a ''Sticky'' for Paint/Body Procedures
 

ive seen alot of threads lately asking how to sand this,,paint that or what product is the best to use.
i think a sticky describing how to best paint a car,,the art of blending panels and detailed procedures in doing so would really help lots out here
we certainly have several knowledgeable people here on the subject that could contribute
finding what one wants using the search can be a pain for many including myself
any ideas on this?

I've had the same thought. I think stickies for panel alignment questions would help, too. With the exception of Endura problems, most panel alignment basics could be applied to almost any car.
A sticky for Endura repairs (maybe PaulatFast would be willing?), one for aligning hoods (one of the most asked, I just did a Body Shop search for "hood alignment" and got 86 results!), one for fenders, etc. A few weeks ago I went into great detail answering a question about how to align a door. Odds are it won't be read by anyone again.
Other ideas/opinions on this?

This is a good idea that would benefit a lot of people. I, for one, know that I would read it (and contribute in areas if I felt qualified to do so). 400 4SPD: I read your door alignment procedure before finishing alignment on my passenger door, and it was quite helphul to me. Thank you.

a topic id like to see discussed is how others remove base overspray from masked paper when blending. or doing an overall
to me thats half the work of a spray job and there has to be easier ways

we just bought a 2010 kenworth truck that was rolled over in the recent storm,we plan on installing 40 ton composite slide on it.
what i think will make this interesting to some auto buffs is that its too big to use our frame machine on so well have to use the pot holes in the floor to anchor it and use the buildings beam as a pull point along with porta powers.
in the coming days ill take pics as we progress along.
so if anyone is interested just check back at times

here are a few pics of rough pulling the cab corner out,,obviously the truck was too large for the frame machine so we had to use the pot holes in the floor to anchor the truck down
we still have 2 more pulls then we can bore the affected rivets out and dolly and smooth out the panels

more pics

last 1's

Nice work! You made that look too easy. I have pulling pots in my home shop and they do come in handy.

we got the roughing of it done,not too bad for 4 hours of work
fortunately i had help,an old school body man that recently retired from us after 30 + years [in the pics] has been wanting to have a project to do so i eagerly agreed with him helping.:)
after this part is done ill be posting pics of the fiberglass work,,,hopefully in better detail .

i would like to see other members post their how to tips in the areas of knowledge such as door/panel alignments,paint spraying,body work,blending or any helpful tips that may benefit other members.

finally got time to make progress on this job,,i had to stop to do a collision job on a van and then my camera took a dump so i missed some pics showing the finshing of the cab.
and fr some reason this freaking camera shot the pics in b & w?
anyways heres the cab part

here is some of the hood repair,the worse being the bottom corner that had the inner and outer panel broken and missing so i had to cut pieces from another scrap hood

more hood pics

more of the hood
most of the inner supports were broken loose from the bonding and had to be clamped and bonded again

the fender tip had a aluminum brow that got bent and cracked the fender tip
using a angle finder that showed it to be bent 1 3/4 inches
i got 2 weights and positioned it 2'' off the floor using wire
i took a heat gun and after having to heat the fiberglass 3 times,,the weights remained touching the
floor without springing back up
i ran a bead of glue on the inside ans after it cured i repaired the other side

also i had hoped this to be a sticky for various paint/body ''how to's '' but no one has contributed so if the mods feel it proper to remove this as a sticky ,,i can always pop it back up when i post new projects

the last pic shows whats next after the truck is finished,,

Just found this and hope it stays a 'sticky'. I love doing my own bodywork and consider myself 'not bad' at it. But i teach myself as i go and my ways of doing things would make a 'real' bodyman shake his head.lol
I'm getting ready to 're-restore' my GTO and knowing i can find info here without trying to do a search would really be great.

since most of my work mainly pertains to large vehicles,,the application is rather limited to helping others here.
however in the next few days in going to start searching older posts that offer helpful paint/body tips and post links here.
if others have similar problems like ive had,,searching can be time consuming.

Nice job on the truck. :)

wytnyt, did you guy's drill out the cab corner panel and replace the skin, or did you straighten the original? If you straightened that, I'm impressed!

This question concerns body panel seam areas- roof to quarter in this case but, there are others too.
I have noticed when using 'normal' spot putty and filler in these areas that they sometimes crack. gladly, this is seen prior to paint. Have also read there are are certain puttys/fillers that are better to use in these seam areas that do not crack. I guess the body does move a bit in these areas and a special product is needed.
Am asking for experienced advice here about what are the best products to use in these 'seam' areas like where the roof meets the quarters?
thank you in advance