Suggestions Please Body Prep
 

Hello All,

I am thinking about doing the body work preparation on my EM Body. The reason for me doing this is that I am hoping that the paint job comes out perfect. I will also have the paint and body shop do more prep work so we can cover all angles of the body.

Can some of you post procedures in getting the body ready ie sand paper grade and so forth.

Any info will be helpful

GOOD LUCK!

I wanted to do the same thing, and it took myself and a friend over 200 hours of work to do it EXACTLY the way we wanted on my Lonestar body.

Essentially, here's the steps we went through...

1) Sand the gel coat all over with 80 grit.
2) Fill in and shape anywhere that it 'feels' flat, with bondo (or "kitty hair" if you need large areas filled or shaped). Allow to harden
3) Sand down with 80 grit again
4) Repeat step 2 as many times as you can stand
5) Sand down with 120 grit
6) Repeat step 2 again and then step 5 again until you think ALL the flat areas are gone and it 'feels' smooth all over
7) Spray with 'thick' primer, and then 'dust' with a contrasting spray paint 'marker'
8) Sand down with 150 grit to identify flat spots where the spray paint 'marker' shows through
9) Repeat step 7 again (with bondo where necessary, and as many times as necessary!!!)
10) Repeat step 9 with 200 grit until you think ALL the flat areas are gone and it 'feels' smooth all over
11) Repeat step 7 again
12) Repeat step 9 with 400 grit wet and dry (wet) etc.

We used 2-3 GALLONS of bondo and sanded most of it off. I felt like Daniel-san on The Karate Kid before we had finished..."spray on...wipe off", but the end result was PHENOMENAL. The guy who helped me used to run his own paint and body business and he was amazingly anal retentive about 'feel' and insisted on multiple coats of everything, with rubbing down with increasingly higher number sandpapers. I think we actually put on 12 coats of primer in the end.

It didn't get much better when we'd painted it (3 coats of paint and 3 coats of clear), and our final 'rub down' (before polishing compound) was with 3000 grit!!!! (25 sanding disks for $80...who knew you could even GET 3000 grit?????).

LOTS of work, and probably more than even a GREAT paint shop would do, but the finish is superb.

GOOD LUCK

Glyn

priobe,

When you are sanding/preping NEVER use sand paper with your hand always use a block .On large areas such as hood and trunk and doors the longer the block the better the finished prep.
You might want to use "evercoat" glaze coat to resurface low spots because it will do a better job than bondo because when dried it is not as thick and is easier to resurface.It is applied like bondo however it is alot thinner when mixed and applies easier.
Instead of using bondo(name brand) consider a plastic filler called "Z GRIP" this product is mixed and applied like bondo however the finished product is resurfaced with less effort.
Please be real careful when removing mold ridges that you don't go down to far and create numerous flat spots on your body.
When you start sanding with 220 grit paper you may want to consider wet sanding and blocking with 320 paper for a better prep and finish.
I am suggesting thes ideas only because they worked for me and were suggested by a highly skilled and sought after local painter .

Bonos

Here is the best body prep guide I have found:

http://www.ffcobra.com/FAQ/body2.html