Xophertony

well, about a year ago i got a beat up power bulge hood at a picapart. all that was wrong with it was cosmetic paint damage, OR SO I THOUGHT!

upon closer inspection almost a year later (about two weeks ago) i discovered the cracks were not in the paint, they were in all the bondo below the paint.

after sanding off much of the paint with a 40 grit sanding wheel (yeah, way to rough i know, i don't know what i was thinking, should have used 100) the hood had alot of bondo on the nose, a huge dent in the rear drivers side (like 1/2 deep) and what paint was left on it was still peeling in alot of places. i wish i had taken a before shot of it, but i do have some progress pics. these first two are from the second day of sanding, before i put any mud on it.





this one is of the rear dent after the second layer of bondo



this one is after FOUR layers of bondo. (i later did a fifth layer to fill a tiny bubble that was revealed when i was finish sanding layer four) for those of you not in the know, the reason i used five layers was because if you put bondo on to thick it can crack while curing.



and then i put some primer on it. to prevent it from rusting while it waits for me to have more free time.



in a week or so when i get more time i will put a fast layer of gloss black down, this way i can see all the imperfections. then i will sand it (and probably do some more filling) and primer and gloss again just to make sure. then more sanding (at this point the hood will be sanded back down to mostly bondo and primer) with 220 grit (is that wahat you use before you put your final layers of primer down?) then i will sand the primer with whatever grit you use for preparing primmer for paint (220 again right?) then given a few coats of flat black.

i will put it on the car with the flat black on it. eventualy in a year or two (sooner rather then later i hope) the whole car will go to be professionaly painted. two tone black over grey. but that will be a while.

what do you all think so far? any recomendations on sanding grit? thanks

BigWhiteGTP

Good luck with it. I love those hoods.

dr1

why dont you just lay a guide coat down on your primer and block sand it to find the rest of the imperfections
and fyi dont lay the bondo on paint like your doing, i cant say for sure what will happen but it doesnt stick to paint well, you may have that whole patch start coming up around the edges someday

roadthrills

I have used bondo over paint many times. As long as the underlying paint is in good shape and shows no signs of flaking or peeling, and you scuffed it good, there should be no problems.

Xophertony

because i have no idea what a "guide coat" is. also i am using a random orbit sander, should i switch to a block? won't that take ALOT longer?


it is going over bare metal in most cases, i roughed it up prety good. but since the paint is awfull thick over most of this hood i feathered the bondo out over the painted portions a little bit, for continuity of body lines. is that not what you are supposed to do? there were a few small nicks and sanding gouges i filled without taking all the way down to bare metal.



in this case i sanded down to original GM primer and it was roughed up good (i was filling deep sanding marks)

in case you guys can't tell this is my first attempt at body work. if this goes well i will used what i have learned to fill a large shallow dent in my rear quarter (it's about 1.5 inches tall and a foot long, goes in about a quarter inch) and then i have some pencil eraser size rustspots along my t-tops on the outside paint. keep the segustions/advice coming.

dr1

i could swear i responded to this post last night, wtf.. heh, anyways
after you level'd out the surface some more with the DA and layed down some primer, you would mist a guide coat on (like.. another primer of a constrasting color)
so while your block sanding the guide coat will remain in the dents and dings
a long shallow dent like that should probably pop out pretty easy with pressure, most the time.. id give that a try before loading it up with bondo

Xophertony

it allready is poped out, it was worse. i was backing out of a friends driveway, crraawwllinng, cause it was icy, and i slowly rubbed his sisters geo storm until my car stoped, i looked back, realized my mistake and pulled forward. my care HUGE indent, her car, fine. next day i pushed it out mostly. the dent is right on the body bend on the rear quarter.

also whats a DA?

Sonix

iTrader: (1)

DA = dual action, sander. People use that and random orbit interchangeably, but I think there is a difference...
you're using an air sander right, not electric?

Looks good so far, are you bondo'ing the plastic part at the back of the opening on?

Xophertony

i am using an electric. i am thinking about bondoing that piece on, should i?

also as of today it is officialy raining or at least threatining to rain daily. no sunny days in sight, fall is here in the NW. so i think this thing is going to be primer grey and in my shed untill spring. i will be puting a few more primer coats down on wednesday if it is sunny.

Xophertony

nice and sunny today, put on two more coats of primmer. will mount hood on wednesday if no rain

Sonix

iTrader: (1)

this primer in a spray bomb? what brand?
I have plasti-kote brand primer in a can, and it actually seems pretty good for spray bomb primer, i'd like to hear of other good ones.... (Seeing as how primer isn't that crucial in respect to looks...)

I think it would look good mounted in flush, so there isn't a little gap....
Check LT1 guy (or redraif), I think they (or one of them), made the air vents in the front quarter panels flush, by flanging the panel or something.... well anyway, point was, he/she used some sort of glue that would work for plastic-metal, and had good success.... Not sure if bondo as the only "glue" would be ideal, or if you'd need to use the fasteners as well....
Food for thought.

Snuffit

if your going to smooth the little insert out, use a glue first, dont use straight body filler to smooth it out, ive got the same hood on my car and that little part flexes a good bit, you might crack it if you just fill it in

Wind Charger

that first pic is making me seasick. Oh wait, im drunk

Xophertony

i am using plastikote as well. any more bondo type work will be done next summer, hood going on car as is untill weather gets nice again.

Xophertony

well got the hood on today. if you click the pictures you will see the full size version, this way it is dialup/viewer friendly. i hate panning to see the whole thing.

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and now a couple of the gaps.

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