Green69rt's paint work

[timmycharger]

I was pretty much in the same boat as you and had to do what LEON did on the quarters due to my lack of experience in welding in quarters 10 years ago, I had to use filler top/bottom and side to side.  I couldn't see any of the body lines until I shot it with the featherfill.

After blocking out the featherfill, I put down 3 more coats of high build primer and am in the process of blocking that out too.   I tried to do what LEON was saying about rather than having metal/filler/metal/filler, a nice even coat of filler to block out.

You will get there, lots of patience and lots of tape for the body lines. Not sure about your fender issue on the body line, my quarters were doing similar things (Crappy Sherman skins) so basically I had to make a center body line down the quarter on both sides. 

[Canadian1968]

This was a case of a lot of different layers of various things over the years.  I took this time to remove almost everything while I looked for high and low spots.  The high spots look like places that I just got too vigorous with the sandpaper.  If you look it's almost always on the top curve of the fenders. The low spots look more legit.  I pretty much put a skim coat on everything.  I think the method is to do all the metal work, which may involve more than one coat of filler or primer then end up with a primer coated shell.  Now sand it all down to reveal the high and low spots.  Fill the low spots and shrink the high spots to get closer to all at one level.  Now sand till everything is really close and then spray a high build "primer/surfacer"  to get that last little bit of smoothness. Now the final blocking and a final layer of primer to seal everything.

I think I am close to shooting some primer/surfacer such as "featherfill".  The biggest problem that I am having is that the body lines that I expect to show up are just not there.  I looked thru some threads and I can see the body lines (kind of jealous) but getting them to show up on my car seems to be really hard.  The AMD fenders have really soft folds and bends.  Getting them to have nice sharp body lines is a chore.  Is this normal?

Edit...now that I look at the pictures I posted it looks like the high spots are on the lower parts of the car.  I think I will go out and look at the car again.....

your process is a bit confusing . I hate to suggest but it sounds like u may want to start from all bare metal again.  You mention finish metal work with a coat of filler ? prime, sand,  check for high spots and shrink ? you mean heat shrink and tap ?? This should all be done before any mud/ filler putty of any sort has touch the vehicle .  Metal work is what it says "metal " there are no filler or primer used in this process . Heating  , hammer dolly , pic n file ect. Is your metal finishing . Then your filler / putty, and then your high build and final sealer as your last " detail " step if you want to call it !....... No one says it's easy hahah !

good luck

[green69rt]

This was a case of a lot of different layers of various things over the years.  I took this time to remove almost everything while I looked for high and low spots.  The high spots look like places that I just got too vigorous with the sandpaper.  If you look it's almost always on the top curve of the fenders. The low spots look more legit.  I pretty much put a skim coat on everything.  I think the method is to do all the metal work, which may involve more than one coat of filler or primer then end up with a primer coated shell.  Now sand it all down to reveal the high and low spots.  Fill the low spots and shrink the high spots to get closer to all at one level.  Now sand till everything is really close and then spray a high build "primer/surfacer"  to get that last little bit of smoothness. Now the final blocking and a final layer of primer to seal everything.

I think I am close to shooting some primer/surfacer such as "featherfill".  The biggest problem that I am having is that the body lines that I expect to show up are just not there.  I looked thru some threads and I can see the body lines (kind of jealous) but getting them to show up on my car seems to be really hard.  The AMD fenders have really soft folds and bends.  Getting them to have nice sharp body lines is a chore.  Is this normal?

Edit...now that I look at the pictures I posted it looks like the high spots are on the lower parts of the car.  I think I will go out and look at the car again.....

your process is a bit confusing . I hate to suggest but it sounds like u may want to start from all bare metal again.  You mention finish metal work with a coat of filler ? prime, sand,  check for high spots and shrink ? you mean heat shrink and tap ?? This should all be done before any mud/ filler putty of any sort has touch the vehicle .  Metal work is what it says "metal " there are no filler or primer used in this process . Heating  , hammer dolly , pic n file ect. Is your metal finishing . Then your filler / putty, and then your high build and final sealer as your last " detail " step if you want to call it !....... No one says it's easy hahah !

good luck

The confusion is due to my lack of the right terms and being new at this.  Been working on the car for years.  When I did the "metal" work I shot the result with primer to keep the rust at bay.  On a few spots I put some filler over weld seams to even them out, then primer on that.  Now as I get ready for paint I didn't remember what was on the car or how many layers.  Plus the doors where repaired by a previous owner (I found rust under some of the old filler.)  So, I decided to take just about everything off, at least till I could see bare metal in most spots.  I sanded all the primer I had shot till it was mostly gone or until previous filler jobs were visible (mostly on the doors.)  Looks like a lot of primer on the car but almost all the primer I put on is on the floor of my garage now.  I think I will take HemiHamptons advice and reskim the quarters, door and front fenders now and use this opportunity to try to get the center body line restored.

