Alright Alright, Mozman's going to get his photos.
Looks like I was a little short to him last time. Trying to fill, sand, prime, paint and clearcoat one's Jeep all by hand, over many days and weeks, in less than ideal conditions (remote location 20 miles away from residence) in addition to job demands, life, etc can overload your patience and crash your social skills
My apologies to Mr. Mozman.
I finished out the basic bodywork on the Jeep pretty well using Evercoat filler. I filled and sanded to completion 5 major sections -- left rear corner, under driver door, left and right fender, and hood-top. Then I did the same with a couple of minor spots. Looks like its going to be a good foundation for the rest of the work -- finer sanding, priming, painting.
Like I said, I did this all by hand. And it turns out that might have been a decent idea for somebody inexperienced working with plastic filler. Reason being is that I probably would have carved into the filler too deeply with the sander and would have had "re-fill" a second or even third time. Doing it by hand, let me get close to the level I wanted and then I could sand a few strokes at a time until I was certain that the surface was right.
Now, don't know if you guys have any experience, post-filler,
with the Putty application + 320-400 grit paper. This Putty fills any scratches from the 40-80 grit paper used to shape the filler and it also fills any pores in the filler.
I had a bad session with it the other day: I would apply it in small dabs and then spread it on the area with a plastic spatula. The stuff dries extremely fast though. To cover every area on a large surface like the hood caused me to partially overlap coats of the putty!
I ended up in a situation where the the putty was built up too thickly in many areas and was now not drying in those areas. I started going at it with 320 but was not making progress. I ended up switching to 40-60 to tear down the built-up putty only to find that it was not drying where it had overlapped!!
Ultimately, I got things down to where I could smooth the surface with the 320 and it came out ok. But, in the daylight today, I noticed that I still had numerous 40-80 grit-made scratches to fill. The way I figure it, in order to lay down thin coats of the puddy in a professional fashion, I am going to have to do this probably over most of a day, just doing small sections at a time until the surface imperfections are completely filled.
After that I may sand and prime the Jeep and then take some time away from it before I gear up for the paint and clearcoat stages
