I looked at a few GN restoration pics and there were locations that would have just taken a ton of body filler and smeared it across the hood and taken the long pneumatic sander and worked it smooth, primer and painted it. I being the novice kept playing with it not realizing that between the hood and the bracing on the bottom is a hard sealant that is a body panel adhesive substance. It is the bond between the two panels of the hood.If that bond is ever broken for whatever reason it will create a "tin can effect". Basically when you press down and release you tend to hear a pop. As I was sanding trying to get my body filler smooth, I was pressing a little too hard ( the sheet metal on the hood is actually very thin) killing my high spots, making them my new low spots. So I would apply more filler in that area and do it again. I fought this thing for several weeks until I flipped the hood over and put some adhesive between the brace and hood. It was easier for me to sand all of the body filler back off and start over. What??
Sitting at the paint shop
- Thread starter rag231
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Hahny
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Nice thread!! Keep pictures coming rag231.
Hotfoot
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great to see you doing it yourself, good luck with the resto and keep the pictures coming
Last day of old black paint! I had a guy come down and do the Dustless blast treatment on the car. At first I was planning to sand the car myself to save a few bucks. I thought about how long it took just to strip the fenders and first hood. It would have taken a hole semester at the rate I was going. I was getting quotes that were as high as $1200 to do the car if I brought it to them. This guy did it for way less. I saved time and school supplies. I actually have video of the job ( have to try to figure out how to post it) , total time was a little over an hour. It took longer to tape up the things that I didn't want sprayed than to do the job.
The Dustless blasting revealed some previous bodywork that was done on the car that I didn't know about. The pax mirror around its base and the area in front of and behind the pax rear wheel well had damage. The area at the pax door handle had some damage and there was a few rust holes at the bottom rear of the driver's door.
I had seriously debated on buying the replacement panel pieces. I could have cut the dented stuff out and welded the new pieces in. Looked at my labor ( time ) and figured that I could knock it out in a couple of weeks and save a few dollars. Well I learned a few things again. The areas in front of and behind the wheel well was tougher than I thought. The arch of the wheel as it comes down to the low body line is double walled and pretty stiff. If does not want to move easily. The low body line is also kind of funky to work also. If you look at the dent , it rides the body line so I didn't really have a reference. As it was pushed in,it pushed out the areas above and below it. When I made a little template of the other side and tried to match it up, it was almost an inch of bondo six inches wide there. The funny thing is most people that I had talked to had never noticed that body line and they all have Buicks.
You have to be careful with the stud gun, if your weld area isn't prepped correctly the little stud won't stick. You have to pull with the slide hammer as close to the final location that you want the panel at, you don't want to keep shooting it with the stud gun and pulling multiple times in the same area. The metal becomes kind of weak and you could create a hole.
Since I had used the DA sander on the car I had pretty mist removed all of the rust inhibitors that were in the Dustless Blasting session and I had to put the car in some primer so that it doesn't rust. Remember the car doesn't stay in the shop all of the time. I wish it could but there are other classes that go on and they need the space to do their cars and "projects". I used Nasons Epoxy primer and it came from OReilly's. Some people chose to use a 2K primer but I was warned against it since my car was taken down to bare metal.I wish that I had the space and time to have removed every thing from the body. I am 100% sure that the finished product would be nicer overall but I have 4 other GN's and roller and this car fall into my daily driver category. A lot can still be done this way, just in stages.
I think your choice of epoxy primer was a good choice. Its best in my opinion to cover the bare metal as soon as possible with epoxy. Then as you work on the car put your plastic filler over it and 2k over that. If the epoxy sits more than a couple weeks scuff it before applying more epoxy or 2k to help it adhere. Looks good so far, once in primer it goes better because you actually see improvement compared to removing everything and seeing surprises under the paint.
Great advice, that's the game plan, once the areas that I am currently working on is complete to my satisfaction it will be scuffed and epoxy reprayed again. 2k will go on it after that. There were cars that people have been working on for years 1 had 2k and the other had epoxy, the epoxy car has been outside ( carport covered ) for almost 2 years and no signs of rust, the 2k car has surface rust spots in many areas.
seedling
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What a killer idea man! Never thought of taking a course before!!
Great job!! Keep up the good work.
Great job!! Keep up the good work.
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