Is it just me or does this happen to everyone?

[80LS1T]

I primered the back half of my car last night and after it dried I noticed that there are 6-8 spots that are either too high or too low. I never noticed them before I primered(I obviously would have fixed the areas!) but now that the whole area is one color I noticed these spots that I apparently missed! Just when I thought I was almost done too!

 

Is this pretty normal when doing body work or are my eyes just bad! LOL I hope the front end isn't like this!

 

Guy

[alexideways]

You just discovered the age old trick to a perfect bodywork... Put one layer of dark grey primer and then a second coat of a lighter grey primer. You then take your long block and block sand in a crisscross patern at about 45* angle, all your high spots will be dark grey, the low spots light grey and the straight panels will be a mix of both colors...

[G.I.jonas]

Actually good body work is impossible by sight,anyone who is anything at body work goes by feel,learn to map every square inch with your hands and you will never miss a thing,highs and lows are easily found before you ever think of priming.

[v8wannabe2]

Alexideways has the right idea, it's called guidecoating. I lay down a couple coats of a high build primer and then mist it with a contrasting color. You will see the dents as the board won't remove the paint in the low sport. Get use to using your hand to assess the flatness too, rub it back and forth over the area in question and with a little practice you can get pretty good at finding the highs/lows. When you sand always use the longest sanding board possible, I use an assortment of different length boards along with wooden dowels, rubber hose, etc. When your sanding sand in an X pattern. Yep, you can expect to put a lot of hours in to it to get it straight. Remember, with body work you only see what you did wrong when it's finished

[2003z]

in other words, its perfectly normal.

[80LS1T]

Well atleast it's not just me! Most of the spots that are uneven look like they'll be pretty easy to fix.

 

Speaking of which, how do I fix those low spots? Sand it down to metal and apply a skim coat of filler and smooth it out with a sanding board?

 

Guy

[Challenger]

I shadowed at a body shop and the part would look perfect then theyd prime it and it would look horrible. Theyd go through this a bunch of times and sooner or later it would be perfect.

 

What did everbody use to get theyre headlight buckets smooth and strait(inside of buckets/edges)?

[G.I.jonas]

Yea, you usually dont have it right first time...prime it,check it,sand it,remud it,sand it, prime it,check it,sand it,remud it,sand it,prime it,check it ect. ect. something like that will become your life in body work.

[rdsk8ter]

i learned my fiance can find small imperfections ask a girl to run there hands over it they will tell you where it is high and where it is low because they often do not have callused hands like us guys do lol.

[74_5.0L_Z]

I would not go back to bare metal to fix the low spots. Just rough up the area with 80 grit, and apply a thin layer of filler centered on but larger than the low spot. After it cures, blend and reprime. You will probably have to repeat several times before all of the low spots are gone.

[Two40MuscleZ]

Darker colors especially black shows everything! To achieve that pristine perfect finish, you may wind up guide coating and blocking out the entire primered car, 3-5 times. Each time changing up to a higher grit of sand paper. Then again after the car is base coated/clear coated you get to wet block it several more times until the refraction properties in the clear are a perfect 45 degree angle in and out. You'd have to be into painting to fully understand the principle behind that statement. Then buff out the clear to eliminate sanding scratches and wheel polishing/buffing marks. Then you get to wax it a few times. It's a long and argeous task. But done correctly, its a whole different dimension to look at.