How straight on the body lines?

[mehal]

Hey all,
I'm a newbie body man working on my 77 Bronco that is a first time body/paint effort for me. The truck is a bit over the top with custom metal flares, bumpers, roll cage, stroker motor, etc.etc. and will definitely be a show stopper when (or if) I finish it. I've done so many other crazy modifications on the truck that I really want the body and paint to wow people since everything was done by me. If it matters, I'm going to paint it with Bentley Neptune Blue which is a cool blurple that you can probably see on the roll bar. Its a metallic and I will do the extra flow/shoat coat with the clear, so imperfections may be more visible.

Hey are some pride pics:

Anyway, back to the point. I've been working on the body for months and I'm down to final sanding, but can't seem to get the primary body line as perfect as I would like it. If you know these old Broncos, the body panels and lines rarely line up all the way down the side. I used the masking tape trick a few times and sanded right up to the edge and thought it looked good, but when I shot over the sanding with black epoxy, I could see some variances right at the body line peak. I've fixed a couple of major issues with a little filler, sanding, and more epoxy, but even with all that and the latest coat of epoxy, I'm still not sure its good enough.

Here are some pics of the work and trouble areas:

I sanded down the high point of the body line the whole length of the truck with a rigid block and 220 to see if it would be straight, but there are a few areas that are still a little shiny which mean they are low. So my questions is this:

1. Should I just kept sanding with 320, 400, 500 and go over the peak of the body line carefully and all the sanding will take care of any minor imperfections?
or
2. Should I spray a coat of Turbo High Build and try to get it straighter?

I'm hoping I can just keep sanding, but to be honest I lose sight of how straight the peak is without a reflection (my eyes are old) and I'm worried it will show up in the final product.

Thanks in advance for all your most-excellent advice. - Mike

 

[crashtech]

Could be that you have sharpened up the line with filler too much at this point, you may need to roll the block across the body line a bit in a crisscross pattern to form a nice radius.

Also in situations like this, it's tempting to work from above more than below, because coming upward from below the body line with the block upside down is more difficult, but it's equally important.

 

[73surffisher]

Hello Mehal, you peaked my curiosity with your body work / customization. I have a 73 I'm currently on and never really cared about the gap between upper, lower quarter panels and tail light buckets? What did you do to remove those seams ?

Thanks Ray

 

[mehal]

Hi Ray, I welded them up and had to cut/raise one of the lines slightly on the tail light bucket.

- Mike

 

[jlcustomz]

I'd agree with crash that more sanding from the curved body line upwards to the sharp line is in order. Last pic indicates also cross sanding down out of the curve down a few inches is important. May want to try some long stick on paper wrapped around a nice straight wood dowel approx 3/4" diameter with very light pressure for a portion of the sanding before switching back to something wider & softer..
On the old eyes thing, looking at pics after some sanding, such as you posted here on a decent sized hd computer monitor screen can help give your eyes a little perspective. Right behind the tendency to do more sanding downwards at you difficult body lines is the fact that working up close on something for endless tiring hours inside a space doesn't let you see it from a distance. Looking at pics of partially sanded epoxy helps me get a better perspective. At least that's what some aging person told me once, not that I'd know about that.

 

[mehal]

Thanks Crash and JLCustomz.

 

[El Toro]

I like to add that I like to sand body lines like Crash said but stay with 180 to get them straight at this point 400 -600 is to fine

 

[MX442]

I just went through this on the style line of my 57 Chevy pickup. 2 rounds of poly primer and blocking took care of it. I don't think turbo would work well. Like the others said, I blocked the upper surface flat, then put tape on the upper (like you did in your pic). Then used a PVC pipe of similar radius to sand up the curve to the tape. Once it was all crisp, I softened the edge.

 

[mehal]

Thanks El Toro and MX442. I am following your advice. I had been using Poly all along, but thought the Turbo might be a bit quicker for the final steps. I have actually made good progress just using Epoxy, tape, and stiff blocks with 180. That said, I actually had to get a metal file and do a bit of hammer work to move a real bad spot on one of the doors lines. Really strange how it seemed to bit a bit lower than the rest of the line peak and I hit metal trying to move it up with sanding. Its a repo, so I'll chock it up to poor quality.