19mike92

I am wondering about techniques and tricks to getting the body of my truck straight as an arrow. I don't want to use bondo or filler or sat least as little as possible. I am in the middle of stripping a bunch of filler out of my passenger door right now. It was very wavy and the filler had began to crack. Any tips?

sherod

A old guy I know in Florida years ago only used heat/cold, and a little bit of lead. Absolutely the best body guy I ever met. Probably too labor intensive to afford, but check around. Might be lucky.

sooty

lead wont be used anymore, a lost art, metal shrinking also rare, look for part replacement, another option, gassers are found with bad engine/trans, good body parts. im a fan of body repair using bondo, its fast, exposure to sun accelerates its demise, different paint colors also come into play, if you want to be happy, ive got countrywide parts resources, pm me.

Fiftygrit

Body hammer, bondo and high fill primer and lots of sanding with a long bar arm strong sander, or paint it a really lite colour, the darker the paint shows more waves and flaws, its labor intense to make any vehicle super straight, good luck.

19mike92

That's my issue. Trucks going to be black. Nothing better than black and Chrome

MARF75

A guy I know will not buy a used vehicle that is white, says the white hides flaws best. haha

sooty

I love white, I challenge anyone to bring their black vehicle to my desert, and enjoy leaning on it after a few minutes our of august sun. my imron black '74 bronco shed lots of buddies forearm skin....

mknittle

DON"T use Bondo that stuff is awful! Use Featherlite or some similar filler.Bondo gets too hard and is difficult to work.
Use a long sanding block to prevent waves and don't just sand back and forth. Sand in random directions as much as possible. Start with #40 grit sandpaper until the area is evened out then go to #80 to blend in.

this is probably the best bet for a block for doors bed panels etc.



Sander Large 16" Long

and something like this for tight stuff and curves.
http://www.eastwood.com/dura-block-1-3-block-1-1-2-h-x2-5-8-w-x-5-1-2-l.html

mknittle

EW Deluxe Lead Free Body Solder Kit with DVD - Body Files, Holders, Reusable Brush & Flux - Eastwood

I wouldn't use it on these thin skinned trucks though.The metal would warp before the solder melted.

sooty

timing is everything, whatever filler you use, the cheese grater board file will level the still setting up filler just after spreading, that saves most of your sanding.

mknittle

Since I switched to better filler I haven't touched a cheese grater. They cost about twice as much but they are sooooooo much easier to work with.

lockgessner

I used some sheet metal to duplicate these: EXACTLINE TOOLS? : WHAT IS THE BLADE?
It works well and there's plenty of how to' son YouTube for this tool/method it really cuts down on the sanding/general shaping work... Whatever you do you need to be using a guide coat ( they explain that in the videos) and you are going to hate your life halfway thru! So worth paying the body man a couple k... I have several hundred hours into my paint and it's far from perfect.... And as Far as colors not showing wave that's a myth.. You don't get it straight you WILL see it; my truck is a flat tan color and you still can see every mistake I made.

Good luck

patdaly

Not exactly a myth, but anyone with a set of eyes can pick out a wave pretty quickly on even a White one.

I used to get all kinds of compliments on my yellow Nova from body guys.......

Black is so easy because essentially it reflects all the colors back at you like a mirror, so any optical distortion at all is evident much further away.........

I have seen exactly one perfect black job my whole life...... Literally a masterpiece.