Crackers: big ass diesel powered blaster. Had a 3 inch hose!!! Came on its own trailer.
Crackers: big ass diesel powered blaster. Had a 3 inch hose!!! Came on its own trailer.
So there's 500 lbs of sand in the driveway now? How does that work?
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
Any pics of the machine?
Any pics of the mess that 500 lbs of sand leaves behind?
So yes, theres 500lb of glass media in the driveway and woods. We blew most into the woods with the machine and leaf blower. Heres what's left after.
theres probably another 50-75 lbs still in the car. After primer ill be thoroughly washing every nook and crannie to get it out as much as possible. Then, taping as many holes up everywhere i can before paint.
only picture i have that shows the machine. Sorry....
Great. Interesting!
Looks like you got a little on the trunk lid of the red car too. 
Im prepping for epoxy.
Sanding every inch with 150-180 grit paper per the advice i found on google.
Sanding bare metal is hard. Having a devil of a time seeing where ive been and not.
I did find hanging the fenders back on with a couple of bolts finger tight maes them a.lot easier to work with.
Question: i spray high build on top of the prepped epoxy next, or do i do mudwork on top of the epoxy? Im not sure where all the dents and waves and such are, and i can only feel a few.
How do i do the next step? And what exactly is it? Because hopefully i get there Saturday.
I would epoxy then mud if it was me.
Had to jump over and see what you were up to. Compared to Java's IH this should be easy enough job.
In my opinion, Sanding a sandblasted surface in prep for epoxy that is going to be covered with filler and primers is kinda pointless. The sand will have keyed the metal just fine. If the car is going to be left in epoxy then maybe worth it.
Wipe it down with metalprep if you want or at least a good wax-degreaser ( i use that on everything now) and shoot the epoxy. Don't sweat the epoxy since you will be sanding/ covering it anyway.
Get the car in epoxy ASAP as it is rusting even if you don't see it.
run the sanding boards over the epoxy with 80 grit paper and you will see where the highs and lows are. You may or may not sand down to bare metal, don't worry about it since you will be covering the metal later on. Let the board and the paper do the work; you dont want to be pushing on the sanding block so hard that you put localized pressure points where your hands are. If that makes sense?
Once you see where the low bits are,mark them with a pencil and scuff the low spot with 80 grit to key the filler, then go ahead and do a localized fill to bring them up. Sand it down with 40 or 80 grit just enough to take the gooey layer off the top. Don't worry about making the panel flat at this point or sanding down to metal high bits; this is just to fill the low areas that are obvious
Now skim the rest of the panel in its entirety. Sand that down with 80 grit and it should be pretty close since you already did the actual low spots. You should be pretty flat by this point minus whatever pinholes and divots remain.
Coarse SHARP paper cuts the tops off the mountains. Fine SHARP paper makes things smooth. Key word is SHARP as dull paper starts to follow the valleys and make low frequency waves in the panel. I have a friend who used sandpaper until it is bald. He has a very shiny car that waves at you when you walk by. I throw the paper out when it starts to lose the "bite" even if it looks ok. Couple of hours of sanding and that point where it loses bite will make sense to you.
In reply to NOHOME :
This makes good sense. Thank you! I will follow your instructions, and ask a LOT of questions as i go. Ive inly do e challenge car level bodywork before. Im not good, and probably have a bunch of bad habits to unlearn.
Why skim the whole panel with filler? Is that just to make it easier? Isn't that what high build is for?
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
I want the panel to be as flat as possible before I do the high fill. If nothing else cause shooting paint sucks more than mixing and spreading mud
So lets say this is the panel we started with and the goal is to make it perfectly flat. We know it is wavy, but we don't really know what is high or low or how it transitions from one to the other around the perimeters, except we are pretty sure the one divot is low so we fill it to match the surroundings, So the green goes in and scuffed sorta flat but who cares really.
