Tips

1. Keep all products containing silicones well away from the car before and during paintwork preparation. Silicones can cause horrendous problems with the paint finish and can be extremely difficult to rectify.

2. If intending to smooth body filler on top of a previously applied layer, ensure dust is removed from the surface first, including pinholes — use panel wipe solution.

3. Don’t use a power sander on body filler. Better results can be achieved by hand-flatting.

4. Never ‘wet flat’ body filler. The filler is porous and moisture will percolate through it, causing problems when it reaches the bare steel underneath.

5. With abrasive papers, the lower the number, the coarser the paper. When rubbing down body filler and paintwork, start with coarse grades and work through progressively finer papers — to 240 grit immediately prior to applying paint primer coats.

6. Unless you are intending to renew the upholstery and interior components, cover them before rubbing down and painting the body.

7. Some body fillers are specially formulated to be easy to sand down.

8. If the original paintwork is essentially sound, there’s no need to remove it back to bare metal. Instead, you need to flat back the paint as depicted in photo 24. Ideally, bare steel needs to be coated with an acid-based etch primer, in order to provide a key for subsequent primer and top coats. If applying etch primer, make sure you use special, purpose-designed breathing apparatus.

9. If you remove the door handles, make sure that you temporarily connect a length of wire to the operating mechanism within the door — or you could be stranded outside the car...

10. To achieve a higher quality finished result remove the door handles and other bodywork accessories when possible rather than just mask them off.

After covering nearby glass, tyres and all other items likely to be damaged by flying swarf, any excess welds from repairs can be ground smooth using the angle grinder. Wear protective goggles.

Mix body filler in approximately these proportions of filler paste to (red) hardener. Don’t mix more than can be applied in a few minutes or it will start to set and be impossible to work with.

The MIG machine was to good use in filling up the unwanted holes for the non-standard door mirror.The use of body filler alone for such jobs is not a good idea, it sinks.

Ensure that the filler is mixed to a homogeneous consistency.The mixing plate and applicator must be spotlessly clean, hardened lumps of filler are bad news.

With all holes welded up and smoothed off, feather edge the paint around welded areas by hand or dual action sander. Use 80 grit paper, then progressively finer grades to 240 before priming.

Apply a light skim of filler over the repaired areas. It’s best to build up the depth required in thin applications, even if this takes longer.