theramz

I bought this car last year and made a nice driver out of it and planned on selling it right away. I refurbised the dash, new seats, sold off the Webers and installed a custom cold air intake with SUs. Put on Tokico lowering springs ans shocks. When the weather cleared up I started driving it to work. To my surprise it runs real strong. The car is originally yellow, not my favorite but as you can see it was repainted dark blue. They didn't bother painting the engine bay or the jams. Looks like crap. So here we go. The car is straight with little rust or damage. With the dark blue I could see the imperfections clearly. The hood had been bondoed and it was lifting. I sanded it all off and was able to bump out the dents. The top of the ds fender has some ripples so I bumped most of it out without having ot remove it.
By using the dark paint as a guide I sanded the areas to expose the low spots. Once identified I sanded the rest off and wiped it with filler. There was one small dent in the roof that I was able to massage out with plastis pry sticks.
When I get all of the dings fixed I will sand it all down and primer the whole car for a bright yellow finish.

PredatorZ

Can't make out any detail in your pictures, can you post a higher resolution versions

theramz

Don't know why thsoe came out so small.

PredatorZ

Sorry i couldnt resist

theramz

Ha! I have a tee shirt with that on it.

theramz

Had to resize the pics, more to come, much more

Jbaker1121

nice work. I'm in the middle of body work on my '84 50th AE Z31. First time doing such a project! Good to see some inspiration. I hope my bondo doesn't lift :-/

theramz

Bondo is ok if you sand first with 80 grit to give it some "tooth" to cling to. The bondo was lifted on my hood so I had to sand it all off. I prefer to use Evercoat.

theramz

Here's some tools I use.

theramz

Next step, removed the trim carefully. I scrapped the paint away from the rubber window moldings so I can mask up to the edges and not get paint on the rubber. This way I don't have to pull all the glass. I used a surgical knife for this to avoid going to deep. There was some blue paint on them too so then I sanded up to the edge with a piece of 120 grit folded over a plastic spreader. Did the same around the door locks and mirror. This took several hours but saves time unless you're going to replace the molding.

theramz

Here is a common problem on the S30 cars. It's where the body panels were welded together and filled with lead. The lead separates and leaves a crack. I took my surgical knife and opened it up and beveled the edges. Then I filled it.

theramz

I blocked the sides with the long flexible sanding block to reveal the dings and other imperfections. It's important to sand in a diagonal stroke and stay off the sharp edges of the body lines.

theramz

Here are some more obvious low spots. After blending all these spots I will sand the whole car. It's important to "feather" the edges.
Primer with high build primer and block sand the whole car.

zxguy1986

Ramz, what's the solution for those uneven surfaces? They will show loud and clear when the clear coat is on. What does a pro body repair guy do to even them out and get a smooth, perfect surface?

theramz

I sanded that way just to show the imperfections. Normally I would take the whole car down to just shy of the primer, bump out what I can and fill the low spots. Then wipe the whole car with filler, block it out then paint with high build primer, block again then paint. On this car I don't have to replace any metal. The last car I did looked like a fat guy walked on the deck, roof and hood. I also cut out a lot of metal and made new pieces and welded them in. This car is easy compared to that one. It came out pretty straight as you can see.

zxguy1986

Yeah, I see that. But it must be harder to do than you make it sound. My repaint in 2006 of my '86na ended up showing where every door ding and dent was before, they just looked shallower. It's like there are waves in the clear coat reflection when you sight along the repair. I was disappointed. I wanted it to look brand new for that price. It just looked repaired.

If you "wipe the whole car down with filler" doesn't that leave the whole car easier to chip because filler under paint is softer than metal under paint?

Thanks for your input.

theramz

After carefull blocking there is almost zero filler left. Your wavyness showed because of over sanding or sanding by hand. As I go I will demonstrate how that is done. Sometimes you make as many as 3 coats of filler. That's why I use the longest flexable block I can. You have to let the block conform to the contour and let the paper do the work sanding in diagonal strokes without pushing down. The filler sands down and the metal does not. You have to learn when to stop and rewipe with more filler. Later in this post I will reveal a fool proof method of finding the final low spots I discovered quite by accident. I even showed this to a pro and he now uses it.

zxguy1986

I think the key is 'longest flexible block' as you said. Now it begins to make sense. You are sanding/smoothing over the largest stretch of surface possible with each pass. If you do it with just one-hand sanding/smoothing tools, you will get differential evenness over the larger surface.

Will wait for your progress photos. Thanks again for your pro perspective. We live and learn.

PredatorZ

Looks really nice, please elaborate as much as you possibly can, I plan on doing all my body work, and in my wildest dreams it would look as smooth as your picture above, proof is in the pudding, and brother that is pro work !!

Cheers RamZ

7d82adz

awesome work! look foward to the progress and thankyou for posting all this about the body work.. i learned some stuff today, and now am excited to finally paint one of my z's.

theramz

I painted the last car in a month allowing time to harden between color sanding and clear coat. I spent several hundred hours on the prep work.
On the '77 I did the following-
Remove all trim, lights, headlight surrounds, glass, bumpers and front clip.
Cut out cancer spots and make new patch panels then weld them in. I replaced part of the firewall, inner fender, floor and all 4 corners around the wheel wells.
Bumped out the dents and wiped almost the whole car with filler.
Block sanded it almost all off, not leaving enough to catch a magnet.
Painted it with high build primer 2 coats.
Sanded it with 400 paper.
Painted 2 coats of base and color sanded it.
Put the front clip back on and one more coat of base.
Color sanded with 800.
Painted it with 2 coats of clear.
Sanded it with 1200.
Buffed it with buffing compound and then with polishing compound.
For this car I won't have to do so much metal work but the outcome depends on the prep. Bad prep = a bad paint job.
Normally I wouldn't do the car this way but it shows the work more clearly.

theramz

More pics-

PredatorZ

So you manage this amazing finish without a spray booth ?

theramz

And-

Couldn't do much this week end but managed to pull the trim and lights. Not sure yet if 'm going to pull the front clip.

theramz

Yes, and that presents a whole set of problems. I cleaned everything, blew out all the pockets that might have dust, wet the floor down. I had a respirator on but the 2 little tiny nats did not. When they died on the paint it left a little tiny image of them with metallic highlights. Barely noticeable but there. I will drape the inside with plastic next time or rent a spray booth at the college.