Lancer: Body Works

After dealing with the bumper issues, I now turn my attention to several problem areas:

1. The skirt

2. The rear passenger door

3. Parts of the "roof gutter" - our neighbor's roof hit this and left some minor damage.

TIME TO WORK

 The problem with the skirt is that the damage is quite big and can't be solved by body filler alone. For this, I had to cut a piece of the same plastic card  I used for the bumper repairs and use it as a base so that the body filler doesn't cave in.

After the support is in place, applying the filler is easy (sorry I don't have pics - I got carried away  - you'll see the finished product in a couple of days)

For the gutter, I had to hammer down the high points. The correct way of doing this is to remove the headliner inside and to hammer it from the inside out. But since that would be too difficult,  I opted to use body filler instead. :)

After hammering down the high points, body filler is applied and sanded down to achieve a flat and even surface. TIP: Sand down the surface first with some rough sand paper (grit 100 and below) to scuff  it up - this way, the filler will have something to hold on to.

The same procedure is down on the doors - make sure that you scrape down the loose paint (and flakes) before slapping on the body filler. TIP: Always sand down (wet sand) using varying sand paper grits. I usually start with 280, then 600 and 800. 

Applying too much filler will make the job harder as you will have to sand it out anyway (we need that flat and even surface right?) - look at how much filler I had to take out. It would be better if you apply several thin layers of filler :) Patience is a virtue :)

Need to prepare the entire car for painting next! :)