Bodywork?
 

I'm currently priming my car and I've noticed after a coat that there are little tiny annoying cracks all over the place. Is there anything other than bondo that I can use to fix this? Thanks!

bondo
plastic filler
fiberglass
chewing gum

Anything will work





But are the cracks on the metal or plastic parts?

What?

When you say cracks, what are you talking about? Shrinking primer? featheredge marks? cracks that were primed over?

Pics would help immensley

If the cracks are on the plastic or fiberglass parts you can use a filler or more fiberglass.

If it is an old shitty paint job that is cracking on metal parts, just sand all the way to metal, re-seal, then primer, then paint

What do you mean by re-seal?


Yea it's just old shitty paint job that's cracking. =\

If it is the old paint that is cracking, the best way to handle it is to remove the old paint. Sand,soda blast, paint stripper, whatever. Then you should clean and re-prime, preferably using a 2 component primer. This will give you a suitable surface to paint. If you just try to build the surface and sand, leaving the old cracked paint underneath, the cracks will come back. Are you going to paint the car yourself or take it to a shop?

Yup, you must strip it or its destined to return sooner or later.

Probably sooner.

Paint is too expensive to waste with poor prep...and a quality paint job is ALL about prep.
I think the biggest problem that amateur painters face is wildly underestimating the amount of surface prep necessary before getting to the fun part (applying color).
It's too much damn grunt work for me so I'd gladly let a pro do it.

So how would I go about fixing the crack? I mean I would sand it down till the crack doesn't show but then after that, the part where the crack was, would have a big dip so the back wouldn't come out straight. Any fix for that?


Sorry for the questions but as you know I'm not exactly a car maniac yet.

Strip the whole panel, or feather out the mark.

Everyone is telling me the same thing but I'm not really getting any details. Like I said I'm not exactly a pro when it comes to car.



I still don't know how to actually make the back straight after I sand it instead of having it all bumpy due to the only places I sand.


I have the feeling some of you are telling me to just sand everything down to metal then apply something. But I don't know what that something is.


More details please?

If you don't know what you are doing, I would suggest you find a local auto body expert to help you out.
A lot of this stuff requires someone to be there, so trying to ask us might be a waste of time.
It sounds like you're asking really basic auto body stuffs, so I don't know why you are trying to tackling this all by yourself?


-Ted

epoxy primer works perfect on bare metal.

The reason to strip it is because your paint has cracked. If you put more paint on top - whats you best guess as to what will happen?

How to get it straight? Do the necessary body work. There's no "answer" when it comes to making a straight panel, its mostly entirely based on skill level. I have body men with 15 years experience here who can't make a panel as straight as someone with 5 who is more finesseful. But the key is to first have a good foundation to work from, straighten the metal as much as possible, prime and fill until the desired shape is reached.

If you're looking for step by step instructions on body work, go over to honda-tech, there's some OK info over there........ this is not exactly a 2nd gen specific subject

Well I'm not necessarily trying to tackle this myself. I was going to have a friend who's fairly well with cars help but

it never hurts to ask and know what to actually do before it is done.