Robert,
Well, I am no where near close to being a professional body man
but I have done a few Zs. I cannot paint except for primer worth a darn but
I am pretty good at flattening out a panel. I will share what I know first
hand. Like I mentioned on my website I had the car body, fenders, and hood
acid stripped. That removed everything and I do mean everything. I do not
think I would do that again as bead blasting would be a better alternative.
That acid gets into every nook and cranny removing like I said "everything".
If you do not get it sealed right away it can start rusting immediately. I
had the strippers shoot it with a green oxide etching primer. There were
some pretty major flaws in the body once all the paint, bondo, and caulking
had been removed. The left rear quarter panel had been completely replaced
at one time. There were some major dings in the rocker panels. The only rust
out was in the right rear right behind the wheel well. I cut it out,
fabricated a replacement panel, and tacked welded it into place. Same thing
with the left front fender. The part that bolts on right in front of the
door was gone. I wondered why they had a metal bar bolted from the firewall
to the rear edge of the front wheel well. That was holding the bottom of the
fender on. I cut out the bad piece, fabricated a new one, and tack welded it
onto the fender making sure it lined up properly. Next I took body hammers
and dollys of varying configurations and pounded on the low and high spots
until I felt it was as flat as I could get it. You have to be careful doing
this as distorted metal never tends to return to its original form.
Sometimes you compound the problem by just banging away. Think about what
you need to do before whacking away with a body hammer and dolly. Applying
heat can help but I do not know enough about that to say. I lightly sanded
the body
and pieces with 3M scuffing pads.
Next I shot the entire car and pieces with Eastwoods self etching primer. I
put a couple of coats on to really get good adhesion. While I was working on
the high and low spots I marked up a copy of the car as to where the actual
offending areas were. That made it easier to know where to fill in with body
filler. Again, I used Eastwoods Metal-To-Metal-Body filler. I have been told
bondo is not waterproof and tends to rust from behind. This may be an old
tale but I have seen plenty of bondo popping loose. I suppose anything if
applied properly will last our lifetimes, I just tend to steer clear of
bondo. Metal-To-Metal is waterproof and I have had excellent results with it
in previous projects. Anyway, I filled in all of the offending areas and
used a long board with 80 grit sandpaper to smooth it out.
Once I had that all done I shot the entire body and associated parts with a
Dupont 2K Water Bourne Primer/Sealer. I put several coats on. Next came my
inital guidecoat which is basically taking an off color primer from the one
used on the car and lightly mist spraying over the entire surface of the
panels. You then slap some 220 wet/dry on the long board and sand with the
body contours. I used a grey base primer and black primer for my guidecoat.
The low spots show up real quick and if you have any high spots you get
shiny bare metal. I had a few bad areas that I used a bit more
Metal-To-Metal to fill but for the most part I used a laquer putty to fill
in the minor imperfections. That is the blue stuff in some of my photos. The
guy who painted my car for me said there are better products out there to do
the minor filling than laquer putty. Old habits die hard. Maybe one of the
other list members has some input on this.
Anyway, I did this guidecoating thing four more times. Just when you think
you are close something else pops up but hey even new cars are not perfect.
Mine is not perfect but it works for me. When I took it into the body shop,
he shot it with a sealer, sanded the whole car, shot the base coat and a
couple of clear coats. It came out really nice. I can tell you I was a bit
worried as dark colors tend to magnify imperfections. You have to look real
close to find any.
Sorry I was so long winded but that explains guidecoating fairly well
and then some.
-----Original Message-----
From: Page, Robert <Robert.Page@compaq.com>
To: 'datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net' <datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net>
Date: Tuesday, December 07, 1999 7:55 AM
Subject: guide coating
>Hey Steve Allen;
>I looked over your web page.. thats gonna be one hot little car.. Have you
>had a chance to "light" that new motor up yet!!
>
>I noticed some pic's where you talked about "Guide Coating". I'm more of a
>wrench then a body guy.. whats up with that guide coating thing.. does it
>involve a special product or just a process, for finding the low spots..
>could you enlighten us please sir!!
>
>Regards:
>Bob Page
>*Phone: 719-592-5405
>*Fax: 719-592-4589
> E-mail: Robert.Page@COMPAQ.Com
>This message transmitted on 100% recycled electrons!
>
>
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