Body Work Instruction For Beginners?

[DanEC]

All good advice above so I'll try not to repeat but here are some random tips.

- Before starting clean the body thoroughly with soap and water, then degreaser (like DuPont Prep Sol) and then completely scuff it with a 3M pad.

- Before starting with body work, get the body firmly mounted in final position on the chassis and do the best job of fitting the doors, hood and trunk that you can work out. You need to do all the grinding, fitting and roughing in of the bodywork on the chassis or you will have a mess when it comes time to assemble the car after paint.

- The first thing I did was block sand the whole body roughly, including across all panel gaps, so that all of the low areas stood out where the sandpaper did not make contact. Then I mapped them all out on a sketch and sanded each one individually and applied filler to get it roughly up to grade.

- You are going to need at least 2 gallons of filler (maybe 3) so buy in bulk. Rage Gold is always a good choice. Don't be surprised if about 40% of the body (or more) is covered by a thin to very thin layer of filler when ready for paint.

- I have an ERA so I've never fully understood what is going on with the FFR mold joints. I don't believe in grinding away perfectly good fiberglass and thinning out the panel thickness but I'll let the FFR guys address this.

- Buy sandpaper in bulk rolls with a self-adhesive back. I bought a lot of supplies from TCPGlobal.

- A set of Durablocks works for sanding. I have a bunch of wooden blocks I've cut out of a length of 2 x 2 and 1 x 4 premium oak or poplar. I buy the best, dead straight 4 or 6 ft piece I can find after checking with a level and by eye in the store and cut them to the length I need. Great for leveling a flat area and even for gradual curve areas. You need some round sanding forms for the inside curves next to the fender bulges and wheel well flares. I've used wood dowels, swimming pool floats, Durablock sticks, stiff rubber hose, etc. Don't be afraid to use your ingenuity.

- If you round the cockpit edges select a short piece of PVC pipe with the approximate inside diameter that you want on the edge (usually about 1 inch) and section it in half to create a filler screed. Apply a thick bead of filler along the edge and then use the half-round to push/form it into a rounded edge. Sand and repeat until it's nice and uniform. A piece of 1-1/4 PVC, cut in two allows for applying a section of sandpaper inside and sanding the curve.

- Sand everything in a cross-hatch pattern - curves, flats, inside radius curves, everything.

- An inexpensive adjustable template guide is useful for comparing curves and radius' from one side of the body to the other. On my ERA, one side was a little flat around the headlight and I used the template guide to help fill and shape the curvature to match the good side.

- Learn to run the palm of your hand over the surface as you work it and study it. After awhile you will be surprised how running your hand over the curves will tell you about irregularities that the eye can't easily see.

- Most fiberglass bodies have a slight dip built into the surface at all mold lines. That's done to allow for some filler to smooth out the transition between the panels if there is a slight offset in their assembly. Expect to run a 3 - 4 inch wide strip of filler down all mold joints.

- Shoot for about 3/16 inch panel gaps. They will close up as paint is applied to somewhere around 1/8 to 5/32 inch after paint. Sandpaper wrapped around a paint stick usually works pretty well to sand door/trunk and hood gaps to a uniform gap thickness.

- You will have to flush in all panels - door, hood and trunk to the body. More body filler. You will be very lucky to find any area of the doors, hood or trunk that are actually flush and flow smoothly into the body.

- Body filler is probably fine up to 1/8 inch or so final thickness. A few small areas to 3/16 is no big deal, but anything deeper than that, would probably be best addressed by sanding off the gel coat and laying fiberglass mat and resin in to build it up most of the way, and then finish with filler. Or HSRF as mentioned above can be used - it's tough to sand but probably not a lot worse than new fiberglass mat/resin.

- There will be areas where you likely sand through the factory gel coat. That's not a big deal since you're going to seal the whole body with a Polyester something like Slick Sand or Feather Fill before paint.

- Fiberglass, especially hand laid, is notorious for pinholes. Not a bod idea to go over the body with a stiff wire brush, tapping the entire surface to try to uncover the bulk of them during the filler phase.

- I've painted 2 fiberglass cars. I'm an amateur so I didn't use a power tool on either one for body work. On fiberglass a DA or rotary sander and 60 grit sandpaper can screw up a body contour big time in no time.

- Try to mix up your body filler in the same quantity each time. This way you will learn quickly to judge how long a bead of hardner you need to mix in with it to prevent a batch that kicks off too fast or a batch that never sets up completely (that's a mess). If you have a garage fridge that you can keep your filler in - the cooler temperature may buy you a couple minutes more working time.

- Find something to use for a mixing board for filler. I usually use a layer of heavy aluminum foil to mix on. Then I can throw it away and put another layer on for the next glob of filler I mix.

- Slick Sand is a great, high build primer and it's classified as a sealer although I would still use a sealer prior to starting paint. After applying several coats of Slick Sand and blocking it back down, there isn't anyway to be sure you have the minimum mill thickness in all areas for it to act as an effective sealer.

- Get something - even just a couple cans of black spray primer - to use as a guide coat and fog the whole body before sanding. That will help identify any remaining low or irregular areas to correct in the final sanding.

- If you ever saw anyone paint with lacquer in their driveway or garage - just remember that urethane, polyester and epoxy paints (includes Slick Sand) don't produce dry fall overspray that you can brush off and sweep up. Any overspray will stick to what ever it lands on. So cover everything that you don't want any overspray on for a long, long time.

- Acetone works well to clean up tools.

That's probably enough for now but don't be hesitant to post questions as there is no doubt a lot of do-it-yourself talent on the forum.

Good luck