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Whilst everyone raced around Chistmas shopping; I was sanding, whilst folks went out boozing and womanising; I was sanding, as folks sat there on Christmas day, eating turkey and drinking fine wines ... well ... I was eating turkey and drinking wine to, I may be daft but I’m not stupid: especially when it’s my sister cooking the Christmas meal. Phew its so large, you needn’t eat for a week afterwards.
The REFACE compound that we had sprayed on the car had set hard, rock hard infact and it took some sanding down. Recent past experience has taught me not to use a drill with sanding disk and so instead I’m using my manual 12” long board sander with 120 grade paper. It’s quite fine sandpaper to tackle the lumpy texture of the REFACE stuff (As we used a Tetra Shultz gun to apply it) but with plenty of elbow power and patience it does sand very smoothly
I started on the roof on the driver’s side and as I sanded away using the “blocking technique” folks have told me about noticed how much I was sanded down body in some areas and nothing in others. Whether by applying it incorrectly or not, applying the REFACE course actually really helped see the low spots. When dry the REFACE turns a creamy colour, but when sanded is pure white. This means that sanding the roof left lots of low bumpy areas that were instantly noticeable. (see top picture). After I sanded down as much as seemed sensible I then applied a fine coat of REFACE but when this dried it did not seem to fill in the dips that much. So mixing up some P40 body filler I smoothed that over the lumpy / low areas and let that set. Once ready, I sanded that all smooth and was amazed at the results, running my hand over the roof is like running your hand over glass, it’s that smooth.
Weather wise, I was very lucky over the Christmas / New Year period and as if to assist things, the sun made rare appearances through clouds and flooded the car with light. As I looked along the roof there wasn’t so much as a ripple that trapped the light. This was compared to a few weeks ago when the roof looked like the North sea in sunlight. The impetus of seeing how smooth and indeed how straight this blocking technique is really pleased me and so I carried on for hour after hour.
The passenger door had to be sanded right back to remove both the REFACE stuff and the blue paint that reacted with it. That was a job and a half and was like removing cement, my patient finally rewarded me and once the door was smooth and clean, it was then sprayed with REFACE. (Only for me to sand most of that off again)
I was amazed at just how many high spots the body had, if you look at the pictures everything that isn’t white is a high spot. Because the pictures here are so small, what you can not see is pale pink spots. These are areas that were so low they had to be built up, sometimes a small coating of body filler was just enough.
To say I have spent hours and hours sanding is an understatement, it literally was days and days. Never before have I been so frustrated that it gets dark so early in Winter. This meant that at about 3:30pm - 4pm everyday I had to pack up for the day - which was probably just as well as I could then spend some time with my girlfriend. One good thing was that I had booked off a week from work so that gave me extra time to spend more days on the car and indeed do the Christmas shop before it was too late. The driver’s side of the car was by far the worst side to do as it needed so much work to even it all out. The passenger side was a lot better but still the door and front wing took a lot of work.
The front was also sanded down and in a couple of areas I was very concerned as the REFACE appeared to be rubbery and would peel off when sanded - this in contrast to all other areas where it sanded down like rock hard body filler. Luckily this only happened in a couple of places and so I sanded those right down. The two outer sections of the roof are now amazingly flat, as sunlight will testify but the are a couple of ripples in the centre panel. The problem here is the roof is very flexible and bends with the slightest of weight. I have sanded it as flat as I can but know this bit isn’t perfect. It looks straight to the eye but running your hand over it you can feel a few slight bumps. I can live with that though because I know that the rest of the car is as near to flat and straight as I can get it ... anyway just how many people will notice the roof as I pootle along down the road.
Talking of which, and by way of explaining the last photo on this page; as I have been working on the car recently, a Robin has been perched on the fence watching me. As soon as I would try and grab my camera he would fly off. I then carry on working and he comes back and watches me.
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