Straight panel lines?

Idoxlr8

Idoxlr8

Member
Just curious what technique some of you use to get crisp,straight panel lines. I'm currently blocking my 260z and am having a frustrating time maintaining a consistent body line from front to back. Tape and a pencil line?

Thanks
Dean
 
Use a guide-coat on the line, and sand one-half of the body line at a time. The "speckles" will show you how straight you are. You can also use masking tape as a guide to follow down the side of car, from panel to panel.
 
a tape line can help, what blocks/boards are you using? photos could help.
 
Thanks guy's.
This is the rear quarter that is giving me fits. It starts sharp, fades to almost nothing over the wheel arch and comes back before the door again.

I'm using a combination of Durablocks and AFS flex boards.

Dean

P5260009.jpg
 
Those areas where the lines transition from sharp to rounded off can pose a challenge if you're trying to block everything all at the same time. Look at the quarter and you'll see there's basically three main areas (large areas) the sail area at the top, the area below the sail panel above the center bodyline, and the the area below the center bodyline. The trick is to block these larger areas first then blend the minor lines and curves into them. As you perfect the large areas your bodylines will become straight and you can verify straightness with tape. You must use guidecoat to see what you're doing, your sense of feel will never pickup on the defects that your sight will catch once the job is done.
 
The rear quarters body line on the 240/260/280z is not an easy one to get right. Even after 4 of those cars, it still takes me some time before I'm happy with it. Set your doors so they line up nice with the rear quarters, and then pull a nice long tape line from the door body line all the way to the back. I usually tape the bottom (below the line) and sand the top first, then set another piece of tape on the top, remove the bottom tape, and sand below the line. I repeat this step until it looks nice, then remove the tape and very carefully sand the body line back to the factory roundness.
 
kerristallax;20580 said:
The rear quarters body line on the 240/260/280z is not an easy one to get right. Even after 4 of those cars, it still takes me some time before I'm happy with it. Set your doors so they line up nice with the rear quarters, and then pull a nice long tape line from the door body line all the way to the back. I usually tape the bottom (below the line) and sand the top first, then set another piece of tape on the top, remove the bottom tape, and sand below the line. I repeat this step until it looks nice, then remove the tape and very carefully sand the body line back to the factory roundness.
Click to expand...

Glad to know it's not just me:eek:

Thanks for the tips. Great site and helpful folks.
Dean
 
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