The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Surface Leveling (Sanding) Tip PLEASE!

Well, I am up to my eyebrows in surface pitting, mainly on the top of the fenders , hood and roof (1951 3100). So far my approach has been, knocking everthing down with 80 grit, skim coating with finishing putty (icing) and attempting to level the surface with 150 grit. I am using a combination of, a 9" sanding board, pnuematic orbital, and elbow grease. I cannot seem to master the art of getting things leveled out! I am getting frustrated at sanding, filling, sanding, guide coating, sanding, filling, guide coating, cussing, sanding, filling, guide coating. Are there any auto-body experts out there with any "secrets" at making this process easier aside from adding "Valium" to my routine?
THANKS in advance!

Have you tried high build primer and block sanding at 45 degree angles while keeping the block parallel to you?

Lee

almost embarassed to admit it, but on my '73 i used rustoleum primer with a roller to fill in surface rust pits on hood and fender tops.

i then wet sanded to smooth and then re-primed with spray gun before final paint.

worked great.

2k High build and guide coat will definately help. I cant seem to get anything flat unless I use a guide coat to base how much I need to sand.

Will I say stop using the orbital sander. Use the longest board you can on it. Sand in a criss cross pattern. Just keep making X's in the skim coat. Do not sand in a straight line. Hope that helps

stea, What do you mean by "I use a guide coat to base"? What is a guid coat? Sorry if this is a goofy question.

Michael, not a goofy question. If you don't know body and paint, you are always learning something. It can be confusing and it seems everyone has their own "right" way. A guide coat is just a thin coat of a contrasting color of paint that you sand off to find high and low spots on the panel. One typical way to do paint and body work is to take the panels down to metal, hammer and dolly work, epoxy prime, filler work, cover filler with epoxy, two coats of high build primer and then spray a guide coat. There are paints made for this, others just use available spray cans. Then you start block sanding. The guide coat will remain in low spots and be sanded off on high spots. As you find these your work them with hammer or finishing putty. Ultimately you are looking to be able to block sand taking off the entire guide coat evenly. Wet sand, seal coat and ready for paint. This is one way, there are a lot of other opinions on the best way to paint a rig.

Willslimo,are you just trying to fill rust pitting?If you are,you are on the right track.here are some tips 1.squeeeeeeeze the putty right into the pits on your first pass of putty. 2.remove the rest of the putty on pass two and wipe it back onto the board leaving just the low areas with putty. 3.now load up your spreader with a nice even amount along the bottom,and apply a thin even coat over the entire area.Keep on doing this until the area is covered evenly. 4.most of this putty will be sanded off leaving just a very thin almost transparent layer over the panel,remember your just filling pits right? not trying to straighten out the panel,so just keep working it down to almost the metal. 5.start with the sander if your comforatable,just to knock down your trawling lines and ridges ,then guide coat it and start blocking,guide,block,guide,block etc..... 6.then high build primer and repeat step six

Ok I am going to assume you are far from being an
everyday joe that does this for a living, as 99.3% of the population does not do also,(just guessing at those numbers! do no quote me on this).
#1 you are looking with your eyes and not with your hands.
#2 sand from the outer most edges inward to any low spots, trust your hands before your eyes.
#3 even if you think it is not close (by eye) spray it with primer, then mist with black primer and MIST, NOT PAINT.
It sounds to me like you are going by eye and not feel. The eye is the easiest thing too fool when it comes to body work, it can look straight with paint,only a magnet will tell.

NEVER, EVER PUT FILLER OVER RUST OR RUST PITS!!!! It will reappear in your painted surface at some point and you will be ******! Too many people fill rust holes this way and it sucks. The only way to permanantly fix rust is to cut it out and patch in new metal....by the way...to the first guy who posted (willslimo) try polyester primer. Its thick and its what professional bodymen use to get panels strait and remember, sand, sand, sand...