When I was sanding everything down to remove the old layers (used 12" and 16" blocks on the straight panels) all the highs and lows started showing up.  The tops of the quarters (where my weld seams are) ended up being so straight that I judged that they didn't need filler, just a touch of high build primer.  The sides that HH marked needed considerable filler.   As I was getting closer to the surfacer I started noticing the body lines and that's my biggest problem now.

So...back to the sanding blocks.

[hemi-hampton]

Any Updates?   LEON.

[green69rt]

Any Updates?   LEON.

It's been so hot here, in Houston, that I can only stand to work in the garage for an hour or two a couple times a week.  I've been working on the front fenders, trying to establish the body lines.  More pics soon.

[green69rt]

Just so Leon won't get frustrated about not seeing any progress.....

First pic is the same as the previous one (renamed.)
Second pic is after I completely reskimed the area and sanded it again.  Leon, is this what you think it should look like?
Third pic is of the side of the car.  Two things going on.  First, I've been going over this area with the sanding blocks,being careful to not break thru the primer (worked mostly.)  Second I was trying to restore that center body line (called "belt line"?)  That's the masking tape you see.  The rest of the side looked pretty flat to me, what do you think from the picture?

[hemi-hampton]

Visually it looks better but I'd have to feel it & see it in person to know for sure. Can you feel the bare metal spots, do they feel like high spots? If they feel high you might have to hammer & dolly them or use a spoon to get them feeling better. LEON.

[green69rt]

Visually it looks better but I'd have to feel it & see it in person to know for sure. Can you feel the bare metal spots, do they feel like high spots? If they feel high you might have to hammer & dolly them or use a spoon to get them feeling better. LEON.

The bare spots are where I just barely broke thru.  Should have stopped when I saw the filler thin out and left just a fine coat on.  But....   The rest of the fender feels very flat to me, I also took a machine ruler and went over the whole thing to see if I could feel any highs or lows.  Nothing showed up.  I'm going to go over it one more time.  Lot of work on these things if you want it perfect.  Now I'm wondering just how perfect do I want it?

[Charger-Bodie]

You are on the right path now. But as far as how perfect do you want it. Make it as good as you possibly can. Things can go wrong there's no need to build them into it.

[Patronus]

I prefer to prime in between coats of filler. I think the different batches don't feather quite as well unsealed. That usually means its filler from one end of the panel to the other.

[Canadian1968]

a little tip. if your not already doing so is to put clean shop towel, old t-shirt or something similar under your hand as you feel the panel for low and high spots .  The material between your hand and the panel will mask the different texture of the different materials ( bond , paint, metal ect.  ) that can sometimes trick you into thinking there are spots that aren't really there !  I also like to do a few passes and look in the opposite direction. Let your hand be your eyes Jedi !!

[green69rt]

a little tip. if your not already doing so is to put clean shop towel, old t-shirt or something similar under your hand as you feel the panel for low and high spots .  The material between your hand and the panel will mask the different texture of the different materials ( bond , paint, metal ect.  ) that can sometimes trick you into thinking there are spots that aren't really there !  I also like to do a few passes and look in the opposite direction. Let your hand be your eyes Jedi !!

Thanks, I'll give it a shot today. 

[green69rt]

Still going at it.  In the beginning, I thought I would take a short cut and just do where I can feel something.  I do that spot and something shows up around the spot,then I have to expand the area that I skim coat, then further and further.  I end up skim coating the whole panel.  Did that on one door so just decided to do whole panels.  I guess you painters already knew this didn't you!   The only thing I didn't have to touch was the trunk lid.  Small consolation.

[hemi-hampton]

"I guess you painters already knew this didn't you!"


YES.

[Charger-Bodie]

Still going at it.  In the beginning, I thought I would take a short cut and just do where I can feel something.  I do that spot and something shows up around the spot,then I have to expand the area that I skim coat, then further and further.  I end up skim coating the whole panel.  Did that on one door so just decided to do whole panels.  I guess you painters already knew this didn't you!   The only thing I didn't have to touch was the trunk lid.  Small consolation.

That's big actually! The deck lid sucks to mud. It's very soft and has to be float sanded very lightly.

[green69rt]

Still going at it.  In the beginning, I thought I would take a short cut and just do where I can feel something.  I do that spot and something shows up around the spot,then I have to expand the area that I skim coat, then further and further.  I end up skim coating the whole panel.  Did that on one door so just decided to do whole panels.  I guess you painters already knew this didn't you!   The only thing I didn't have to touch was the trunk lid.  Small consolation.

