Prep Project 2001 Mustang - advice and help appreciated

Show off your work! Anything from final results to full start-to-finish project journals.

User avatar

Settled In
Posts: 44
Joined: Sun Jul 12, 2015 2:50 pm

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 12:55 pm
Summer project about to start. Have a little experience with painting panels, this will be my first total paint - correction, total prep. My neighbour is very experienced, does a lot of custom work and has painted for Nascar .... he has offered a quote to repaint the whole car and I'm looking to get the cost down by doing the prep work myself and have him shoot the car. The paint is a tricoat Ford E9 so at most I'll spray the base but most likely will buy the paint and get him to do the spraying. There's also some very nice black stripes on the hood that I want to keep. He has a booth in his garage right next door so he said he'll shoot for me for really cheap, if anything if I have the paint he recommends.

The hood is a mess, the rest of the paint is factory and the substrate seems strong. The paint on the rear of the car has faded pretty badly from comparing to the door jambs. Has never matched the front of the car, that's why I'm doing the repaint rather than just fixing the hood and front fenders. No major body damage or rust..... I would be able to sand and spray a sealer, save for five areas needing some attention:

1) Dent on the passenger door (less than 1/4 inch depression)
2) Dent on passenger fender (less than 1/3 inch depression)
3) Dent on corner of rear plastic bumper (less than 1/4 inch depression)
4) Dent on corner of front plastic bumper (less than 1/4 inch depression)
5) Slight hail damage on roof.


I want to avoid doing any metal work with dollies, just not going to attempt it. If those dents turn out to be too deep for filler, then will look to replace those panels. This is the sort of advice I'd like to seek out here - eg how much filler is too much?

First step is to remove the bumpers, headlights, taillights, antenna, emblem, front grill and license plate. Going to see how I go with leaving the mirrors on.

Then tape the windows, wheels, door locks. Going to see how I go leaving the door handles on, and the weather stripping.

I've only ever used 3M tape and trash bags to mask, if anyone knows a good online store to buy pro grade masking supplies that would be great.....and suggestions on what else I may need. Here are some photos before project start

Image


Image

Image

Image

Image

User avatar

Site Admin
Posts: 3450
Joined: Tue Jun 17, 2003 3:02 am
Location: New York
Country:
USA
PostPosted: Mon Apr 04, 2016 10:26 pm
Nice project.

Generally, you'll hear things like "no more than 1/4 inch of filler". I've found filler on cars much thicker than that, which had been there for a very long time with no indication of an issue. That doesn't mean I'd recommend it but the stories of filler cracking because it's too thick are a little exaggerated, especially with modern products.

User avatar

Settled In
Posts: 44
Joined: Sun Jul 12, 2015 2:50 pm

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 5:03 pm
chris wrote:Nice project.

Generally, you'll hear things like "no more than 1/4 inch of filler". I've found filler on cars much thicker than that, which had been there for a very long time with no indication of an issue. That doesn't mean I'd recommend it but the stories of filler cracking because it's too thick are a little exaggerated, especially with modern products.


Thanks - I would say it would be even less than 1/4 inch for the dents. Fortunately the panels are generally in good shape

User avatar

Board Moderator
Posts: 9878
Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2006 12:40 pm
Location: ARIZONA
PostPosted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 11:25 pm
Remember to extend your filler a good ways past your dents. Block sanding will then feather the repair properly.
1968 Coronet R/T


ACTS 16:31

User avatar

Settled In
Posts: 44
Joined: Sun Jul 12, 2015 2:50 pm

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Tue Apr 12, 2016 10:39 pm
And it begins - starting with the hood.... which is actually a very nice after market hood, all metal and not fibreglass

Image


Image


Sanding begins tomorrow with 80 grit to strip back

User avatar

Settled In
Posts: 44
Joined: Sun Jul 12, 2015 2:50 pm

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 8:11 pm
Hood is sanded - sanded as much as I could with an orbital with 220 grit on the flatter areas , then hand sanded with 220 grit wrapped around a sanding sponge . 80 grit to knock down hardened drip bumps .

The edges of the ram air "nostrils" were challenging -used the edge of the sponge to make sure these were reached .

Wiped off the dust with a shop towel , then wiped off again with some grease and wax remover .

Am not painting the bottom , but for good measure gave it a good clean too .

Next comes the primer , filler and sealer - going to go one panel at a time for the prep. Might leave everything off to paint too depending on what the painter recommends

Image


Image


Image



Settled In
Posts: 22
Joined: Wed Feb 20, 2013 8:58 pm

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Fri Apr 15, 2016 1:40 am
Nice mustang. Painting my 98 cobra now. Make sure to de-grease/wax before doing any sanding as sanding can grind the contaminates in the paint and cause problems later. Use a good 2K primer for blocking and avoid lacquer primers. Also, use a 2 part glazing putty for filling in chips and other minor imperfections. The more you can remove from the car, the easier and better your paint job will be. I try to remove everything not welded on. I also would not skip on using flex additive when painting the bumpers. A little extra cost now will pay big dividends if you ever get bumped.

Image


Image

User avatar

Settled In
Posts: 44
Joined: Sun Jul 12, 2015 2:50 pm

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Sat Apr 16, 2016 6:11 pm
Mkbrower wrote:Nice mustang. Painting my 98 cobra now. Make sure to de-grease/wax before doing any sanding as sanding can grind the contaminates in the paint and cause problems later. Use a good 2K primer for blocking and avoid lacquer primers. Also, use a 2 part glazing putty for filling in chips and other minor imperfections. The more you can remove from the car, the easier and better your paint job will be. I try to remove everything not welded on. I also would not skip on using flex additive when painting the bumpers. A little extra cost now will pay big dividends if you ever get bumped.

Image


Image


Too late with the degreasing before sanding the hood , but ..... will degrease and do a final sand before shooting the primer . As I understand , best to apply putty before the primer . Evercoat metal glaze is what I'm looking at

Very nice cobra , looks great , thanks for the tips

User avatar

Settled In
Posts: 44
Joined: Sun Jul 12, 2015 2:50 pm

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 11:47 am
Hood is primed - just read the previous post again Mkbrower recommended avoiding lacquer primers.... well... shot the hood with 2 cans duplicolor 2 in 1 primer filler. This is lacquer based apparently. What problems might I run into with lacquer primer?

Used Bondo two stage spot putty to fill in some very small chips.

Image


Image
[/URL]

User avatar

Settled In
Posts: 44
Joined: Sun Jul 12, 2015 2:50 pm

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 12:04 pm
After reading lots of negative posts about lacquer primer, thought about sanding it off...am going to follow advice received that the primer will be fine if I sand it and let it air and dry for as long as possible before sealing it with a good 2k sealer.

Also found a dent where the rear drivers side quarter panel meets the bumper which must be recent.... maybe a parking lot incident I didn't know about. It's curled the corner of the quarter panel in by about a 1/4 of an inch, and the corner of the bumper has been pushed in even more. I don't think filler will be the solution, both will have to be straightened which is not something I wanted to get into but it is quite a small dent
Last edited by Elnico50 on Tue Apr 19, 2016 6:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Next

Return to Completed & In Progress Member Projects

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 79 guests