My Dream 'Vacation'

[vr4choke]

so i took 2 weeks of leave starting yesterday in order to do. . . bodywork! before i start my quest to black top the 3k i figured i could use my newly aquired civic to brush up my skills without the risk of ruining something cool. so my progress thus far is to sand the whole thing down with 80 grit, grind all the rust out and fill most of the holes with bondo. tomorrow i will finish filling the holes, and sand everything with 100, 150, and 220. the next day i'll wet sand with 320 and get it set up for primer. eeeeek

its the best vacation ever. EVER!

[CL8]

Originally Posted by vr4choke

so i took 2 weeks of leave starting yesterday in order to do. . . bodywork! before i start my quest to black top the 3k i figured i could use my newly aquired civic to brush up my skills without the risk of ruining something cool. so my progress thus far is to sand the whole thing down with 80 grit, grind all the rust out and fill most of the holes with bondo. tomorrow i will finish filling the holes, and sand everything with 100, 150, and 220. the next day i'll wet sand with 320 and get it set up for primer. eeeeek

its the best vacation ever. EVER!

If you live in Hawaii, I would guess you're ALWAYS on vacation!

[Stealthee]

You are honestly doing too much prep before the primer. Thats the kind of prep you do once the primer is laid down.

[vr4choke]

for reals? i want it to look GOOD though. like really good. still too much? i was gonna sand it again after the primer if it needs it. is that really something you can overdo? i'm thinkin better safe than sorry

[Stealthee]

Yes you are overdoing it before you put the primer on. Hell all we did on mine was 320 to get down to the base and laid the new base right over that. Having a good old base coat than primer itself.

[vr4choke]

i didnt know you painted your stealth! what was it originally?

and how should i do it? should i just prime it now then sand it down finer? all i've done is 80 grit. would that look bad if i primered it like that? for some background, it had old primer on it when i bought it and after the sanding its pretty much back to basecoat

[Stealthee]

It was originally the teal green color.

If you went over it with 80 already I would smooth it out with 320 before you primer it. You honestly dont even need primer unless you have some bare metal spots or spots with bondo. And then you only need to primer those spots.

[vr4choke]

oh ok i'll do that then. there actually is a fair amount of bare metal from where i had to grind off rust and also alot of bondo on the driver side fender from filling in previously rusted holes. so sand it, primer those spots, and paint. got it. what color though? i was kinda liking flat black cuz it wont show as bad if something rusts through again, and it should look decent even if i do not so great of a job. thoughts on this?

[Stealthee]

Actually black shows everything, so if you dont do a good job the flat black will show it even more.

[vr4choke]

ok so as per stealthee's advice i sanded the hole thing with 320 and also 400 just for the lulz, then i put primer on the bondo/bare metal areas. currently i'm waiting for that to dry then i'll put some anti-rust enamel over that. for the color i went with satin black. so after the enamel dries i'll satin black it then clear coat. i'm sure its gonna look kinda ghetto, but it couldnt possibly look worse than before. especially with all the holes and rust obliterated. i shall give pics ASAP

[vr4choke]

UPDATES:

it has been primered, enameled, and hit with 3 coats of satin black. everything looks pretty good except the roof and the hood. they have a little bit of uneven coverage, but hey. . . currently waiting 2 hours till i can clear-coat (that will complete the total of 24 hour down time). i've got 'before' pics, just waiting for the 'after's