The goal is to make the above flat. But there is no defined surface so we cant just try to fill low spots and join them. Well we can, but it takes a lot of effort and never really works. So skim the whole thing in more (purple) filler.
Our skim is not flat but it is higher than the highest metal on the entire panel.
So like a sculptor, we KNOW our flat surface is in there, we just need to free it. The goal of the skim was so that we had enough filler to establish the straight red line over the panel. Note that the line is at the level were any more sanding is going to try and go past the metal on the RH side of the green divot. Don't want to do that.
So the block will cut straight down in a flat ( or fair) line until you see the metal high spot shine. At this point the panel is flat. You COULD decide that the high spot is too high and bump it down, then sand down to the next hint of metal. This would reduce the amount of filler on the overall panel.
If you do the mudwork well, the high fill only needs to fill some shallow spots and scratches or pinholes. The other reason to avoid too much high build primer work is that it is more expensive than body fill.
Not exactly jermaine to the conversation, but fascinating anyway.
In reply to NOHOME :
You're a technical writer, aren't you? Cause that makes perfect sense and is very understandable! Thank you!
Next dumb question: in the engine bay is no damage. Do pitting or bodywork or anything. Just bare metal. Can i paint right over the epoxy primer there, in the door jambs and tfunk? Or do i need to spray them with high build as well?
In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) :
Thats some weird E36 M3 right there. I know I will need it.
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
Scuff the epoxy with some 230 and then 400 grit and shoot paint on it. It is primer so made for paint to go over and adhere to. You can sand the epoxy as smooth as you want, what you see before paint is what you will get with the paint on top.
What gets a bit tricky in the engine bay is not scuffing through to the bare metal. The sharp edges and crannies can make it easy to go though. but don't worry too much, its just primer.
Joes tip works pretty well. It is the same principle as skimming the whole panel so that you can sand down to a flat level.
disclaimer time:
Been dispensing a lot of prose on the bodywork subject matter to you and Java.
I am not an auto body technician, and in fact might be only a few steps ahead of where you will be at the end of this project. Just passing on what has worked for me. I am sure there are body and paint techs reading my words and cringing.
But you're explaining it in a way that I understand, versus the way they say it. So, understanding trumps ignorance in this case.
On the sandpaper thing. It wears out faster than you think. I toss it as soon as I start to feel it not cutting well. a little more $$ on paper, way less time spent sanding.
Was that blaster a rental or a buddies, or hired? Always been jealous of them.
As far as sanding, good sharp paper will feel like stirring mud if you press on it at all. About the time you feel like you can really put some pressure on it, it's ready to get replaced.
If you're really conscientious you can avoid pressure spots like NOHOME was talking about, but it's a skill in itself, and often not worth the added labor. Eventually you're doing so little all you're doing is burning calories. LOL
I just want to say good luck, my former boss has thousands of hours in body fab and paint prep for his nova, but this does include replacing all the sheet metal except the roof skin. What I've learned the most from him is bodywork is a game of patience. If you rush it you will be redoing a lot of it to get the kind of finish you seem to be going for.
In reply to Crackers :
Hired. Was supposed to be free, but the end of a long story is that i paid for it.
Everyone: thanks. Please, please, please keep it coming!!!!
For those following along and learning with me: standard sawhorses SUCK for this. Im in front of harbor freight to but a bodywork stand.
Your not hand sanding all the metal corect??
In reply to java230 :
Umm....
The big flat-ish panels im using my harbor freight electric palm sander and gator grit paper from lowes. Jambs im using hand. Then rubbing the whole car by hand once more.
Before primer tonight i plan to use lacquer thinner and a paper towel (bought 12 rolls this morning at food lion. Hopefully its enough. Same with the five gallons of lacquer thinner) to wipe every inch to spotless.
At least thats the current plan.
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
I will keep this brief so as not to sideline your thread. I appreicate the input, and your daughter sounds similar to my son. I appreciate that and we may have to limit his time or cut it out. Either way, thanks for the reply my friend. Take care and cool car!
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