Body filler

[Jos]

Ok, I am not working on the car, but my new sub box, instead of going for the boring carpet cover I am going to spray it the same colour as the car. So far I have the box built and glued as normal and I have covered the whole thing in thin coat of body filler.

Question is how smooth does it need to be, I know it can't look like a brick wall but will high build primer fill in the little baby holes in the filler. Just asking as I have been sanding and filling, sanding and filling for the past 5 hours and I keep finding little holes.

Getting a little peeved off with it, about to go and buy some Halfrauds carpet lol.....

Advice/tips please:)

edit: also if you don't put enough hardener in does it not go off or does it just take yoinks to set?

[TOURINGDADDY]

Baby smooth, i tried it once and it looked shit. The trickie part is gettin large areas flat coz when u paint it, it'll show every little imperfection
but good luck.

[SwirlyE30]

Yeh i had similar problems when recently making my center A/C gauge pod from filler and fiberglass. Its a pain in the arse, i kept finding air bubbles and holes. And in the end i just got the ready mixed paste in a tube, cant remember the name, but body shopes use it to fill in tiny tiny scratches instead of mixing up more pug and sanding it down etc.


Id try and find some real easy to use paste mate and use it for the tiny pits/holes. Then try some high build primer and see what you get on like. Prep annoys the hell out of me, but it makes the finished product in the end i guess.



Id just say fcuk it and cover the thing in carpet lol

[TOURINGDADDY]

If your serious about it then the best stuff to use is called top stop gold and is available from all good automotive paint specialist

[Jos]

I'll just keep bashing away at it then, it is getting better each time, but I am now on fill/sand cycle 6 and it's getting tiring.. not to mention dusty.

[Andy335Touring]

Do you want it super smooth and shiny ?

If you use a textured paint as a base coat like Stone chip then paint it over with the color of your choice it will hide all those little imperfections ?

[Jos]

Yeah Andy, I was aiming for a very smooth Lachs Silver finish laquered. It's nearly there I think, the top looks pretty good, only a couple of little holes now, 1 side is about 50% there and the others are about 40% done. Another day on it should sort it out for spraying over the weekend.

[Andy335Touring]

In that case you want some filler primer,i can't remember where i got it from but it shouldn't be to hard to find.

[325iconv]

if you are not blowing all the dust away it gets trapped under the filler you are putting on and when you rub it down again it opens the pores where the dust was,if this is not the case then use either top stop gold (like touringdaddy suggested) or you can use dolphin glaze it comes in a bag and wirks like filler but is really runny and good as a last skim,Upol make it and I use it everyday as I am a panel beater/painter.always use a nice fine grade of paper like 240 or 320 to finish of before you prime it then use 600 or 800 to rub down your primer
Hope this is of use to you dude
Steve

[Jos]

Cheers guys, I was thinking something along the lines of a thin filler for the final coat, been at it for another couple of hours today and I don't think I am going to get it any better than it is atm with ordinary stuff. I am brushing/hoovering all the dust off after sanding. I think the stuff is just too thick to get a bubble free coat. Will keep at it!

How many coats of primer/paint/laquer should I aim for? I was think 2-3 of filler primer, then 2 coats of Lachs Silver then 2-3 coats of laquer. Sound about right?

[325iconv]

the silver is difficult to cover so you will need more coats you will understand what I mean as you are applying it as with the primer and clear coat that should do,if you notice any scratches in the basecoat just give it a flat down with some 800 wet or dry but make sure it is fully dry as it will peel of as you rub it down

Steve

[Jos]

Thanks guys for the advice

Couple of shots of work in progress, I think it's about as good as I can get with the filler.







Will continue tomorrow...

[SwirlyE30]

Looking good mate. Another thing i doi is even before priming, i just grab anyold spray i can find, and give it a light coat, that way if its got some colour to it, then the light will reflect off and you can see imperfections. The amount of times id done somthing, sanded it, thought it was perfectly smooth, then put some paint on and realised some bits are way out.

All the differnt textures and colours make it confusing to look at properly!

[mrLEE30]

Looks good mate, but i worry yer sub box is too small, are you porting it?? would do a mock up with speakers in before you paint cause youll be a tad peeved it is doesnt sound like it looks like it should?

hope i am wrong cause a top idea!!

mrlee

[Jos]

Sealed units are always smaller than ported enclosures, don't worry I have done my math on this.

The enclosure is 2.14 cu feet internally including bracing, divided by 2 gives 1.07 cu feet per driver, which is a Qtc of 0.7068 (close enough to 0.707 which is flat response for the driver/enclosure combination)

[Jos]

Sort of complete, ran out of filler primer, ran out of paint, ran out of laquer lol.. and ran out of the will to paint the thing anymore..

So it's installed but with options to finish at a later date.

Also the orange filler primer did really strange things to the paint colour lol..




The bars are there to stop my toolboxes from destroying the drivers, I use this car for work too:)

[Andy335Touring]

It looks a snug fit mate

[TOURINGDADDY]

Looks top notch mate

[Jos]

Ta guys, I think it was worth the effort in the end, really needs a few more coats of silver and a load more laquer to sort it out properly, the photos are quite flattering!

Yes it is a snug fit lol, you have to fold the seat down to get it in or out Not that it needs to come out except for repainting!

[ZS]

Also it should be good for drying tea-towels.

[mrLEE30]

Looks good, and looks much bigger with the speakers in. Good to see someone making an original effort with their install. I applaud you

mrlee

[ZS]

With Jos' sub back in the car, and that exhaust I can hear him about 5 minutes before he gets back to the house.