How To Create Perfect Car Body Finish Work

After all of the major body work is done, you'll need to do the finish work on your classic, this is what creates the smooth as glass look in your paint work, there is quite a few ways of going about getting the perfect finish on your body work.

Everybody loves a car that looks absolutely perfect when it's done, it's getting there that most people seem to have a problem with, most of us think that we're always in a hurry to complete the task at hand, but if you take that approach here it will end in disaster.

As I usually say, you need to take your time when you do your body finish work on your classic car, in this article we'll cover the process of making the body of your classic car look prefect when it's done, this is the step that will make, or break your paint work.

Let;s dive in head first guys and girls, to start with we'll assume that all of the major body work is complete, and the body of the car is in a roughed in stage of body work, by roughed in I don't mean ugly, I mean smooth and finished in 40 grit sand paper.

Our very next step will be to give the car a once over, look at all of the body work, and make sure that it doesn't need some help in a certain area, you don't want to discover this after you have the finish work started, so it pays to be 100% sure.

After you have inspected the body work, and it all look good, we can move on to the finish body work stage, this in my opinion is one of the most important steps for the outcome of your paint work, now that we have that done let's go.

You'll need to get a long sanding board maybe 1-12 inches long, and load it with 80 grit sand paper, once you have it loaded with the 80 grit sand paper, you'll need to go over the rough body work to remove the 40 grit sand paper scratches from it.

As you do this you'll need to pay close attention to your work, you don't want to sand to far and make a high spot appear in your work, after you have sanded the entire body work area of the car, you'll need to mask the car up, we'll be spraying feather fill on it.

Feather fill is a high build spray-able body filler, you'll want to spray three coats on the car, wait about fifteen minutes between coats of feather fill for flash time, after you have sprayed the last coat of feather fill on the car, you'll need to give it some dry time.

You'll need to follow the factory recommended dry to sand times to the letter for the best results, after you have let the feather fill dry according to manufactures recommendations, you can then sand it, first I'd go over it very lightly with 80 grit paper on a long board.

After the 80 grit sanding is completed, you'll need to guide coat the entire car, guide coat is a sort of black satin paint that is designed to help you see the high, and the low spots in your body work, this will help you make sure that it's perfect.

Then just take the very top surface off with the 80 grit sand paper, next you'll be moving to 180 grit sand paper on the long board, we use a long board because it will make the car appear smoother, the longer the sanding board the better.

After you have sanded the entire car with 180 grit sand paper, and there is no more guide coat left on the car, your ready for primer, but that is a different article, after this stage, you'll need to inspect the car one last time to make sure it's right, and your done.

Learn more about this author, Woody Johnson.
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