o.k. if this has been brought up before forgive me,BUT here's the story.i kinda got myself into restoring an 85 el camino for my godson.it was given to him by his grandpa who was killed in an accident about 12 yrs ago.anyway.it had evidently been repainted before he got it.by the time i got it it was rusted thru in front of and behind the rear tires.it was a base clear paint and alot of the clear was flaking off.soo i figure as
i have done for all my repaints i take aircraft remover to and remove all paint.
But on this all i get is the paint,it seems the previous bodyman covered the entire car in a nice layer of spotputty.
i gotta ask is this the way they do bodywork these days.slap a layer of putty on and sand to make it smooth????
i will say i am not a "trained"bodyman.i grew up in the mechanical end of the business and kinda worked into doing bodywork.i had a 69 charger that i made quarterpanels for from the side of a chevy van.they were 2 piece and welded along the body line.time i was done they had less putty then the doors on this el camino.

 

Ah, the dreaded "skim coat."

I've got a beat-up pickup that was repainted when it was sold off from a fleet years ago - if you scratch it, you've got to go down about a sixteenth of an inch before you hit metal.

I'd be PO'd if I ever found this on a "good" vehicle, or if I ever had to do any "real" bodywork on it.

- Eric

 

I am no body guy but on TV yes they show the entire body being skimmed with what looks like filler then they sand everything. Seems to be the way to get a straight body these days. Saw it on Overhaulin, Gas Monkey, Count Customs, The Boyd Coddington show, etc, etc....

 

those shows pump out cars quick.i could see they don't want to spend 3 days working a door to get it straight without filler.but as MD said it would rattle my cage if i bought a car thinking it was razor straight to later find they did this.
maybe this is what the body schools teach these days i don't know,just seems cheesy to me.
i guess it comes back to the old saying"if you want it done right,do it yourself"

 

Yup.

You should ask CopperCutlass about this if you want to know more - he's a full time body man by day.

- Eric

 

I am a big fan of Overhauling. I was very surprised and shocked to see them cover the panels in filler. I wasn't taught that way. I would think that if you did want to use this process, then use ALL METAL. It at least will cure like metal but you probably wont see that being used all over because its about 45.00 a quart. I like doing my own work because I know what was done.