My 3A so far. First drive on the road

[1955CJ-5]

They have started to "salt" the roads around here...too many slide-offs and crashes when it snows I guess...I think they use magnesium chloride..still a corrosive salt though...

I bought the seam sealer at an automotive paint store. There are lots of varieties of the stuff..I think I used the same gun as you would use with painters caulk.

A little practice and you can make a really nice smooth almost invisible seal and it can be painted..

[LeeC]

Looks good, go over it with the DA (at least the parts that show the most) and put a good epoxy primer on it. Sand blasting can leave a course finish, and make sure it is well cleaned. Good luck.

Lee, should I primer first or can I so the body work first. I know back in my day it was a no to put any filler on anything but bare metal. So far I have heard both ways on that along with the seam sealer. I would prefer to DA it and do the filler and seam seal then primer it. Mainly because I have a friend
with� good paint guns and a paint room for that. He says prime but either way
 would be okay as far as he knew since he paints for a hobby. He is pretty
good at it though. Thanks

I like to put filler over bare metal too but I live in Mass. and sandblasted metal tends to rust real quick around here. If rust isn't a problem leave it as is, if not sometimes you have to sand it off where you need to do work.

[Carls_jeep]

You should primer your tub to protect it from rust and then do any body work needed. If you don't primer it it WILL start showing rust spots.

BTW, nice machine tools. I saw a photo of a CNC lathe, do you do machine work for a living at home?

[specialty]

You should primer your tub to protect it from rust and then do any body work needed. If you don't primer it it WILL start showing rust spots.

BTW, nice machine tools. I saw a photo of a CNC lathe, do you do machine work for a living at home?

I have a shop close to town about 5 miles away from my home and that's what I do. I have my Jeep there to do the dirty work and then will take it home to finish up. Thanks

[LeeC]

Agreed, I think they use that alien blood *crap on the roads up here. Depending on how fussy you plan on being (especially with a dark color) take a little extra time with spots like the hood and top of the fenders. In the right light a little spot can really stand out.

[specialty]

Agreed. I just went and got me one of those foot long air pneumatic sanders. I plan on doing the hard work with that getting it down close and then finishing by hand with a foot long board sander on these big flat surfaces. I am no body man but I have done enough of it to know that big flat surfaces will show the waves and take extra work to get straight. I hope my patience doesn't wear out on it!

[LeeC]

Last winters project.

[LeeC]

Had more pics.

[specialty]

Looks good. Did you do all the body work?

[LeeC]

Yes,  it's a brand new Brookville roadster body. I had to take off all that nasty red primer a lot of fitting and tweaking and then paint. That dark brown stripe was a real pain. This is just a hobby for me, the results were good but I think I painted some parts 5 times (don't tell).

[specialty]

You did a excellent job. Do you have your own paint room? I had a friend who painted a Scion for me in his garage with a makeshift paint room of plastic and a few exhaust fans. He waited for the perfect day and the results were outstanding. It had a little dirt and a few bugs in it but with base coat clear coat it was fairly forgiving after a good wet sanding and buffing. Most of the imperfections were gone or very difficult to see. Where there is a will there is a way is very true. Nice job.

[LeeC]

No special paint room, I do get some dust from time to time, I have a good exhaust fan though. This car was painted with acrylic
enamel so I could wet sand and buff it. My biggest problem is not knowing when to stop and wet sanding or buffing through a small spot then have to repaint an entire section. Good thing I don't do this for a living, I'd go broke, slow but good results.

[specialty]

That's called job security! Or hobby security. Nice piece.

[Austin]

Your progress looks really good so far. Hopefully we can go on a ride soon. I met a guy in Bentonville who has a 46 CJ2A. I mentioned something to him about going on a day trip up in the mountains and he seemed up to it.

[macrisel]

My opinion is to spray epoxy primer over fresh metal as soon as possible.  You may think you will start the body work the next day but........life happens.  Most good epoxy primers will allow you to spread mud on top of the primer but as mentioned earlier some people still like to sand down to bare metal and fill on top of that.

You didn't mention it, but a great product to use after body work is filler primer.  This is thicker than epoxy and "softer" but its purpose is to fill in minor sanding marks and act as a final step before paint.  There is one big secret to filler primer.....time.  The longer you let it cure after spraying before final sanding the better because the primer will "shrink" a little as it cures.  One local restoration shop will not touch their filler primer for a minimum of six months depending on the weather conditions.  Of course, most of your body shops paint within 24-48 hours of the primer drying which is fine.  It is just a matter of how slick you want your paint.

Finish body work is really not about money, but more about time and skill.  I unfortunately have neither one of these......I usually end up looking like Thor when I do body work.  However, I'm lucky enough to have a buddy who is an excellent body man and owns a paint booth!

Great looking projects!