first time body work...help

I hear ya^^ might just have to "block it" and get it primed...I at least want it one color for real. one bedside is black the other is gray, the cab and doors are blue the fenders black and the tailgate is white....got to fix all that.

If your gonna be buying bondo go with "RAGE"

Originally posted by Tacon19s



I hear ya^^ might just have to "block it" and get it primed...I at least want it one color for real. one bedside is black the other is gray, the cab and doors are blue the fenders black and the tailgate is white....got to fix all that.

Autobody101.com is a great site to get you comfortable with doing it yourself probably taught me alot of what I know .

Patience is the key , sometimes a panel will take 5-6 recoatings of filler before you get it perfect . You get frustrated step away for a few . Sanding angles are also a huge key to straight bodywork

The easiest thing I can give you is go one dent at a time . Since your not in primer yet , I would go around the complete truck feeling for dents marking them off with a Piece of tape . Then slowly knock each dent out and have those spots ready for primer . Then block the complete truck out .

For shaving cannot stress it enough take your time if a door handle takes hours ,but has no distortion after it will be worth it in the end alot less bodywork .



One huge tip never use KITTY HAIR

eddie, if u want gimme a call on my cell 386.290.6891, if u dont feel like messin w/ it by the time u move to jax, our shop is in st. augustine, just south of jax. im sure we can help u out w/ it. i dont mind showin u how to bodywork it correctly as long as ur workin on it w/ us. its not bad to do at all. just a thought like i said. either way gimme a shout, and ill see what we can do to give ya hand. later man

I would probably just take some 80 grit on like a big grinder/buffer with a 8" backing pad on it and just take it down to metal all over. Keep it moving and do not over heat the panel. Then you could get some SEM Metallock which is a high build epoxy primer and lay 3 good heavy coats on it. You could leave it alone for a while then. It would all be one color and waterproof. Then whenever you get a chance you could block it down and find all your low spots and work them as needed. Only thing about that is if you sand out any previous bodywork its gonna look worse than before til you refix it. The good thing is you can do your bodywork on top of the primer, just sand it with like 180 wherever you are gonna put plastic.

When you start fixing the dents remember that wherever there are low spots (dents) there are probably gonna be high spots around them that need to be tapped down and worked. Not so much on dings but bigger dents really need to be metal worked before you fill them or you will be chasing them all over the truck.

It's funny I read every post here adn no one even mentioned on KEY element when doing any body work!!!! First thing first, if you have a "dent" FIRST try and get to the back side of the dent and hammer and dolly it first. with metal try and make it as flat as possible with out making it and "outie" dent, this will minamize the amout of filler. if you can't use a hammer and dolly then look into a "stud gun welder" that way you can weld studs and pull the metal out. always work your metal before applying any filler. also look into a straight metal file, I use one almost every day to make sure an are doesn't have high spots before i use filler. Filler is not ment to fill in large dents, filler in my shop in at max 1/2" deep. any deeper than that and you "could" have problems later.

Thats my two pennies from a body shop.

Originally posted by vegasnotnormal



It's funny I read every post here adn no one even mentioned on KEY element when doing any body work!!!! First thing first, if you have a "dent" FIRST try and get to the back side of the dent and hammer and dolly it first. with metal try and make it as flat as possible with out making it and "outie" dent, this will minamize the amout of filler. if you can't use a hammer and dolly then look into a "stud gun welder" that way you can weld studs and pull the metal out. always work your metal before applying any filler. also look into a straight metal file, I use one almost every day to make sure an are doesn't have high spots before i use filler. Filler is not ment to fill in large dents, filler in my shop in at max 1/2" deep. any deeper than that and you "could" have problems later.

Thats my two pennies from a body shop.

I think nobody stated it because it is quite obvious you try to straighten it out before bodyworking it . 1/2 deep of filler ? thats alot no matter if its a small ding

That is what I meant by "metal worked before you fill them" but I probably shoulda went into more detail being that he is a beginner. I would definately try to keep that filler less than 1/2" also. I cant say Ive never done it but that is alot of filler. I would be fired if I was caught using more than 1/4" of plastic. On my own truck I would replace any panel I couldnt fix with 1/8"-1/4".

Edited: 6/13/2008 9:53:34 PM by Tacon19s

so no filler thicker than 1/4" on anything? Its good all this is brought up, being a beginner its all helping. the dents i have a on the kinda on the rear of the cab, the rear pillars i guess they are called so I cant get to the back of them to beat them out, also some on the hood and top of the cab on the roof there is a couple. the passenger bedside has the fender flare holes which are about a half inch wide and long...would I need to weld in a filler for all those? also, all the welding I have done has been flux core, if and when I get to the thin sheetmetal will it help the warping if i get some gas hooked up to the welder being fluxcore burns hotter???

I might hit you up Mikey depending on what it would cost...that would be awesome. thanks for all the help guys this is alot of info!!!anything else as far as kitty hair? use it or not?

yeah my pops always told me if you have to use more than a 1/4 inch of filler than it should of been replaced.