Couple General Questions

[Stretch]

1) What exactly is a guide coat and what's it used for?

2) How much body filler do most of you use on fenders. I was talking with a guy this weekend that had a front fender that needed some repairs (welded a crack). When he showed me the piece it must have had at least a 1/4" of body filler under the paint. I remember seeing the Jesse James Motorcycle Mania show on Discovery channel and they put some green filler over the fender to smooth it out before painting. I can understand a bit to help you smooth it out, but 1/4"? The guy has won a couple shows with the bike so I wanted to ask to see if that's the norm.

3) If anyone subscribes to HotRod Bike, they just had an article on repairing some paint. The guy sanded down to metal, added body filler then cleared. Then sanded and did the repair? The article seemed weird in a few other places. He was buffing prior to painting and some other strange stuff. If anyone has read this article, please let me know if it makes sense to you. I don't know why he cleared before doing the base black? Seems like an extra step?

Thanks-Stretch

 

[John Pierce]

I'll give it a try

1) Guide Coat -- if you have a panel which is not completely straight, maybe a bit wavy or otherwise you would use a guide coat to help you determine if you have any high or low spots. I use just cheapo black lacquer out of a rattle can and just fog a very light coat on my primered pieces. Then, block sand and pay attention to spots where the guide coat sands off immediately (high spots) and spots that stay black (low spots). Fill the low spots and block sand the high spots, repeat as necessary until the guide coat sands off in a uniform fashion.

2) It is always best to use the absolute minimum amount of filler that you can get away with. Thick applications of filler will crack and shrink with age. What they were doing on the West Coast Choppers' show was applying a skim coat -- a very thin application of filler because their bare metal pieces they fabricate are not exactly straight and smooth. I'm sure a lot of block sanding is done which doesn't make it into the show because it is boring to show people sanding stuff (come to think of it, sanding is boring to do too!

)

3) Sorry, haven't read the article, but I would not clear before putting the base coat for any reason. I've never seen anyone buff the topcoat before clearing; I don't know why someone would ever buff anything but a final clear coat. The must have just got some photos out of order or something....

YMMV,
JP

 

[Stretch]

Thanks John. I'll pull the article regarding the paint repair and post exactly what they say. It seems really out of order. Maybe I'll contact the editor and make sure there isn't a mistake on there end first.

Thanks-Stretch

 

[flamethrower]

Hey Stretch,
You know that rag HRB hasn't been worth a hoot since they fired Frank and quit putting bikini's in with the centerfold bikes. I let my subscription expire. I would rather get my advice and how-to's from the web than pay for advice from a company that knows nothing about the biking lifestyle. A couple a prude fathers wrote in about how their ten year old boys were looking at the bikini clad ladies and they thought it inapporopriate. Frank ignored them because he should have and Primedia fired him for it. Those boys see more skin on the TV than was in HRB! Those RUB pieces of poop can sell their sorry mag to all the dot com babies buying jesse james bikes, cause they're the only ones who don't care if the articles are correct because they are going to pay to have the stuff done by someone else anyway!

Go Easyriders!

FT

 

[Stretch]

Yeah, Flamethrower, I haven't been impressed. It's my own damn fault, I sent in the wrong subscription card, I meant to order Hot Bikes, a very similar mag. I'm sure they're not any better as far as articles but they have lots of good photos that keep me inspired.

-Stretch