Been on this site for a while now, mostly reading and learning. Thanks to all for input and sharing your experiences.
This is my restoration project, a '71 Cuda. I've decided to try this myself, it's a slow process for me but I'm in no rush. Working on it over the winter in Chicago. Metal work has been done for a while, I'm skim coating the entire car and it's the stage I'm at now.
See attached pics. On the left is what I started with, on the right is the finished product. I'm using guide coat (which is a huge help). This is after two applications of guide coat and blocking with 80. My question is how do you know when to stop? Using a cotton glove, running my hand across it, feels nice and smooth, I don't feel any low spots. I don't want to over block and have to do another coat of filler, I feel like I could be chasing it non-stop. But it seems to me like I still have too much filler based on what it looks like. It's thick, most of the filler is on the floor. Thoughts?
Do I keep adding another round of guide coat and continue? Until when? I am planning on high build poly primer (Clausen Rust Defender) as the next step.
Thanks...
Skim coat - When to stop block sanding
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i couldn't open the finished picture. but it looked like all the guide coat was sanded off, thats good. i would guide coat it agian then block with some 180 and use a long stiff block use the 180 to just knock down the 80 grit profile. when done spray your hi build primer 2 good wet coats. then more guide coat and more blocking use the 180 agian after that spray another wet coat of your hi build and finish sand.
i REREAD your post agian and noticed you going to use some Poly primer this probably should have been used first instead of the skim coat, you wouldn't have needed the skim coating. what i'm worried about is your film build with all this! AND THE THICK SKIM COAT?? i would maybe get some regular hi build primer and use it on the skim coated areas finish it and go to your top coat. i really don't have a good suggestion for you without knowing what the body looked like before you started. did you sand it to bare metal? and did you use an epoxy primer on the bare metal?? you kinda got the horse before the cart so to say. my real suggestion, you don't want to know! get it to bare metal, epoxy coat it then maybe the poly primer? thats a nice valuable car, DO IT RIGHT!!!! Jay D. they say my name is Jay
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First question is what did you put on the bare metal?
Next is what are you using for you skim coating? Generally, I would cover the bare metal with two coats of epoxy primer. Let that sit over night and then lightly block sand it to reveal highs and lows. Filler would be used where needed and feathered into the epoxy primer. Next would be two to three coats of 2k build primer letting each coat flash properly. This is where I apply guide coat and begin the block sanding stage. Using say 150 grit on a long block the first round to get the panels straight. Reapply 2k primer and guide coat. Block sand with say 320 grit to remove the guide coat. If the guide coat all sands off and you don't have any issues to deal with. Apply more guide coat and wet sand with 600 grit making sure to remove all guide coat. The guide coat will help you to see scratches that the 320 grit left. At this point you should be looking at a pretty slick surface. To be extra sure, what another day of so for the 2k primer to shrink if it's going to and then wet sand again. Some will go with 800 grit at this point. 1968 Coronet R/T
ACTS 16:31 |
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Thanks guys. Maybe I should have provided more information about the project first. I thought you could tell from the pic on the left side, it shows the epoxy blocked to reveal what I'm starting with. I did use some Duraglas to cover the welds from quarter to door gapping.
The whole back end of the car is new AMD metal - full quarters, deck filler panel, floors front to back, drivers door skin. The roof, passenger door, and fenders are original metal. After metal work, the car was blasted and fully epoxied inside and out. The skim coat is Rage Ultra. From there, I planned to do high build poly. I know not everyone is a fan of poly, most here seem to favor high build primer (from what I've read). My original question was once I started blocking the skim coat, how do I know when to stop? Since I'm a novice at this, I used guide coat right off the bat and it helped tremendously. The pic on the right side is the skim coat after blocking with 80 grit, gone thru twice with guiide coat. I have two areas where I hit metal, the rear of the qtr and close to the door gap. I guess I should have stopped once I started to see epoxy primer let alone metal? |
Polyester primer is like spray on body filler. So basically, you should have gone from your epoxy primer straight the polyester primer. Then guide coat and block sanding.
Again, you would use a coarser grit to start block sanding in order to get the panels nice and straight. And you may need to shoot more polyester primer after initial block sanding and then repeat the process. Once you get the polyester primer nice and smooth a sealer coat should be applied, since it is basically spray on body filler. 1968 Coronet R/T
ACTS 16:31 |
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