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

Last one i did....i painted it....haha. ran out of time and it had to be painted...lot of blocking and a prayer

 

Your just doing a model a coupe? Biggest panel you have is the doors. Not like your doing the side of a caddy or a van. Block it wet on your last blocking, look for little flawed edges with a trouble light and call it a day.

 

Are you going to just shoot it and call it good? If so its probably OK. If you wet sand/polish it better be damn straight. Thats when everything really shows. Remember if its perfect, people might thinks its fiberglass...yuck...LOL

 

Hate to quote pictures, but I must admit, when I first seen this photo, I wondered where the vehicle was. Kind of had a "ohhh, duh" moment when I realized I was looking right at it. Nice work.

 

Here is one too ..

 

Yup !

 

I'm a little confused....sand the sealer?? It's called and used as a "sealer". You cut it open and it stops sealing, right?? Or did I do it wrong for all these years?

 

Panel dive, has always bothered me when looking at many, otherwise well prepped bodies. I've never seen a better example of "No panel dive" than this one.

 

I spent a whole winter getting my 62 Biscayne flat enough to paint it black. Big flat panels take a lot of work, but I was happy with it. Just not happy enough to do another one in black.

 

All good advice in here, good to hear different methods. I paint hot rods and classics in New Zealand and we use a lot of the methods mentioned here. we do all our own aligning and filler work, most panelbeaters here dont'appreciate the level of perfection we're cahsing and lack the patience and skills to get it done.

The way I see it, there are 2 versions of "straight" on a car, the bodywork and the paint. You have to get the bodywork straight and all panels aligned (no panel dive), each panel straight in itself and finally get the paint surface straight. A lot of cars have straight bodywork but the paint has "wobble" in the surface which kills the overall look.
in NZ not many cars get done to a good finish, I guess because some clients are unrealistic with budgets. A good body and paint job on a full fendered car can take 1000 hours in labour plus a shitload of money in materials so do the math!
Regarding being able to sight the imperfections a method we use is to make a stand and mount a 5 foot fluoro light on it, get some fineline tape and carefully make a dead straight line down the tube with the tape. When you use the light to reflect it on the panels you have a perfectly straight line to guide you
Another tip is during daylight sight the panels looking out of the shop towards the light, you''ll see a lot more this way. Just my 2 cents. Good on you for doing it yourself

 

when you think it is perfect, walk away for a couple of days, then come back to it . I am always amazed at the stuff i find.

 

I get that a lot phucker, folks asking "...what is that?":


In this case it's a door. No, not that door, a car's door...

 

looks real good man,,, henry ford would be proud!!

 

Don't discount using your hands. Keep your fingers together and run your hands along the panels. Sometimes I can feel things I can't see (well I see them once I know they are there). Just remember the more perfect you get it the more likely someone/something will ding it. j

 

How do I know when my bodywork is good enough for gloss black paint?

When I pay someone else to do it...I have built a lot of cars from the ground up but when it comes to bodywork & paint,I suck!,,I have tried and have done a lot but I just don't have the touch. HRP

 

I always found that positioning the car different or getting it out in the daylight helpful, almost like getting a different pair of eyes on it. You look at the same panel or side enough you start to overlook the what you feel or see as not right. My uncle used to jokingly say that when you start to see blood in the water from grasping the block and sandpaper it was probably enough. If your intending on driving alot, I would just go with it. In my younger years I sold ALOT of better than average or factory done cars 'cause I was looking at car mags and once it started to deteriorate from use I would send it down the road disappointed it was not pristine anymore. It you plan on using it as intended (driving it) don't set yourself up for disappointment. I love black and still tend to finish alot of cars black even though I live on a gravel road, but I'm not the type to whip out the feather duster the minute I get to where I'm driving. It's all in what you want and how your going to use it. Overdone like most of the Barrett-Jackson type cars can look sterile or like a piece of plastic, but I can appreciate the effort and skills to get it that way. I still probably "overdo" alot of what I finish but just figure on a repaint eventually since I do it myself. Perfect can take alot of enjoyment out of it.

 

this thread is Soooo on time w/ where i am on my '51 plym.
the mention of stopping at 400 gritt before spraying the color is making me ask, "isnt that still too course"
I just finished a round of 220 wet and plan to take it all the way to 800 before the color.
Is 800 too fine?
I stopped at 600 on the dash and a few days later sanding scratches shrunk in.

And I never thought about " panel dive" before. Ive always looked at each panel as a seperate pc just like they were made. Good thing i have low expectations and ill be ok w/ a little dive.


jeff

 

Remember....smooth is not necessarily straight.

 

long second hand on a *real watch* up close..
mirror effect.

the black paint is nice but bad on them looong panels.

never painted anybody's car/truck in black for less than 5k..
well there was that one time ...lol






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You're no daisy! You're no daisy at all. Poor soul, you were just too high strung.

 

Yes, Yes, Yes. Turn the light out in the shop and sight the panels towards the outside light after wetting with wax $ grease remover. Geat method. I didn't mention but glad someone did.