Roger Gibbs wrote:
> To cut to the chase, I could not finish this section to the
> leve of the rest of the fender. The repair is not flawed in any fundamental
>way,
> only a very thin skim coat is needed. But it is not what I wanted.
I'm pretty indifferent on the whole "filler is bad" argument,
there is a lot of hypocrisy out there especially at the highest
levels. Obviously, nobody wants to make a whole sill out of
filler. That's different, that's bad.
However, even when new, some form of filler is used to
fill out the car. On old cars it's lead, on new cars it's
plastic, but it's there, it's just the way cars are
made.
The biggest hypocrisy to me is that filler is totally
fine if it comes out of a spray gun, but it's the devil if
it's applied with a spatula.
The magic word is "surfacer", or as it's often the same
as primer, "primer/surfacer".
Simple fact is that you can't really paint on steel anyways,
aside from the obvious adhestion problems it's just extremely
difficult to get steel truly smooth. It always gets the
texture of the tool you use to work it, you can't really sand
a whole car with 2000 grit because it would take a lifetime.
Obviously everyone says "that's what primer is for", but
primer does a lot more than just make paint stick. All
primer is rated in terms of build, which means how much
thickness it adds when sprayed on.
So the magic phrase is surfacer, you finish the car as
baremetal, spray the whole car in surfacer (which is more
or less just like bondoing the whole damn thing), and then
sand it back and paint.
I guess then you brag to all your clients how you don't
use ANY FILLER, but really you sprayed two gallons of
surfacer or more, and somehow this is more socially acceptable
than using two ounces of putty to smooth over a weld bead.
Don't get me wrong, surfacer is a great thing, I just
don't like how somehow a hundred gallons of it is fine, but
an ounce of putty somehow makes the car a lesser job and
the crafstman a hack.
Have a look at any car you see in a parking lot
that has a scrape to bare metal. New cars, old cars,
restored cars, etc. The total finish layer is often
1/16th or even 1/8th of an inch thick, when you measure
everything between the top of the metal and the top of
the paint.
So going back to the original point, if my patch
panel ended up 50 thou under the surrounding panel, I
don't feel the car is any better off if I spend an hour
banging it out or just leave it for the surfacer or
even (gasp) putty.
> You were working on a MG last year, weren't you? How is that job going ?
I finished the MGB a few years ago, if that's the one
you mean. I painted that one in my own garage, I have
pictures of that job here:
http://www.brit.ca/~tboicey/mgb/mgb_restoration.html
(relevent, the 30S primer I mention in the comments
is a primer/surfacer)
I was also doing a ZB magnette. The bodywork is done,
got a lot of pictures of that work:
http://www.brit.ca/~tboicey/magnette/magnette_restoration.html
I gave the final priming and painting work to a friend
of mine because I wanted it to be done in a line of paint
that is too toxic for me to paint in my attached garage. The
magnette had to park outside for a while so I wanted the
toughest paint known to man.
The bodywork is done, the car looks fine, but the
interior is pretty shabby. I've been pretty busy
lately so it's kind of stalled there for now.
--
Trevor Boicey, P. Eng.
Ottawa, Canada, tboicey@brit.ca
ICQ #17432933 http://www.brit.ca/~tboicey/
The stoplight in front of my house is currently: GREEN
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