My 1984 GT Refurbish/Upgrade Thread

[84StangSVT]

If you can see the imperfections in the primer you will see them in the color coat. Generally you can feel imperfections that you may not see. You may not notice them with your hand due to the texture of the surface, lack of experience, of they just might be small enough that they are hard to feel.

As JTurbo suggested, wet sanding and leaving the panel wet will give you a gloss sheen that will help you to see imperfections that need to be addressed. Being that the car will be shot in a light color such as Beige some of the imperfections may not be as visible in Beige as they are in the grey primer or in a darker color coat. That is one advantage, but as you mentioned you will see every imperfection, so I recommend trying to get the panel as flat and smooth as possible so you will be happy with the repair.

The other advantage to the area being in primer is that when you have bare metal, primer, body color, and filler all showing the different colors can trick your eyes and the different materials can trick your hand. As you get better at this you will be able to feel imperfections by hand even before the primer coat, but it does take practice. Even with all my years of doing this, I prefer to have the area in primer to check for my imperfections as it helps to prevent you from chasing your tail many times. Good Luck!

That's what I was afraid of. So with that being said, what would be the best way to address that? Let me rephrase that a bit......how would I address any small high spots? Surely it is not necessary to redo the whole area again since it is only a couple spots that I see. Can I hammer and dolly the small high spots then skim coat that area? Do I need to sand all the primer off the repair area or can I fill over that?
I wish I could have captured a good shot of what I can see, but it didn't translate through the lens again. I know it has to be darn close but I don't want to take the chance that it will stick out like a booger on a nose hair when I'm done, so I would rather try again than just accept it and hope it is not noticeable.

[84StangSVT]

Maybe this will help a bit. In the pic below, I have circled the biggest area I seem to be having issues with high/lows and is the area that I'm not happy with. What is the best way to straighten this area out and get the high/lows out of without affecting the other areas or curvature? Would this more be a hammer on dolly for the highs or a pick or something else? I know without seeing it in person makes it harder but any guidance with what you can see will help.

[5.0 notchback]

I think your stud gun would be the best way to pull that little area out. Not sure what you are using for primer, but you should use a high-fill, sandable primer over the body work. I like to give it 3 heavy coats, then after it has dried, I hit it with 80 grit. Use the longest sanding block you have, a paint stick actually works pretty well on an area like that. Sand it in opposing 45 degree angles to give yourself a crosshatch effect. The primer will fill in the imperfections along the edges where it is feathered. And you will likely find some low spots. If they are real bad, u will probably want to rework the metal, but u should be able to get away with out. Then use glazing putty over the low spots, trying to apply it as thin, uniform, and smooth as possible and hit it with 80 grit again, in a cross hatch pettern. Then you should be good. Go over it again with 2 coats of the high fill primer, hit it with 220 like u did with the 80 and see what you get. There are a million ways to skin a cat, and that is especially true with body work, but that's how I would tackle it.

[84StangSVT]

I think your stud gun would be the best way to pull that little area out. Not sure what you are using for primer, but you should use a high-fill, sandable primer over the body work. I like to give it 3 heavy coats, then after it has dried, I hit it with 80 grit. Use the longest sanding block you have, a paint stick actually works pretty well on an area like that. Sand it in opposing 45 degree angles to give yourself a crosshatch effect. The primer will fill in the imperfections along the edges where it is feathered. And you will likely find some low spots. If they are real bad, u will probably want to rework the metal, but u should be able to get away with out. Then use glazing putty over the low spots, trying to apply it as thin, uniform, and smooth as possible and hit it with 80 grit again, in a cross hatch pattern. Then you should be good. Go over it again with 2 coats of the high fill primer, hit it with 220 like u did with the 80 and see what you get. There are a million ways to skin a cat, and that is especially true with body work, but that's how I would tackle it.

Thanks for the extra tips! Here is where I am at now. While the pics don't exactly show what I can see in person, there are about 3 spots that I can see and while I can't feel them, I can see them.



In the last go around when I worked on the curvature of the body, I was positive I cured the issues but maybe not enough. The areas circled in yellow have been taken care of and are no longer an issue while the areas circled in red are kind of what I still "see" under the primer. The final coat of filler was reduced as compared to this photo and there is very little currently on the body.

[JTurbo]

Brock, What you haven't indicated is if the areas in red are high or low. I assume those areas are high for this discussion.

I bought this set of hammer / dollies from HF. http://www.harborfreight.com/7-piece...set-31277.html
You can use the different hammers depending on the shape / area you are trying to smooth. Hammer on the outside, dolly behind the panel. Just be careful not to use the hammer/dolly to aggressive as you can thin out the metal and create more headaches.....

[84StangSVT]

Brock, What you haven't indicated is if the areas in red are high or low. I assume those areas are high for this discussion.

I bought this set of hammer / dollies from HF. http://www.harborfreight.com/7-piece...set-31277.html
You can use the different hammers depending on the shape / area you are trying to smooth. Hammer on the outside, dolly behind the panel. Just be careful not to use the hammer/dolly to aggressive as you can thin out the metal and create more headaches.....

Sorry about that Joe. Yes the areas circled in red are high at least I believe. I also bought that set from HF but as with a lot of their things, I'm not exactly sure which hammer is which. Would the small high spots be a quick hammer on or hammer off dolly? I think I watched too many you-tube videos and now im slightly confused.

[JTurbo]

Based on the areas you circled, I would use the hammer with the flat rectangular head and a dolly (heal) behind it. If you have a small outward "dimple" use a pick hammer (pointed end) to move the metal back inward w/o a dolly. If you have some scrap metal around, experiment with the dollies and hammers first.

