How do you know when your bodywork is good enough for gloss black.

The wire trick would have helped this.
Any reflection of straight objects is what shows. House siding is a good one to look against.
The white rail reflection should be straight.

You'll need to look at from as many different angles as possible & that's hard to do in a garage.
Fresh pair of eyes helps quite a bit.
If your happy with the way it looks in the pics you've posted then you should be happy with paint. If there's any thing you don't like or appears questionable now the paint will make it 10 times worse.

 

Just ask an experienced auto painter to take a look and advise ya.

 

paint it! its a model a the only panels you can really site down are the doors and deck lid and if you have a wave you can block and repaint that panel.....paint it

 

when you think you ar ready block it 22 more times

 

This is some seriously good advice.

 

Paint it 2 coats, let it dry good. Even drive it around for a few weeks. Fix any blemishes, wet sand, paint 2 more coats, wet sand and buff.

 

Very good explanation and advice!

 

That looks pretty good. The paint stick, however is too small for ever mid size areas. You need to get the longest block you can to do the straight panels like doors, quarters, etc.

Also, stick your doors back on and check the flow over the cowl end hinge. The door handle end overlaps so don't freak about that, but on the cowl end, you need to make sure there is no panel dive between the two. Put a paint stick horizontaly across the door gap and see if there is any gap right before the edge of the panel.

You will notice panel dive more in cars that were blocked with the doors off. With the doors on say, a saw horse, they get straight only with them selves, on the car, you can get em straight with the rest of the car.

Looking pretty damn good so far, I say keep looking for imperfections and when you can't find any more, shoot that fucker.

Good luck, -Abone.

 

Hey,

Another variation of the wire signting method is the light board method-

Paintless dent repair guys use this method to produce flawless work. An ''okie'' light board can be made by running a couple pieces of black electricians tape down the center of a small flouresent fixture's cover-say a 2' long fixture. Tape the cover, and wave the lit fixture over the questionable panel, and study the reflection for any waves in the center line of the light. If ya spot any, ya know what ya gotta do
DO NOT use a pencil to mark any primed/sanded panel as they contain grease and graphfite

" Humpty Dumpty was pushed "

 

And another thing... the last few sentences of HighSpeed LowDrags advise couldn't be more on the money. If you don't get it straight with 120-180 first, every thing finer is just pissing in the wind and polishing all your wavy spots.

Here is what I mean by panel dive on my 34. The panels don't dip down right before the door gap, but flow continuiously across the gap.



You are looking pretty good on yours, by the way.

-Abone.

 

I think I said this before in another post, but that pic is the nicest black panel I've ever seen. You rock...

 

If you've got black primer blocked out to 400 then that should give enough long view reflection to see imperfections.
Take a metal straight edge about 12-16"(on edge) and roll it randomly across the surface. Something about 1/8 to 3/16 thick.
If it does not rock smoothly everywhere - you've got a problem. You'll feel it if there's any imperfections.

 

Wow great work abone and thanks for that advice. I was going to do the doors next and I was going to throw them up on the welding bench. I like the light box idea too. I seriously appreciate all the advice. I know I can do this its just going to take me more time than a pro. Ill keep after it and update on my build thread and here if you guys would like.

 

I think you will know when it's ready ,,,

 

If you have to wonder then it's not. Simple.

 

This post made me think of my old Merc... I blocked six rounds of primer on this heap. Probably would have been fine with three, but I kept feeling the need to punish myself a little more. This car is the reason why my wrists, elbows and shoulders are fucked up to this day.



See ya, -Abone.

 

i used a water based primer that dried swoly, it helped in keeping the wet look to check the reflection. make sure the part/car is in the shade as you look at the reflection of something well lit.

also, plan on doing it twice if you want it perfect. have patience and dont get discouraged. i think i did every panel twice when doing mine. it was my first paint job.


found some flaws, time to redo

not perfect but good enough. if i actually tried to get it perfect i would still be workinjg on it, haha


i aint gonna lie, i went through 2 gal of paint, most ended up getting sanded off to redo. sorry about the small pics, i can figure out photobucket right now

 

Best reply! how about shooting some guide coat black on it and then wet it down with a hose and give it a critical... 'hater jackhole at the local car show' look?

