Menu
Working on the underside of the chassis
Filling in the holes
Adding filler to the underside
Once I got all the new metal welded in on the topside, it was time to fill the pinholes from underneath. An automotive rotisserie makes this job a lot easier. I applied several coats of fiberglass reinforced filler for strength, followed by several more coast of plastic body filler, followed by many hours of removing high spots and sanding to make everything as smooth as feasible.
|
Spot filler
Next came a skim coat of spot filler to fill in the sanding scratches, small pits, etc. I also did some work on the lower left rear corner where I had to patch a hole in the trunk floor and to cover the seam where I installed new sheet metal to replace the rusted out inner panel for the rear of the body (visible in the lower left of the photo).
|
Ready for primer
Not much spot filler remains, but it does fill in more than you think. Final sanding with 320 grit paper and it is ready for its first coat of primer.
|
A long Time coming...
Seems like forever since I started this part of the project. It has been a long summer and I haven't had as much time to spend on the car as I'd like, but finally got the rear seat pan area in primer.There are a couple spots that still need touching up, but all in all, it came out pretty well.
|
I also took this opportunity to clean up the welds and finish the body work on the left floor pan and sill, using the same processes, and lots of sanding. This is the spot filler coat, ready for final sanding and then primer. Next I will move on to the right floor pan and sill and clean up the rear of the body from the back seat rearward.
TIP: invest in a dual action sander with a two-inch sanding pad. It works great for tight areas where the six inch just can't reach. They are available from Eastwood or Harbor Freight, as well as other places I would imagine. You can buy a variety of two-inch velcro backed discs on eBay or from 2Sand.com in every grit from 80 to 1000. I even use the finer grits to restore dull headlamp assemblies on modern cars. |