Cleaning up body lines

gerahead said

I posted this same information on the Member's Restorations forum, but didn't get any responses, so I figured I'd post it here as well where there is a more focused interest.
Question for you guys who have done this . . . . I am having a hell of a time chasing the body lines down the quarters to get them nice and straight. These were new skins, so I am not trying to fix underlying damage as much as I am trying to make it better. I am looking for suggestions on what has worked for you. Part of the problem is that the lines are so faint in some areas that they are hard to even follow. The most troublesome is the line down the middle of the quarter (all 6-1/2 feet of it!). I need to sharpen this up so that I can make sure the contour going up from there to the top edge nice and smooth since that is where the welded seam is located. Last night I ran a tape line along the top side of the edge from the door jamb to the rear edge of the panel and then ran another tape line parallel to that, about 4" down from there. In between the two lines I applied some filler up to the tape edge on the body line using the lower tape line as an intended guide for the area I wanted to use to blend to the edge.
View attachment 1715590875 Will be pulling the tape and sanding that hard edge to smooth it and then repeating the process, coming at the hard edge from the other side with filler to recreate the edge. If you can follow my attempt to describe what I am doing, am I on the right track? Do I need to do something differently? Recommendations from lessons learned the hard way? I have never tried something like this before and to be honest it is kicking my ***! Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide! L8r

Jim

Click to expand...

Have pretty much done it with the tape like you have above, one side of the line at a time.

My trick is I generally use a 6" wide steel blade with the handle cut off for applying the mud.

Then I use a 5' long x 2" wide metal ruler with the green tape on it to keep the bondo from sticking to the ruler. Then I use the long ruler to screat it straight from the tape line up. The trick is to apply the bondo as straight as you can possibly get it, makes the sanding process a lot easier. Then sand that back straight with the idiot stick, long and skinny 36 grit sand paper.

Then do the same for below the tape line.
May take a couple of times for each side of the ridge as you are alternating top to bottom, building up the low spots on the ridge to keep it straight.

Then block sand it again with the tape top then bottom, 80 grit then down to 180 grit.

Then can do the same block sanding with your primer surfacer, the longer sanding blocks work good for this as you are bridging from the bondo work to the bare steel. Being careful not to undercut the bondo to steel area, as I call this the lake effect, the undercut area looks like a lake when you spray the wet primer surfacer on it.

Blocking out the primer surfacer is definatly part of the straightening process. They have the finer grades of finishing bondo that can be used over the primer surfacer for any imperfections or low spots that show up as you are bringing things up to straight grade.

Then block sand out your final coats of primer surfacer as you are getting it ready for applying the paint.

Here is one I have done with the above process, even that fancy curve just over the wheel opening.



Straightening process to the quarter panel below: