- Hey, Donnie Smith here,
and welcome to my lesson on body filler.
In this lesson, we're gonna talk about
how to get the repair area ready for body filler
and we're going to show you a method of how to
apply the body filler,
and how to block sand the body filler.
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Okay, this fender's now ready for some body filler.
So what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna get a DA,
and like I said, I'm trying to eliminate
the amount I use a grinder.
We used to always, when we would get ready for body filler,
you have to rough up the surface so
that the body filler will stick to it.
But we're starting to use DA's more.
And anytime you use body filler,
you want body filler to be applied straight over metal.
So we'll need to shave it down for the metal.
Alright, it's starting to take to the metal.
Takes a little bit longer doing it like this
than it may with a grinder.
And you may also notice that I'm using a dust respirator.
Any time that you're sanding
any paint for body fillers,
you don't wanna be breathing all that.
It's always a good idea to wear a dust respirator
when performing these type of sanding operations.
All right, as I'm DA-ing in this fender.
Whenever you apply body filler as I mentioned,
you want it to go,
you wanna sand past the repair area at least four inches.
So you ensure that you do get body filler on the metal,
and that it won't be overlapping, getting into the paint.
And here, I'm gonna go ahead and put a piece of metal tape.
I'll probably drop that later,
but for right now I'm gonna go ahead and put,
you don't have to use this aluminum type tape,
you can use a couple layers of
just regular masking tape.
This is a little bit stronger.
But, I'm gonna put a layer of that
so you don't scratch this bumper at all.
And sanding it off with a DA
is gonna take a little bit longer that a grinder,
like we've traditionally done.
But, it does not take hardly any metal off of it,
and that's the last thing we wanna do
is thin or weaken the metal.
A little extra time will be worth it in the end.
Now we have the repair area sanded down to the metal.
And we have it sanded well past the repair area,
so that if body filler does lap over a little bit,
we're not gonna get body filler onto the paint.
That's what you don't wanna get,
so all this area in here is metal.
Let's say perhaps there was an area here
that didn't come off with the DA,
a low area,
you could then use a little three-inch grinder
or something like that,
and grind that area out,
and then use a stud nail gun, or something like that,
if you could not get to the backside.
This is all gonna fill fine,
there'll be no problems with that.
So, what we do now,
is we can blow it off and get it good and clean,
and then we'll apply a light coat of body filler
onto the metal surface.
And probably with this one,
we can block sand it one time and be done,
and we'll go ahead and put glaze coat on this one
to show you how to do that,
block it out one time and then it'll be ready for prime.
Okay, we got it sanded down,
now we're just gonna blow the surface off.
It's very important not to put body filler on top of
dust, or anything, or it won't adhere properly.
And then we're gonna use this 3M gun
to apply the body filler.
I find this pretty useful.
It saves a lot of time.
I've already put a new tip on.
You need to be sure and,
make sure the body filler that's,
there's the hardeners inside this tube
and it mixes in this tip.
So, you wanna make sure
that it mixes before you put it on to the car
or you'll have unmixed body filler.
First you wanna apply it and put it on really tight,
push it down, spread it down really hard,
putting on a tight coat and that causes it to
adhere really good, sticking to the surface.
And then just put on a good, even coat.
You're not wanting to put too much on.
Gotta keep it thin as possible.
Now, I'm gonna also kinda feather my body filler in,
and that'll kinda prevent some of the
having to feather it in by sanding.
So I'm gonna kinda use this edge,
and I'm just gonna push real lightly,
all at the same time making sure
it's not on painted surfaces.
That's also kinda feathering the body filler in too.
And that way
it'll eliminate the amount of sanding that you have to do.
I don't really want any hard edges.
And that's gonna make certain it's not on the...
Get it back off the painted surface.
It's a lot easier to clean any areas like this up
while it's wet,
rather than trying to til it dries to dig it all out.
Alright, we've put the body filler on,
we've let it dry for a little bit,
and what I'm gonna do now is I'm gonna use a 36 and a block,
and I'm gonna block this out.
It's not fully dry yet,
but it's in the process of drying.
If you can catch it at the right time,
it's a lot easier to sand.
You can level it out, knock some of the highs down,
when it's like this.
