Cars that were not block sanded after bodywork before paint...

[CFD244]

You guys are making me nervous. I have a guy coming over today to estimate my Duster’s paint work. I don’t wanna driver, but I don’t wanna show car either. I gotta convey that to him somehow.
I know it’s not gonna be cheap. It’s been 30 or 35 years since I was involved in this kind of work, and I was able to do a lot of it myself because I worked at a place that did that kind of work. Now it’s just gonna plain old hurt!
I am going to see if I can do some of it myself. Sanding.
He’s the boss.

I told my guy that I wanted a "nice driver" This is what he gave me.....

 

[mbaird]

Most restored cars are way straighter than they ever came out of the factory. My cars are drivers and will get rock chips and dings sooner or later . No way I am spending 20k+ on a car that will be driver . I do however strip them down and refinish every nut and bolt . I like the detailed look of all the mechanicals . But they age over the miles and years as well .

 

[RustyRatRod]

I'm sure these cars were block sanded "some" from the factory. They'd never have looked as good as they did.

 

[1WildRT]

Problem is you never know how much paint you have to work with... i just put 2 heavy coats of urethane on my engine bay and broke through as soon as i hit it with 1000grit.. waiting to reshoot now...
All depends on the price.. paint alone is crazy expensive now, let alone paying a bodyshop

Accept the OP is discussing block sanding which occurs before paint... What you are describing is color sanding which occurs after paint... If you are trying to correct bad body work with color sanding you are on a collision course with disaster...

The car has to be straight before paint.. If it's not you are better off to not color sand it cause all color sanding is gonna do is show off how bad the body work is.....

 

[70SwingerGuy]

Graveyard cars is definitely NOT a top end body shop. They use as much mud as anyone, at least based on the little I’ve seen. I’m not saying they do bad work but there’s nothing special about their body and paint work, their reputation is the whole accuracy thing.

I agree. Speaking as a former autobody painter, I watch Will on GYC and see some of the things he does(prep and paint-wise) and I think to myself "I would never do that to a high end car". I talked to another member on here who met someone at a show who used to work at that shop, and he was told that there is actually lots of respraying going on due to Will's mistakes, but of course thats just here-say.
Personally, I think its easier to spray a high end car(not talking about all the prep-work involved) because all you have to worry about it is getting the color even, the metallics laying properly, and not getting any runs, because you are gonna cut and polish the entire thing anyways. Getting clean, flat clear with no runs on a regular basis in a production shop is far more difficult and takes more skill IMO.
Id love to have Wills job, except for having to work for that asshat Worman.

You can absolutely get cars completely straight with metal work alone. But the folks that can do that are hard to come by and the time it takes is not something that’s cost effective for almost every shop out there.

100% agree. Its becoming a lost art I'm afraid.

This is really unlikely. A guide coat is thin, you’re not going to make up the difference in a wavy panel with a guide coat. It will show you what’s there, but if it’s that easy to see the panel is wavy it won’t fix it

Also agree, guide coat is simply just to show you where the highs, lows and sand scratches are, it doesnt fix squat.

 

[RustyRatRod]

Yeah, guide coats are made to find high and low spots so they can be corrected.

 

[ocdart]

Here's a hint on establishing straight body lines that my body/paint guy used when he did my '69 Dart. He hadn't done one before and was amazed at all of the individual body lines.
Rather than 'snapping' a chalk line and then masking tape, he cut the metal tape from a 25' retractable tape measure and then taped that to the side of the car. Gotta tell you, the lines are STRAIGHT.

 

[Oldiron440]

I had 2” wide strips of sheet metal sheared in a couple different lengths that I could tape on a panel and spray a guide coat at its edge to show the body line. You can pull the sheet metal up and spray it again and and it will still show the straight edge so you can go after it from either side.