Project "Sally" Body work repair.

As any car enthusiast will tell you, it is all too easy to battle along with a restoration project only to find the end result is not as you had planned. I have learnt this many times. Basically you have to 'See' the end result before you are anywhere near completion. I will explain why....

When I acquired 'Sally' she had a considerable amount of damage to the rear end. A new lamp panel needed to be fitted and possibly new rear wings. Rear outer wings are now very hard to find, so I took the decision to repair them. Only so much work can be done with a hammer and dolly as I am no professional panel beater.
Once I had acquired some new rear lights, I offered them into place only to find that they did not fit. There were huge gaps near the indicators. A little more panel beating was required to get them to fit.

The next job to was to get the shape back into the face of the rear wings, these had been damage due to the impact on the rear lamp panel.
Most of the dents and lumps could be removed with a panel beaters hammer and dolly, the rest needed to be filled.

The best way to go about this is to mix small amounts of filler at a time and build it up in layers. When applying filler, try to keep as near to the original shape as possible.

After a while you will see that there is more filler in place than you need, you can then start to remove the filler once it has hardened. Unless you are a professional, it is very difficult to get it right first time.

Take away as much filler with a course grade sand paper. Dont worry about removing too much as you will need to add more filler later anyway. Once you have removed all the 'High Spots' use a finer grade sand paper to smooth out the filler. If you have removed too much filler, mix a little more, apply it to the 'Low Spot', allow to harden and sand it back down with a fine grade sand paper.

Once you are happy with the shape and feel that the filler is reasonably smooth, spray on some Matt Black paint.

When the Matt Black is dry, use a medium grade 'Wet and Dry' sand paper to remove it. Here you will see that you have 'High' and 'Low' spots in the filler. 'Low Spots' being where you can still see black paint. I used Matt Black because Matt paints are quite porous and have the same consistency as fillers and primers. Which means you can add filler to them without any problems.

Add more filler to the 'Low Spots', allow it to harden and sand it down with a fine grade sand paper. This process may need to be repeated several times before you have a good finish.

This is where you can 'Force' the end result... temporarily....
Prime the repaired area, flat it back with a very fine grade of wet and dry sand paper. Now spray on a few light coats of Gloss Black. once it is dry you will 'Force, see' the end result. Gloss Black will show up any imperfections in the repairs you have made. The Black paint can be removed later on when the car is being resprayed.

Lee Allen

Yes, certainly you can remove the black paint, but would you realy? Your intention was not, 'just to see how nice black paint would look like on a SD1'?? Below are two pictures what would happen if you use the black spray on the whole car...

Nice ..... !!

Oscar

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Stripping a car click here...

Sanding click here...

Headlining repair click here...

Fitting the sunroof click here...