection. Nutz
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