For the past several weeks I have been, in my spare time and when the sun was shining, dry-blocking the car out with 180 grit. The body was not so bad to start with, but a very talented painter I roped into coming down and looking at the car ran his hands over it and told me to do it.
Blocking isn’t really hard, as long as you have endless time and a taste for dust. I also spent like $100 on professional paper on a roll and one long(ish) Durablock, since my home-made wood block with stapled-on Home Depot paper was an absolute bodge and a PIA.
Things are going much more, er, smoothly now and I figure I only have another eleventy-bazillion hours to go before it’s ready to, er…spray with primer and block down again.
I started out by cleaning the car off and wiping it down with solvent, then shooting some black lacquer on it as a guide coat. The lacquer didn’t love the cool conditions and it’s not as good as a dedicated guide coat, but it got the job done and let me see a bit of a trough just behind the front of the clam, along both edges of both doors, and here and there.
Black and/or shiny? Fill that sucker!
After cutting down the paint and then scuffing away the shiny black stuff in the low spots I fired up some heaters. . .
…and mixed up a lil filler.
And then I sanded it off again, mostly.
I adjusted both the doors as well and tightened the hinge bolts to get them as close to on-plane as they can be and hold them steady there while I’m at this. My three-foot level tells me the edges are getting pretty good.
These are never going to be as “arrow-straight” as a custom you’d see at SEMA. I’m shooting for “as good as or better then what Wendler would’ve delivered in 1955,” which we’re just about there.
I’ll probably need a couple more fills and sands before the back 3/4 of the car is ready to go to 220 grit and high-build primer. The insides of the doors will need smoothing/filling as well.
I haven’t done the front fenders at all yet but the hood is getting there, so I guess we’re 25 percent done with the blocking process.
Here’s hoping next weekend is warm enough that I can get out there and block some more.
Along Came A Spyder 