[84StangSVT]

After a couple of good phone conversations the other day with Trey and Jackson, I have a pretty good understanding of what needs to be done. They were very helpful in directing me on how to correct the issues I still have.

It was made pretty clear by these photos that I still have some considerable low/high spots in the area below the gas door.



I got some good advice on clearing up the high/lows and hopefully that will put an end to this saga so I can move on.

Once I get past this cold/flu that the house full of sick kids brought upon me, I should be ready to rock and roll. Didn't do much yesterday as I was laid up and slept most of the day. I HATE BEING SICK!

[84StangSVT]

Haven't done much thanks to this stupid head cold, but yesterday I felt well enough that I could actually bend over without my head feeling like it was going to shove my brain out of my eye sockets.

I worked on the area below the gas door some more and I think I finally got that issue resolved. I will know more this evening when I final prep it for primer, but I feel pretty good about it. I need to stop by the paint store after work today and get some paint mixed up for the topcoat. I'm hoping the outcome will be good and match.

[84StangSVT]

Found out some neat information about my car this weekend. Had a buddy offer to run a Carfax on my GT and of course I took it. I also ran it against a couple other databases and all of the information is fairly close.

According to the data, there are no red flags thrown for it.
This car has spent the first 7 years of it's life around the Santa Clara, CA area where it moved on to the Spokane, WA area for the next appx. 21 years. From there it went to the Dexter, MI area for a couple years before it headed out to the Denver, CO area for a couple more years where I picked it up.
I thought the mileage documentation was kinda neat. When I got the car, the odometer read 43,986. I knew I didn't have 43k original miles on the car so I figured about 143k. The mileage reporting shown over the years would put this number at 243,986 . Provided the data logged and the condition of some of the items in the car, I can almost believe the data as accurate. All I gotta say is that a chassis with this many miles on it, this car is in awesome shape for its age and has been loved and driven a lot over the years.

[homer302]

That's cool that you found out some more stuff. I am also surprised how well they hold up actually. They were obviously pretty cheaply made but seem to stand the test of time pretty well. The fact that so much stuff is available still helps a lot obviously.

[magnum517]

That's cool info you got on your car!! It is in awesome shape for that mileage!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[84StangSVT]

Here are some updated pictures of the area. I'm confident that this is a much better outcome and I will be happy with it. I can now sand the area without immediately finding a high spot and everything appears to be pretty uniform now. While it has been a major pain in the butt and multiple redos, I have learned a ton and ready to move forward.

I still have to get the paint mixed up as they couldn't find the specs in the computer yesterday. I had to locate the color ticket that they gave me earlier this year and run it up after work today to have some made up.

[magnum517]

That looks really good!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[NY5speed]

Wow, good work!

[84StangSVT]

That looks really good!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks Bill! It only took me 4 tries. Can't wait to get some color on it and see how she looks then.

[84StangSVT]

Wow, good work!

Thanks! It's been a learning curve for sure. I understand why body shops are so dang pricey now.

[NY5speed]

I agree, body work is tough without all the right tools and a bunch of experience. I'll rebuild and swap engines and transmissions without thinking twice but bondo and paint scare me haha.

[Walking-Tall]

Lookin' MUCH better, Brock!

[JTurbo]

Looks good. Are you going to paint the entire quarter panel?

[84StangSVT]

I did find a couple spots that needed a little glaze, so I spread a little more than necessary just out of caution. I will get that sanded back off here soon. I also test fit the gas door and couldn't be happier with the fitment. I think I can live and be happy with this repair finally.

[84StangSVT]

Looks good. Are you going to paint the entire quarter panel?

Good question Joe. I had thought about just doing the repair area and trying to blend it into the rest of the quarter. Maybe it would make more sense to spray the quarter and try to blend into the roof? What would you recommend?

[JTurbo]

I assume that you will be painting with single stage. The smaller the blend area the better.... Assuming the paint match is close, I would blend at the C pillar just below the roof line. The only possible concern is the paint match between the q-panel and the pass door.

If you are going to also repair the sunroof areas, then you can paint the quarter and roof and move the blend to the C pillar on the drives side.

If you shoot BC/CC, you can blend over a larger area, but it's a lot more work.

[84StangSVT]

I assume that you will be painting with single stage. The smaller the blend area the better.... Assuming the paint match is close, I would blend at the C pillar just below the roof line. The only possible concern is the paint match between the q-panel and the pass door.

If you are going to also repair the sunroof areas, then you can paint the quarter and roof and move the blend to the C pillar on the drives side.

If you shoot BC/CC, you can blend over a larger area, but it's a lot more work.

I'm thinking that I will be doing single stage, as I believe that is currently what the car has on it. I was wondering how the blending would go, so it makes sense to blend the smallest area possible. It's another area I will be taking a bit of a crash course in as I have painted full cars before but never had to blend a panel. It ought to be interesting.

[JTurbo]

I'm thinking that I will be doing single stage, as I believe that is currently what the car has on it. I was wondering how the blending would go, so it makes sense to blend the smallest area possible. It's another area I will be taking a bit of a crash course in as I have painted full cars before but never had to blend a panel. It ought to be interesting.

I did a full repaint on DZNJ's car a few years back. Not long after, he had a minor incident on the quarter panel (also had to fix an issue on the door). So I did the repair. You can see in this thread where I did the blend (it was BC/CC, but the blend area was the same):
http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...ps-I-messed-up