Project: Unimatrix - Door Smoothing
Another day another update - I'm sick of my projects crawling along at a snails pace so I'm determined to push this one on as quickly as possible WITHOUT cutting corners.
As I mentioned before, I'm going to be putting a full automotive quality paint job on this case, and the only way to get a really good glossy finish is to have a really smooth surface to start with. My original plan was to remove the horizontal lines on the front door but leave the vertical slits but after my first attempt at using filler, that plan has now changed heh...
The filler I'm using is called Fantastic, a Upol product - the guys where I work tell me it's the best quality filler we keep in stock so it was the only option as far as I'm concerned. I can understand busy bodyshops using cheaper stuff as they go through so much of it and the cost savings add up - for me, as I'm only doing a small amount, the cost saving with a lower quality product isn't worth it IMO.
Lump of filler, drop of hardener and a high quality professional mixing board (yeah it's a lump of cardboard heh). There is a formal 50:1 mixing ratio for the filler but the guys I work with have told me not to worry too much about it. As long as the filler changes colour a little, but doesn't go PINK pink, it'll work - it just might take a little longer than the 20 mins on the bag to actually be ready for sanding.
First application - As I said I only wanted to get rid of the horizontal lines but after sanding this layer down, it became obvious that getting the filler back out of the gaps was going to be a mammoth job - and frankly, the kind of hassle that might make me give up altogether. The fact it, the case is now wrecked without this door so I have to get it right, and get it done, so I decided to fill all of the slots too. A generous second, and then third application of filler later, and a LOT of hand and air-polisher sanding later, and I got here...
It's almost perfect. I think I'm going to have to put one final skim on to get rid of a few minor marks but it is really smooth to the touch everywhere there isn't a pinhole. I'm saying pinhole but the marks are bigger than pins and definitely need another coat.
This is by far the worst imperfection - I figure it's about 2mm x 4mm x 1mm deep, at most, so easily finished with a final coat and sanding session.
It's mothers day here in the UK so I'm probably going to have to leave this there for today - I'm taking my mother out for dinner and I don't think she'd appreciate me turning up covered in dust and smelling of thinners :P
