Down under, an idiot and a 400F

[Hoosier Daddy]

I love the smell of Body Filler in the morning.

 

[ducatiboy]

I lived in Baulkham (sp?) Hills a million years ago

Sydney's bible belt!!

You're making awesome progress Neevo esp with a little one slowing you down. Keep it up

 

[stroker crazy]

+1!

Crazy

 

[neevo]

I love the smell of Body Filler in the morning.

It's a funky smell but quite pleasant. I'm not sure my technique is correct as I used about 3/4 kg of filler and sanded about 80% of that back off, the workshop looked like Lapland!

The result is quite pleasing though, it's taken me about 9 hours of relentless filler mixing and sanding back. It's not perfect but its only been epoxy etch primered and I'm hoping I can make tweaks with filler primer.

Here's how it currently sits:

Max filler depth is about 1/8" and that's around the fuelcap, everywhere else is mostly a skim coat except for the knee cutouts which were very wobbly.

The end result as I said is pleasing, only issues to fix are a small dent front left and the transition from flat to creased along the centre line of the tank is a bit clunky where it flattens out.

What's the best next step? Filler primer and fix the issues or look at a bit more filler? Can I put filler on epoxy primer (eg for the dent)?

You're making awesome progress Neevo esp with a little one slowing you down. Keep it up

I have to thank the missus for that! I do my stint to give her a break then she lets me crack on in the shed. She's very kind and very supportive of the build.

 

[deepwaterimports]

The tank is going to wicked when its finished.

 

[pandknz]

Neevo, you have done a grand job of that tank, I'm dreading mine and I only have to remove a couple of dents and paint it LOL

nice work mate!

 

[Kwality]

Looking good Neevo! Closing in on a year and 100 pages for the build and things are more than beginning to take shape. Coming together nicely!

 

[neevo]

Looking good Neevo! Closing in on a year and 100 pages for the build and things are more than beginning to take shape. Coming together nicely!

Wow a year! 26th Nov rolled around quick.

I'm pretty pleased with the progress as I gave myself 24 months to get it finished. Fingers crossed I can get it rolling under its own steam by the end of summer around April.

 

[kelvis]

Hey Neevo,

I remember reading a few pages back in your thread that you were thinking of investing in a spray guy and painting the bodywork yourself, thought I'd share this with you:

Bought this the other day for $120 (I'm in Tassie) from the local auto paint shop and I must say, for the money, it is awesome! Painted my tank and seat today (only basecoat, pinstripes & clear tomorrow) and I am really impressed with the finish that can be achieved, heaps of adjustability, air pressure, flow rate, pattern size. Give it a shot (pun not intended!)

 

[neevo]

Hey Neevo,

I remember reading a few pages back in your thread that you were thinking of investing in a spray guy and painting the bodywork yourself, thought I'd share this with you:

Bought this the other day for $120 (I'm in Tassie) from the local auto paint shop and I must say, for the money, it is awesome! Painted my tank and seat today (only basecoat, pinstripes & clear tomorrow) and I am really impressed with the finish that can be achieved, heaps of adjustability, air pressure, flow rate, pattern size. Give it a shot (pun not intended!)

Cheers kelvis that's really appreciated. I'm definitely going to grab a gun from my local paint store too, for $100 odd you can get something pretty good apparently (and you job looks spot on) so I think it's worth a shot.

It also means I can shoot 2k and access top quality paints like House of Color.

What sort of setup are you running? Keen to see some pics to see if my lot will work ok. Also did you shoot straight primer or a filler primer?

 

[BCBarker]

whats with the little dent in the front left?? Filler primer will not fill that!

 

[neevo]

whats with the little dent in the front left?? Filler primer will not fill that!

No idea, just missed it. Can I put filler on top of epoxy primer or do I have to sand it back to metal?

 

[crazypj]

Custom painter friend of mine always primers before filling, epoxy primer sticks better to the steel than filler

 

[neevo]

Custom painter friend of mine always primers before filling, epoxy primer sticks better to the steel than filler

I took the bodyshop supply places advice on that one. Fingers crossed it doesn't cause any issues. I will put filler straight on top of the primer for that dent then.

 

[Autotek]

Neevo you can def still fill that little dent. I recommend that you spend the next few days priming and block sanding. You have spent so much time on that tank it will be well worth it. Every layer of primer should be blocked. Get your hands on grey primer and mist the entire tank. When you block it, all of the imperfections will show themselves. If the bad spots are real bad fill them, if they are light continue layers of primer and blocking. Once you think its perfect, do it again. Then use a much finer grit to over the final prep before paint. Are you planning to paint it yourself? If you are, you will be happy you took these steps, if you are not then you can probably ask your painter to give it a once over. Should look great. Cant wait to see the fruit of all this lobor.

 

[neevo]

Thanks Autotek, just the sort of info I'm after!

Can you help me understand how I should be blocking the curved sections? These are not 100% because I struggled to get a perfectly smooth curve. What sort of block is good? Is 180 ok for block sanding?

I will be painting it myself as its cheaper and fits within the ethos of the build... DIY.

 

[Autotek]

Use a flexable but fairly stiff rubber sanding block. Your paint supplier should have them. They are about 3/16 to 5/16 thick and you can cut it down if you need to. I recommend about a 4x6 inch block. Sand in long strokes front to rear then top to bottom. The stiff rubber should contour to every thing, including to the inverted contours.

 

[Autotek]

180 is fine but move to 320 or maybe even 400 before paint.

 

[BCBarker]

The trace coat is your friend. (High contrast coat of paint on top of primer) it can be cheap paint because you are going to sand it off. I use matte black spray paint over light gray primer.

 

[neevo]

The trace coat is your friend. (High contrast coat of paint on top of primer) it can be cheap paint because you are going to sand it off. I use matte black spray paint over light gray primer.

No probs, I have a can of grey stuff here I might use.