Thanks mate for this information it will come in handy.

One would be to apply a primer to the finished area and then a top coat or two to ‘seal’ it up and when the time comes for the top coats sand through the existing top coats and re-primer the whole thing etc, etc. Bit of a pain in the bum.
Or I did hear not so long ago that someone had released a product for this exact application. It was a primer/putty that was non-porous and you could leave the panel/repaired area coated with this stuff for as long as you like without fear of moisture attacking the surface underneath and it was compatible with a number of different top coats. I can’t remember if it was available as a spray can or a spray gun would have to be used.

I may have read it in Street Machine or one of those type mags. I’ll see if I can find the article when I get some spare time (ha ha flippin ha!). In the meantime a call to a automotive paint supplier may point you in the right direction. If you explain what you are doing and are looking for a water/moisture proof non-porous primer I’m sure someone would have heard of it. Either that or I dreamt it in one of my pain-killer induced nightmare’s! Just kidding, jeez they send you off with the fairies though.

Hey thanks for the photos you sent over on Tuesday, I’ll post them up and a bit more info as soon as I get a chance.

I think your right about it being a time consuming process?which leads to me next question…
I can see from some of your photos that areas of bare metal can be exposed around the repair site. How should I address this? Obviously I can?t leave the bare metal exposed while I spend days or weeks working my way around the body shell. Should I spray something on to seal the repair site?i.e. primer???
I?m guessing you?re probably going to say yes?if so, should this sealing coat be a good quality primer (mixed up and applied with a spray gun) or will a rattle-can of premixed primer from Supercheap serve as a suitable temporary sealant which could/would be rubbed off later, prior to spraying the main primer coat?

Some advice that I was given many moon’s ago while working at The Bump Shop was that all brands of body filler can suffer from ‘shrink-back’ which is, obviously, where the filler literally ‘shrinks’ over time and the ‘thicker’ it is applied the worse the shrinking effect. I think with a project like your’s this shouldn’t be much of an issue though as it looks like the amount of filler it needs will be minimal and any shrinking should be evident by the time you come to applying the top coats. If you were talking a couple of days turn around between bodywork and finished paint work it may be a different story but I imagine it will be a bit longer than that.
Also we were told to ‘kneed’ (is that even a word?) the filler well before adding the hardner to remove any minute air bubbles in it. The more air you remove the less shrinking is likely to occur.

Hope that all makes sense.

Glenn

Craig

El.