I'll tell you what I did for stage 1
Sprayed epoxy...2 coats. The metal was sanded to 80g
Waited 24 hours
Put on my filler for the deep dents and glazing putty for shallow ones on top of the epoxy after 24 hours
Shaped the filler with 40 to rough shape
Shaped it better with 80
Then finished it with 180
After I went over the whole larger spot with glazing putty to fill any 80 scratches and pin holes I missed
Sanded that with 180
I used
Wet guide coat.....black. Not rattle can spray paint. Use Rattle can guide coat
3m hard blocks that are longer than the dent
3m 5441 7" sanding block by -glhxturbo-
3m gold psa stick on paper 180
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6" hand sander disc for the 40-80g.....or a air powered da for the rough out
Glazing putty
Evercoat Metal Glazing Putty Larger Container -
When putting filler over epoxy you will sand through to the metal. I always resprayed it and put more filler back on top of the respray until I found I was not good enough at filler work to do this. I would do this over and over again always sanding to the metal. It took forever because of the 24 cure time I waited. I then just started putting glazing putty on the bare metal after a while. It is not improper do do this. It's just not that extra show quality mile. Here is why.....you will epoxy over all the filler work. Then paint and clear it. The metal will be protected.
The reason they do it is because of moisture transferring through the filler. Some people leave filler exposed for long periods of time so that can happen. If there's no epoxy under there then the metal rusts. Just don't leave the filler exposed for a month. I resprayed mine right away so it was never an issue.
I sanding it.....look at the picture. This is a small dent my dad put in there carrying a 2x4 across the shop. A quick fix.
I put on the putty......when it starts to dry it will drag and leave a textured surface. I used a 4" or whatever hard block on this with 180 paper right from the start. Not much shaping here. The reason I showed this was......look at the outer edges. See how they are transparent and soft transition. You want to look for is. It means the filler when spread evenly and sanded.....that little bit of transparent filler won't hurt anything when covered in primer. But it will show you your close to the original flat surface. I sprayed a coat of epoxy on there and re block sanded it. When I resprayed it with epoxy the scratches showed through. When I sanded it with 320 they went away because they were filled. Then I sanded with 400
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When laying filler....in the rough out you will hit the epoxy around where you sanded with the 40 or 80 for filler work. Make sure you sand those areas till the scratches are gone or be careful and don't leave them there. You don't spray over 80 scratches. The paint or primer will sink into them and can show in the final job. 180 is the roughest scratches you should leave before PRIMER of any kind goes on top of where you sanded.
80 scratches are fine for metal but not for primer.
After.....Spray the 2k.....if the body is straight you can put on 2 coats. I always do 3 because I easily sanded through when doing 2 thinking the body was straighter than it actually was.
The areas that won't be seen. I skipped those in high build and left them in epoxy. Some the high build is just for getting things straight. The unseen places don't need to be perfect. So I didn't put much or any high build there.
I could have left my primer sanded with wet 400 because it is a solid color....black that I'm using for paint ...... For a metallic you wet sand with 600 before paint.
In a way I did leave it in 400 because I was going to seal over those scratches with sealer and fill them in. I sprayed the sealer over the 400 and found too much dirt in it. So I'm sanding the sealer with 600 wet. Usually you don't sand the sealer. It's is put on before paint basically as a coat of paint and sits 2 hours. Also.....see how it's wet. You can use this to check your body work. The wet acts like clear coat and will show imperfections. This panel is perfectly straight and was blocked twice with 180.
I also don't try to take out 180 scratches with other sandpaper. I just spray another coat of epoxy. So this was blocked with180.....resprayed1 coat and then sanded with 400 for solid color paint. The wave in the reflection of the overhead light is the water itself. The panel is perfect enough that the wave won't be there.
Which is why I'm here
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This was the 1 coat of sealer I was going to spray before paint.
It is being wet sanded with 600
When it's wet I can see the transparent and the yellow showing through. When it's dry I don't see this. It's the sanded white color the black epoxy gets after being scuffed. It's only transparent when it wet. Should I spray another coat on there or does it matter?
I think it doesn't because it's black enough even sanded. I'm putting quality black over it so it should be fine. I will only spray more reduced epoxy on there 1:1:1 for increased adhesion.
