I'm beginning my project with the preparation of the body for
painting.
I'll be painting the body, hood, deck lid, deck lid hinges, firewall,
and the spare wheel for the trunk. I'm not including the fender skirts
(parts 93 & 94) or the hood hinges (parts 84 & 85) on mine but if you
are then now's the time to work with them.
The first step is removing the mold lines from the body shell. They are
at the corners of the upper windshield frame, corners of the lower
windshield frame, between the base of the taillight fins and the trunk,
front of the top of the taillight fins by the rear window, and inside and
below the headlights. I'm using a flat and an angled needle or riffler
file to do this. The mold lines at the base of the taillight fins are
a little tricky to get to. I shaved these down a bit with a #10 X-Acto knife
then carefully (and patiently) filed them smooth. These should be not as
noticeable anyway as the rear bumper will somewhat obscure it from view
once it is added later.
Next up is removing the body trim items that will be replaced by
photoetched
items. If you're using kit #8315 then leave them on and skip
this step.
First off is filing off the "Bel Air" scripts and badge from
both tail
fins. Sand it down even with the ridges of the side panel lines. I won't be
removing all these panel ridges, I'll be simply covering them
with the
photoetch pieces. It would be difficult to smooth out this surface
cleanly between the upper and lower side trim. I'm also not removing
the molded on lower body trim pieces below the doors for photoetch items
#3R & 3L in favor of using Bare Metal Foil later on in order to keep the
appearance of the chrome trim uniform with the rest of the body trim. After
that, file off the door locks and the "Chevrolet" hood and deck lid scripts
and smooth the surface with some medium or fine sandpaper. I use
Testor's
flexible sandpaper (sold in a package of 5 sheets from coarse
to extra fine)
since it conforms to curved areas nicely.
Finally, remove the hash marks on the front fenders. To help me place the
photoetch hash marks later on in the proper places I drilled a small hole
in the center of each hash mark with a tiny #80 drill bit before
filing them
off. When I put the photoetch parts on later these holes will help guide
where they will be properly placed on the fenders and will cover the holes.
I didn't drill all the way through but if you do it won't be
noticeable
anyway. You don't have to do this if you feel you can judge the
placement
on your own.
Next is sanding the flash off the pieces. My kit body has a small
amount of
flash around the inside of the trunk, windshield and rear
window,
engine compartment area, wheelwells, and some areas of the lower body edges.
I use Testor's medium grit flexible sandpaper on all curved surfaces like
the wheelwells. Filing a curved surface, like a wheelwell for example, is
difficult to manage evenly and is easy to gouge into the edge. Some flatter
areas like the flat stretches of the upper windshield, rear window, and
trunk I did use a flat riffler file and a curved riffler file in the corners.
On the bottom edge of the body below the doors I used a
Flex-I-File medium
grit sanding stick. Finally I check all for any sharp edges
anywhere on
the body and sand them down with the medium flexible sandpaper. I do this
because paint chips off sharp edges more easily during later stages of
handling and polishing.
Next is checking the door lines for depth. I always darken these
later with
brush paint to provide more realism so I like to make sure they are
deep enough, especially if you plan on using a lot of paint as the paint
coats will fill these in and help to hide them. I don't think they are too
bad on my body but I'm still going to scribe the lines just a bit deeper for
a better effect. I use a Squadron scribing tool but another common tool to
scribe with is the back of a sharp X-Acto knife blade. Simply hold the blade
tip inverted and trace it along the lines using slight pressure. Try not to
allow the blade to slip out of the line groove as running it across the body
surface will require putty to fill in the mistake. Be extra careful
maneuvering around corners and irregular surfaces. Don't throw in the towel
if it happens. It's easy to goof up and happens often to me. Also, if you
happen to slip outside of the line groove keep in mind that when you go over
it again the blade will tend to follow the same path so be extra patient around
these areas. I usually rescribe these lines three or four times to get them to
a sufficient depth. Once you get the feel of scribing lines
you have the
learned the technique for opening doors and trunks. You just
continue to
scribe until you slice all the way through.
Next up is body putty. As soon as I opened up the box I noticed two glaring
sink mark areas on the top of the body between the rear window and trunk.
On my body I also found sink marks on the outside rear corner areas of the
tail fins, two small sink marks on the deck lid, and a very slight depression
on the roof directly above the inside dome light. Also, on the
hood there are
raised areas on both corners where the hood hinges mount
beneath. These
were sanded down with a medium grit sanding stick. I
mention this now
since I will not be using the hood hinges on my model so I will
be filling
in the mount holes on the underside of the hood when I'm puttying
the rest
of the body.
Some puttys won't stick well to these smooth surface areas. To remedy this,
first I scuff the surface with Testor's medium grit sandpaper then I drill
a series of small holes into, but not through, the surface areas.
When you apply
the putty press the putty into these holes while you're covering
the surface.
These will cure and help reinforce and anchor the putty to
the plastic.
When the putty dries I sand it down with a medium then a fine
sanding stick
so that the putty area is flush with the surrounding
surface. Try not
to sand flat areas with your fingers as this could leave the
surface uneven.
The putty of my choice is Evercoat Spot-Lite 2-part automotive
polyester putty.
I use it because it dries rapidly and can be sanded
within a half hour
and doesn't shrink. Find this at any good automotive paint
supply store.
Another problem I encountered while test fitting the deck lid to the trunk is
that the leading edge of the deck lid was very slightly warped
and did not sit
flush with the body. I fixed this by bending it slightly with
my fingers and
sanding down the front and side edges of the underside with a
medium grit
sanding stick until it lined up with the body.
Yet another flaw to be corrected was the two injection holes on the sides of
the deck lid hinges. You could fill these with putty then sand them even
if you like or sand them down even with the side of the hinges like I did.
Once I had the body putty areas taken care of I scuffed the entire surface
of the body. Once again, primer and paint doesn't stick as well to smooth
areas so we'll rough it up a bit to provide something for the
primer to
bite into. This will guard against chipping or flaking of the paint during
later stages of handling and polishing. You could use the Testor's medium
grit sandpaper to do this or, like me, I use the 2400 grit sanding cloth
from an LMG Polishing Kit since it seems more flexible and easier to work
with on compound curve areas. Be careful around delicate areas and areas that
you do not wish to remove (like body scripts or emblems for
> example).
Also remember to scuff the underside of the body around the
lower body
and wheelwells and the underside of the hood and deck lid as we will be
painting these areas as well. Scuffing the engine compartment area, firewall,
and spare wheel is not really necessary because it is too
complex of a
surface to sand and polish effectively later on after we have painted it.
That's about it for preparing the body for the primer coat and
painting. We'll
move on to that in the next step which I'll be working on
and typing up
within the next few days. Any questions about this phase
feel free to fire away.
- Leon Tefft
