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More Paint Prep

The paint prep continues! I’ve been making my way round the van with 240 grit to see where we’re at.

Rear corners and rear end are fine bar a small area to the right of the N/S light aperture which needs some fine filler to bring the level up a bit:

Front end, front arches and B pillar are good to go over again with 400 grit as they look bob on (apologies for the back lit pic):

The large side panel has some lows which need further filler work and a re-prime but it’s not far off at all (the epoxy primer under the high build is a slightly different colour which makes it easy to know when to stop):

Similarly the N/S rear quarter has some lows that need filler and a reprime but isn’t far off. I’ve been using Proworx Silk as my fine filler. Lots of people rave about Dolphin glaze, but I’ve found it a nightmare to work with as it doesn’t sand very well, the silk stuff still goes on very smoothly but sands sooo much nicer.

Cab doors and sliding door tonight!

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Cab and Sliding Door High Build Primer

A busy weekend saw the cab doors and sliding door into high build primer. That’s everything primed now and I can start rubbing the primer down! No doubt some bits will need further work but I think that’s to be expected.

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After a busy couple of weekends playing guitar at both Palmstock (annual charity shindig) and one of my oldest friend’s wedding (an absolutely great day), I’m back on the van hitting it hard. Roof all rubbed down, prepped and into primer. Just the cab doors and sliding door left to high build!

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It’s times like this that the thousands of hours I’ve poured into this project really pay off. 3 coats of high build primer onto the shell last night. I’m chuffed with it. There are a few areas that still need some work (the transition into the lip on the N/S rear arch isn’t perfect) but on the whole it’s looking great.

I’ve also picked up the base coats now. I’m a way off needing them but can’t wait to get them on!

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Starting the long job of rubbing the epoxy primer down ready for high build primer. Some panels will need finishing filler applied to further refine the shape but the majority of the filler work is thankfully behind me!

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Well it’s taken considerably longer than I thought it would (nearly a week), as someone had previously covered huge chunks of the interior in white emulsion which was a pig to remove so I ended up bare metalling much more than planned. The interior is now completely epoxy primed and I can move onto prepping the exterior for some high build primer!

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A huge milestone this week. The final panel into epoxy! By far the worst panel on the van to do. Onto priming the interior next week.

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A slightly better picture of the N/S all epoxied! Feel like I’m getting somewhere now.

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N/S Rear Quarter Shaping and Epoxy

The past week I’ve been focusing on the N/S rear quarter.

First off back to bare metal to see what we’ve got. There’s a bit of a dent towards the back of the panel but on the whole it’s not too bad.

I found a few sections around the sliding door seal channel which needed fresh metal letting in, so I made up some repairs in my folder:

Followed by days and days of filler work (must be close to 20hrs to get to this point, even though it doesn’t look like much!):

And finally today I got it all epoxied. I’m really happy with this panel!

I also re painted the bottom of the corner, having reshaped the area where the battery tray welds were visible:

Onto the O/S rear quarter this week, the final panel!

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Large side panel shaped and epoxied. I think this is the first panel I’ve primed that I’ve been nearly happy with! I’ve also wet sanded the primer on the engine lid, which is pretty much ready for top coat now. In between jobs I’ve also stripped down the engine to get the tinware off to the powder coaters.

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