Quote:
Originally Posted by arcturus
Will high build primer be of any use as I will not be taking the engine bay down to bare metal. I believe it is used to fill in minor imperfections after I have cleaned and rubbed down with wet and dry.
Advice please.
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High-build primer is very useful stuff, but don't be afraid to put a thin smear of filler should it be necessary. You are right, though, it's designed to fill in any minor scratch marks. This means you can use fewer grades of paper as you progressively work finer and finer.
A few coats of high-build primer, then a garcoat dusting of black while the primer is still wet. This allows the garcoat to sink into the primer. Which means when you rub it off, the remaining primer must be flat. If you go through to metal, re-prime the area. Repeat until it's all flat and covered.
Beware of fingermarks. This is particularly important on internal panels, as they tend to have odd shapes and folds for strength, and that makes using a block difficult. There's nothing actually wrong with not using a block, but a lot of rubbing in one place can leave furrows in the primer where your fingers worked harder in one place than another. To help alleviate this, a good trick is to fold the paper into four, give the quarter of paper a slight bend around your fingertips, then use the springiness of the bend instead of actual finger pressure. Difficult to explain, I hope that makes sense.
You might know all this already. But just in case you don't, that's the procedure. It sounds to me like you are aware of the importance of "feathering" the edges, so I'll not explain that unless you want me to.
I really do wish you all the best, it's a tradgedy I'm certain you could live without. It gives you the opportunity to rebuild even better than before, though, and I've no doubt that's exactly what you'll do. :-)