This is where you ask yourself, "If I was paying some guy $5000 to get this thing straight before paint, would I like what i see?"

Honestly, I once had the benefit of riding along with a well known hot rod builder in LA when he went to look at a paint job that a local painter had bid on to paint for a customer. This was an AMBR competitive car and I was informed that it was getting a red base/clear paint job only and the guy WON the bid to paint the roadster body, frame, grill shell, fenders and running board only. The winning bid was $30,000.

When we got there, I was looking at what i thought was the most flawless paint job on an early 30's car body that i had ever seen. The hot rod builder, though took out a white wax pencil (I assume it was... don't know for sure) and began to circle every single flaw. He found 17 of them. I guess it took 6 repaints to finally make him happy in the end.

Moral of the story? Perfect is in the eye of the beholder. Are you building a really slick driver? or a Riddler competitor?

 

You're hired....

 

Every great paint job i have ever seen had about five layers of skim coat and block sanding.... pain in the ass. Remember, Henry had them painting them with brushes back in the day

 

Here in NZ its the panelbeaters job to get the panels straight. That means metalwork and any fillers.The painters deal with surface preparation. The painters try to AVOID doing any wet sanding here. Only in tight corners.
I'm a panelbeater and I do use Prepsol to wet panels down when I'm blocking them but you gota make sure you dry everything properly before paint...or your setting yourself up for a redo.

don't make it too flash Nocero,or you'll be too scared to drive it!!
just my .02

Oh and yeah ...you can't cut down highs with anything finer than 150grit IMO

 

if and when you hear the sandpaper "whistle", dunk it in the water again. Use lots of water---you can look down a slabsided panel and it will help you find the high/low spots when it's wet.

 

I use what is called a guide coat. I buy it in an aerosal can. It is black in color, contrasts with the grey primer. You just spray on a light coat, let it dry and block sand it. Where the guide coat is left is a low spot. You can also use a contrasting color of primer, but I found the aerosal can to be a lot more cost effective.

 

I "knew" where this was before I wet it down:


When you're in it you know instinctively when it's ready. If you guide coat/block in the correct fashion it's almost brainless to get a flat panel. What I see are the sins of forgetfulness or being stuck on old prep practices, the worst of which is doing all the edges AFTER and blocking "along" the reveal lines instead of "toward" them. My solution, developed decades ago, was to sand along all the reveals 1st with a wet grey scotchbrite pad. It only needs a "tooth" in that inner fold to hold paint. After that you can block to them with confidence, but you still must exercise caution when you "touch" the reveal with your block of choice. It can slide in the direction of your push and still give the groove the width of the block or stick you're using.

 

400 sand paper is a little course unless you seal look if it is base clear sand with 500 grit or finer and seal and paint the finer the paper the less sand scratches you will have i like 600 - 800 paper for darker colors if you want to sanr the sealer do it with 800 black pigments are very thin if you do base coat under reduce the black just a little. Slick will be in the clear alot of guys doing builds will put 2 good wet coats on and sand in between the clear and then put 2 more coats of clear on .

 

I like that even better than the wire method.

 

Well after spraying a couple coats of black sealer I see how much further I have to go....
I'm really going to have to think about if I want to do gloss. I hate skimping on anything but it may end up satin black. Wow I can se so much I overlooked!!! Ill keep plugging away for now and see where I end up at the end.


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^^^^what he said^^^

 

Paint it Vanilla Milkshake,,,,,,

 

Block it and block it again and again....then wipe with wax n grease remover and look it over.. if it looks good, block it some more then paint it.. its not that bad really just use your eyes and hands to tell