Auto Body metal working

Sure, air powered with wet paper on them. Grit depends on what coat your on.

Going over a dry vehicle to break the gloss on the paint and provide tooth for a sealer - 220 Going over the final primer coat as prep for the color coat - 400 then a follow up wiping with wax and grease remover.

Final sanding before a buffing - 1200 ON A HAND BLOCK!

BUT you will want to practice with the D/A before you use it a lot. There are a lot of paint jobs that look like an ocean due to rocking the D/A while using it. You want to hold it FLAT on most surfaces use the edge in grooves and such.

Keep in mind that after every use you will want to wipe down with W?G remover. This is due to the air supply having oil in it.

I also HIGHLY recommend that if your doing ANY painting with a gun that you get a GOOD water separator and a different hose to feed the gun. Mark it and cap it off after each use. That way you have a clean air line to use. NEVER use it for tools, just gun use.

Reply to
Steve W.
Loading thread data ...

Yes, BUT they also take some practice if you have used an older style gun. Because they put on more paint in one pass you have to be more carefull about runs,drips and orange peel from heavy paint. Once your used to them they are great.

I have a descent old school gun I got from a mechanics

For the grater I suggest the original sureform tools. Get a flat and half round profile and maybe a rat tail one if you have any holes to work around. Inline sanders vary in quality a LOT, but for most use the lower end ones work OK. Buy GOOD paper though. The cheap stuff is just that.

It's kind of fun having old autos that I

Yeah there is no substitute for actual hands on when it comes to body work. I started learning as a kid of about 7 from some old school body knockers.

Reply to
Steve W.

You too!!

I got fed up with the constant dings and rock chips around the bottom of my Blazer and used black bed liner to paint it up to the trim line. Originally I had thought about two toning it after repairing the dings. Instead I just scuffed out the chips, spotted any rust quick and coated all of it. Less time and looks real good.

Reply to
Steve W.

Currently I'm in Evansville Indiana, the company I work for sent me for Siemens S7 PLC training.

Anyway, on the way back from supper we saw a Harbor Freight store, I had never been in one before. We made it to the store at 7:40PM and they close at 8:00PM so I didn't buy anything yet, but will be going back a time or two before we leave Friday. My experience with cheap tools is that some are fine, some are crap, but I've been satisfied with most. If I use a tool enough that a cheap tool doesn't hold up then I'll get a better quality.

Any recommended Harbor Freight tools to get or avoid for auto body (or other) metal working, sanding, and painting? I thought there might be some favorite HF tool recommendations to get while I'm here.

Thanks!

RogerN

Reply to
RogerN

A year ago I bought a couple of 24" vernier calipers at HF for $7 each; closeout items, so might not be available anymore, but worth looking for. They're not super-duper items for metalworking, but great for carpentry; aluminum rather than steel, and 1/128" resolution on the inch scale, 0.05mm on the metric scale, good feel to the slide and overall good appearance.

Also see if 6" digital calipers are on sale - they usually are priced about $20 at HF, but often go on sale for $15 or so, and sometimes $10.

Reply to
James Waldby

Roger, based on my experience, do not buy anything at Harbor Freight needing sharp edges or with motors. If you stick to this rule, many other things that they have will most likely work.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus27711

Their body work tools and supplies are pretty good-excluding sand paper. JR Dweller in the cellar

-------------------------------------------------------------- Home Page:

formatting link
If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes Doubt yourself, and the real world will eat you alive The world doesn't revolve around you, it revolves around me No skeletons in the closet; just decomposing corpses

-------------------------------------------------------------- Dependence is Vulnerability:

-------------------------------------------------------------- "Open the Pod Bay Doors please, Hal" "I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.."

Reply to
JR North

I bought one of those too. It looked good, and I was amazed you could buy anything like that for less than $10. I have yet to use it, but it looks good hanging on the pegboard. Might have to buy another for the house ;)

Reply to
RBnDFW

The one complete failure item from HF, about 20 years ago was a set of flare wrenches, Pittsburgh brand. Might have improved, since then. Other than that, I've been satisfied with thier quality to price ratio.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Any recommendations on where to buy paints? In town we have an O'Reily's, Autozone, and Auto Pro, but I'm not sure if any of them sell paint. We used to have a Lincoln Auto Supply that sold DuPont stuff but they closed years back. Or is there a favorite place to order paints online?

RogerN

Reply to
RogerN

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.