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Bodywork pictures and advice

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regularman

regularman

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I will soon be starting on the body work of my 71. Its been taken apart for some time and its about all down to bare metal. Any advice on power tools to use? I have recently developed a problem with my right shoulder (maybe rotator cuff tear) and I am going to avoid hand sanding like I have done in the past. I figure i will do each fender, etc. a piece at a time and then primer them apart and maybe basecoat them befoe installation and then clearcoat the entire car once its back together. I have a dual action sander. Is then any other air or electric sander that I might need?
 
Go visit the local body shop and see what they have and use.

Of course you can get it a lot cheeper, like Harbor Frieght as ours will not be used 24/7.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Go visit the local body shop and see what they have and use.

Of course you can get it a lot cheeper, like Harbor Frieght as ours will not be used 24/7.

[/ QUOTE ] I live a couple miles from a harbor freight store. I was just looking for someone who had already done some spridget bodywork, but I guess its all about the same. I have done some bodywork on about 4 or 5 cars but its been a while and took a lot of elbo grease.
 
Good luck with that shoulder Kim, I had the surgery 4 years ago, best thing I ever did. If you've got 4 or 5 to do, I'd get sorted out first because it will hurt.
 
I meant to say I have done bodywork on 4 or 5 cars in the past. I have only this one to do now. I have been to the doc with my shoulder problems, MRI last week, results tomorrow. I think was caused the should problem was the brick work I did on my home this summer. 4000 bricks of repetitive motion on the shoulder. Thats when it started hurting anyways.
 
IMHO nothing beats a random orbital sander or a "DA" for doing panel work but if you want to save a little elbow grease take time to strip the panels with a good industrial strength airplane stripper. With any kind of chemical remover you must be careful to wash it down afterward with laquer thinner or the like. If you encounter a heap of bondo although the "DA" will only dig in to the filler, so you must move to a block sander and have some patence with it.....Good luck!
 
For the rough in work a DA and an air long board are great but for the finish work a hand long board and hand block are the only way to get a perfect job.
Hire the kid up the street who has a beat up car, he can learn how to fix his own after he hand sands yours /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
I need to hire my nephew, or use my left hand for sanding. The hood is laredy in good shape as I did the bobywork in it years ago. Its already bare metal I guess I just need to take my time and do one piece at a time. I wish I could do it outdoors but its cold out there.
 
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