So, I'll go ahead and sand it.
And if you sand too early, you're gonna peel it.
It's gonna start peeling from the metal.
And, of course, if we're too late,
it's gonna be fully hardened
and be a little bit harder to sand.
And you don't wanna try to sand
all the way down to the surface
whenever you're doing this method.
Just kinda level it out a little bit,
just to eliminate some of the (drowned out by sanding)
I'm just lightly going over it,
I really don't wanna get 36 scratches all out here.
You'll notice how fast it's sanding off.
It's starting to feel pretty level.
Feels good.
A little bit out here.
Get this side a little bit.
Okay, now that's all one sand right now.
I'm gonna go ahead and let it fully dry,
and then I'll finish sanding it out,
I'll switch to 80 grit
and get rid of these 36 grit scratches,
and then we'll talk about applying some putty.
And 3M now makes a putty,
glazing putty, with its same system.
It's pretty new.
This is the body filler that we have right here,
and then there's a glazing putty for it.
And they also came up with a fiberglass filler,
and that's used for anytime you weld something,
you have to put the fiberglass on first
because that seals really good.
Body filler doesn't really seal that good.
We'll talk about that later,
and we'll finish getting this sanded with some 80 grit
after it dries,
finish drying a little while here,
and then we'll be ready for the glaze.
Okay, now I've allowed it to dry a little bit longer
and now it's fully hardened.
So, I'm gonna go ahead and finish sanding this out,
and then I'm gonna hit it with a little bit more 36,
and then I'll switch to 80.
You can notice how much more,
it's a little harder to sand,
and it's more of a powder now that it's drier.
You wanna be sure and cross sand (drowned out by sanding)
Alright, that's starting to feel pretty level,
so I'm gonna go ahead and
switch to some 80 grit here.
Alright, now I got 80 grit on my block
and I'm gonna finish sanding it.
Especially on your edges,
be sure and cross in a lot, that helps feather it in
without undercutting it.
(drowned out by sanding) Sand in circles.
Back and forth.
It's very important to keep your block flat
in order to get a level surface.
It feels pretty good, but notice I do got a little bit
of body filler on the paint here,
I did overlap.
So, be sure that you do get that sanded off.
You'll notice we got some metal showing here,
sometimes that could indicate a high,
in this case it's not.
But sometimes we get metal showing.
Get the feel of it,
and if it is a high you can take your hammer,
and lightly you can tap it down.
I'm not gonna to it right now,
because I don't think that it needs that,
but you could lightly tap it down.
Now, from this point, you got a couple of options.
You could put some guide coat on here,
and go ahead and finish this off with 150 grit sandpaper.
But, we're gonna use putty on this one,
glazing putty.
And that wraps up the lesson on body filler.
Now, in this video we've finished out the body filler in 80.
But, you don't want to stop there.
The reason we did that in this video,
because we're gonna put glaze putty on it in the next video.
But, if you're gonna finish the body filler out
without glaze putty,
be sure that you finish it out with something finer,
something like 150 to 220 grit.
Kind of a preference.
I usually finish it out with 150, because
the primers I use, it seems like it fills that pretty good.
And a lot of times, I can prime a block one time
and it's ready for paint.
And another thing about finishing it in 150 grit,
again that's preference,
150 to 220 is kind of the range you can use,
but if you look at the P-pages
in the Mitchell Estimating Guide,
when it talks about what consists of the body repair work,
that's kind of where it ends,
that's the cut-off is 150 grit.
So, the body repair technician is paid up to 150 grit,
and once it's finished out in the 150 grit,
then it's considered to go over to the paint side.
And when it goes over to the paint side,
the refinish side,
anything finer than 150 kinda falls on their side.
So, that's kinda why I cut it off at 150.
And, again, that's what I use most of the time,
primer fills it great,
I've had no problems with that.
But, if you wanna go finger than 150,
and a lot of technicians do,
if you wanna go as fine as 180, or even 220,
you know, that's just a preference,
if you wanna go ahead and finish it out
with that grit of paper.
Then the paint department can finish it out,
feather edge it, with 220,
and continue with that until they get it prime blocked
and to the paint booth.
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Talk soon.