That's big actually! The deck lid sucks to mud. It's very soft and has to be float sanded very lightly.

I have learned that sanding the big sheets of metal require a light touch.  Press too hard and the metal flexes and gives false highs and lows.  Just pushing a 6" block across it and up and down didn't reveal any spots so I just sanded a lot of the old primer off and let it be.

[Charger-Bodie]

Still going at it.  In the beginning, I thought I would take a short cut and just do where I can feel something.  I do that spot and something shows up around the spot,then I have to expand the area that I skim coat, then further and further.  I end up skim coating the whole panel.  Did that on one door so just decided to do whole panels.  I guess you painters already knew this didn't you!   The only thing I didn't have to touch was the trunk lid.  Small consolation.

That's big actually! The deck lid sucks to mud. It's very soft and has to be float sanded very lightly.

Basically any panel with an under structure takes a light touch. Hoods and deck lids are worst but roofs have a few braces to be careful with too. Newer cars have even more soft panels

I have learned that sanding the big sheets of metal require a light touch.  Press too hard and the metal flexes and gives false highs and lows.  Just pushing a 6" block across it and up and down didn't reveal any spots so I just sanded a lot of the old primer off and let it be.

[green69rt]

I haven't given up, just been slow with getting anything done.  So, I final got the whole car skimmed and sanded front-to-back.  Everything but the trunk lid and hood.  While I was sanding those to rough up the old primer (remove most of the EDP from AMD)  it was so smooth that it didn't need it IMHO.  Anyway, it is what it is.  That's pic #1.  While I was doing all the sanding I was trying to prime off bare spots with some Rustoleum primer which was a disaster. It stayed gummy and would wipe off with degreaser so I took it all off and then bought a couple of cans of the stuff in pic #2.  That worked fine and I didn't have to load up the paint gun every day or two.  Pic #3 is the other side, done.  Then just for grins I thought I'd go around the car and sand up all those spots that were curvy.  I had mostly ignored.  Like the tail light panel, what could possibly be wrong with it?  It was original and should still be in fine condition, straight and flat.  Wrong, needed some work, pic #4.

[green69rt]

I keep saying I'm done with stuff and then find more to do but I finally think I'm getting done with primer and sanding (well almost.)  Still need to block out the Hi-build primer.  Since I've been spending so much time and effort getting everything smooth I've noticed that sometimes, when I go out to the garage, it looks like something is living in the attic of the garage and is crapping on my car.  It would stain the primer and I would have to sand it down and respray.  Got tired of that real quick so now I cover the car every day with a bunch of old sheets.  Makes the car look like an explosion in a  laundry Pic#1.

Pic #2 shows the car all masked off. Pic #3 shows the car with a couple of fresh coats of epoxy primer.  And finally the Slicksand (pic #4).  It turned out very close in color to the epoxy so it might be a little touchy doing the final blocking to make sure I don't go too far.  I had problems with the Slicksand because if sets up so quickly.  Only about 30-40 minutes working time.  The first charge to my spray gun started to gel up inside the gun before I realized what was happening.   I panicked and dumped the load and quickly cleaned out the gun by running some reducer through it.  Second load I added some reducer to it and that extended the pot life but still it a hurry to get it out of the gun.  The added reducer also helped with the spray volume. I used a 2.3 tip and set the inlet pressure as high as I could but that stuff is still thick!

Now, time to get the sand paper and blocks out and finish this puppy.

[cdr]

     AWESOME Mitch !!!!  lookin GREAT!!

[green69rt]

   AWESOME Mitch !!!!  lookin GREAT!!

Thanks Charlie, notice that I now have visible body lines!!

[Charger-Bodie]

Looking great!!

[igozumn]

   AWESOME Mitch !!!!  lookin GREAT!!

Thanks Charlie, notice that I now have visible body lines!!

I noticed that too.  Dang it looks good.  Spent the last couple days at work during slow times reading over yours and a few other heavy body repair threads. 

[hemi-hampton]

How many coats of slick sand did you put on it. What are you going to start blocking/sanding it with? LEON.

[green69rt]

How many coats of slick sand did you put on it. What are you going to start blocking/sanding it with? LEON.

I really tried to get two coats on the quarters, doors, front fenders, maybe only one or so on the trunk lid and hood.   I thought to start with 220 grit then finish off with 320.  Just talked to a painter.  He suggested that I do my plan then shoot another layer of Slicksand then do 400 and finish with wet 600.  Seems like a lot of work.   I haven't even started the first blocking.  I really had a bad time with the Slick sand, as I said.  I'm not looking forward to shooting more.