Bondo... Sand... Repeat.......

Man, I cannot believe that it has been so long since I updated this blog! My apologies!

So, where we left off was a truck that was about three quarters done. We had a running engine, interior work mainly done and some roughed out body work - All in all, we had a rolling tuck. We have come a long way since then!

Body work has been the focus for the majority of the time. I have learned a lot about bondo, priming and the delicate touch of block sanding. Here I am not knowing anything about what I am doing, pretending to prime the truck.

If you aren't familiar with how body work goes, it's basically a repetitive cycle of bondo, sand, repeat; until the end where it becomes much more delicate. Rich chose a spot on the truck to focus on first, then he began by priming the surface. At this point we could usually tell where the bondo needed to go. For instance if there was metal work done, we would know that that area needed more bondo to cover the imperfections in the metal.

However, once you put bondo on one area, it then becomes a high area, and that needs to be sanded down flush. We would continue this process until we felt that the area we were working in was “close” to being finished. Then we would move onto another area to work. Circling the truck, round and round the process went. Once we were happy with the “nearly complete” body work, then the hard part started. The fine detailed work - block sanding. All of the big dents, dings and metal work has been covered up, it is the fine detail work that gets the bodywork from ‘okay’ to really freakin good.

Hours and hours were spent block sanding. There is really no good way I can explain how the process of block sanding goes. It is really all about feel - I know it may sound cliche - you could really close your eyes and let your fingers feel the imperfections. It was when we felt those imperfections is when we would either sand down the high spot, or we would add just the slightest bit of bondo. If you added too much bondo that meant that area would be too high and that meant extra minutes added on to sanding down that spot. It was at about this time I decided I was creating more work than I was completing.

I got a really good “taste” for body work, it just got to the point where I was lacking the experience to complete the job. I think the next car that is needing body work, I will be able to do more, and hopefully be more proficient.

There were some areas that were harder to get the body work right, than others. Specifically, on the passenger side, getting the “bump” body lines to match up. Rich worked on that spot for a long time. The lines just wouldn't match up. There were other issues with filling the body lines at the rear of the bed. There were two body lines running vertical at the rear of the bed that I decided I wanted filled. The first attempt was with just bondo, that didn't work - it cracked. Second attempt was with a harder body filler, also cracked. The third, and final attempt meant grinding out a larger ‘trough’ and filling it with the hard body filler. This method seems promising, I suppose time will tell.

During the bodywork, we weren't without our own trials and tribulations. After we thought we had the gas tank door well situated, and close - we decided to test it. It didn't turn out well. The fuel wouldn't go down the hose and into the tank. So, unfortunately rich had to undo all of the hours spent on getting the door placement correct, and redo it. He had to cut it out, after welding it, and after smoothing out the area with body filler. Once the door was free, we then moved it up approximately two inches, and retested. This time it worked.

Since there wasn't much for me to do during the month or so of the fine body work, I had plenty to do on other things. Some of the time was spent getting the wheels looking their best. A few hours investment, with the right products the wheels that once looked rusted out and dated, they look new again! Never Dull, and some steel wool went a long way. There were a few spots that I needed to take the wire wheel brush to get the tough rust spots, but those were few and far in-between.