How to Paint Your Own Car

At this point, the dents had become smaller and harder to see. Ferre showed the students how to feel for the remaining high and low spots.

When the Goodmark replacement valance panel arrived, the guys used it to check their repair of the taillight panel. It was almost a perfect fit. The taillight panel only needed a little more massaging with a hammer and dolly to get all the attachment points to line up with the new valance.

We also got new door hinges from Year One. Once they were installed, the door gaps were aligned. To get properly fitting body gaps, you need to align the doors first (since the quarter-panels are fixed on most cars), then align the fenders to the doors, then finally align the hood to the fenders.

After receiving the fiberglass hood from Year One, we cleaned it with a water-based solvent to remove the mold-release agents-chemicals used to remove a fiberglass piece from the mold it was formed in. If these release agents aren't removed, they will contaminate the paint job, possibly causing lifting or bubbling as the paint cures. After that, the guys sanded the hood lightly with 150-grit sandpaper on a dual-action (DA) sander, scuffing the surface in preparation for filler and primer.

Body Filler
Once the taillight panel had been straightened out to the point where there were only a few small waves left, it was ready for body filler-often generically referred to as Bondo. LATTC student Omar Holloway ground off all the paint where filler would be applied with a 36-grit disc on an angle grinder. The paint had been left on until now because it's easier to see dents in a glossy, painted surface than it is on bare metal.

Ferre then demonstrated the proper way to mix and apply body filler. scoop out the amount you'll need using a stir stick or Bondo spreader.

Add the correct amount of hardener as recommended on the product's instructions. The correct ratio of hardener to filler is often described as looking like a bird dropping.