body work questions

[T4x4R]

Xmas came early, got my new gauges from speed hut laid out. They offer Lots of customizable options. Hope they work as well as they look! I also laid out my dash over a morning coffee cause why not.

Have finished a bunch in the last few weeks so figured I’d share. Got the engine back from the machine shop. My plan is a dark green for color, I think the block color came out spot on. I’ll be adding a Holley/msd dizzy and the sniper.

Now that I have recovered the body from the bad body shop experience I need to start chipping away at it, fixing unfortunately all the bad work.

Like everyone I’m having some fit issues on these repo panels. Any body experts out there who can see my errors please let me know. The drivers side is making me pull my hair out

 

[T4x4R]

Pictures

 

[yakelys69]

Looking good, really like the gauges.

 

[bronkenn]

You might want to check out SPI paint products. I used them on my project and really liked them. The owner Barry is a real customer oriented guy and will answer any questions personally and is a wealth of knowledge. His primers and clears are some of the best and the pricing is a lot better than the major brands. Check out their website as there is a lot of info on it. Ken

 

[68Broncoz]

Looks really nice. Is that new aluminum manifold or did you refinish it?

 

[T4x4R]

BronKenn thanks for the info I’ll def check it out

The manifold is the one I refurbished. Hopefully it works well with the sniper setup

 

[T4x4R]

So for this body work. Pretty much everything is new sheet metal with the black coating. Do I need to take it down to bare metal or can I prime over it? Then this kind of a sequence?

Prime
Skim
Block
Prime etc

Should I install the door latches, weather stripping etc to make sure my gaps and alignment are good? Or just eyeball it? Example, My doors are sitting high w no weight in them, the top is sitting high in the rear about 1/4-1/2” etc

 

[trailerjack]

Looks great!

 

[bronkenn]

So for this body work. Pretty much everything is new sheet metal with the black coating. Do I need to take it down to bare metal or can I prime over it? Then this kind of a sequence?

Prime
Skim
Block
Prime etc

Should I install the door latches, weather stripping etc to make sure my gaps and alignment are good? Or just eyeball it? Example, My doors are sitting high w no weight in them, the top is sitting high in the rear about 1/4-1/2” etc

Should be able to scuff it up a bit and shoot the primer. I would do a coat of epoxy primer first to make sure the next coats will stick. I do two coats of epoxy than do any body filler you have to then epoxy again then 2-3 coats of high build primer and block it.
I would definitely fit all the panels first before starting any of the paint process. If the door is that much high I would get it a little closer, more like 3/16 to 1/4 high in the back with no guts in it.

 

[T4x4R]

Thanks ken that’s helpful, I’ll get this panel issue under control and then do that.

I’m scratching my head trying to figure out where my panel fit issues are. Im thinking I have a top issue, but I’m also starting to think there’s more going on especially with the drivers side. I need to wrestle with the front fender so it’s flush. The other pictures are of the drivers side door “bump” and body line. The door seems to have a line issue where the it’s flaring out. Is this something I can hammer/dolly and shape?

I might have just looked at it for hrs though and you guys are going to tell me it’s as good as it’s going to get with a repo door. I also have not put any rubber under the top so maybe that’s the fix to level it out.

Please disregard the cage, in my opinion it’s unsafe and will be changed.

Thanks for any input.