Bodyprep Kirkham - How hard is the sanding ???

[RodKnock]

I have to laugh. Picturing Mr. Ellison actually talking with the DMV clerk behind the counter seems, I don't know, twilight zone-ish.

[KM480]

Well I don't doubt that the craftsmen at Kirkham would accomplish the job quicker and better than I could ever hope, everything I have seen of their operation is top notch...but unfortunately (or fortunately, depends on your perspective) I don't see clients or patients to earn my money... Just a blue collar fireman that scrimped and saved his lunch money to make his dream come true and own the most amazing, beautiful and finely crafted automobile he could imagine. (I'm still scraping together the cash to get my stainless sidepipes)
So I plan on taking my time and enjoying the process...I didn't expect to own an aluminum Cobra until retirement IF EVER...and since retirement is 20+ years away, I have the time.

[David Kirkham]

KM480,

You might be surprised at how well you can do. Like I said above, Pat Buckley's car surprised us and helped us to raise the bar.

NOTHING wrong with being a fireman scraping pennies. We (well, most of us) have all been there. Sometimes I wonder if I am STILL there!

David

[PatBuckley]

Originally Posted by David Kirkham

KM480,

You might be surprised at how well you can do. Like I said above, Pat Buckley's car surprised us and helped us to raise the bar.

NOTHING wrong with being a fireman scraping pennies. We (well, most of us) have all been there. Sometimes I wonder if I am STILL there!

David

Thank you for the kind comments.

It took a lot of work and, unfortunately, very few people had done this before so it was learn as I went kind of proposition.

One thing I can't recall anyone saying is that the final sanding steps - from maybe 800 through 1500 - should be done wet.

[Bill Wallace]

I tool delivery of kmp 557 in late February. I had Kirkham sand it to the 320 grit level. I removed the lights, windshield, hood trunk doors and hardware in around 8 hours with normal hand tools (This was fortunate as I found a handful of bolts had not been thoroughly tightened). I then took it through 600/800/1000 grit steps with a DA sander in about 32 hours. Joe recommended a fairly healthy compressor for that step but I used my old Sears Craftsman 2.5 hp with a 20 gal. tank and it survived the ordeal with no apparent damage.

Last Sunday I spent around 4 hours with the buffer and f9 grade of Nuvite that Joe recommends to polish over half the body. It was much easier to achieve a mirror finish with just one pass of the buffer than I thought it would be.

Before starting the sanding steps I briefly played around with fine scotch brite and found that it is very easy to achieve the brushed look with only light effort. The hardest part of this, as Kirkham's site suggests, is to keep the hand sanding strokes straight as your arm and wrist tends to move in an arc towards the end of a sanding stroke.