Hey Den,not too bad so far.It.s been 'a nice' 50's in the mornings and gotten mid to upper 70s the last few days,figures the scooter's in pieces and I can't enjoy it.I know this wont last long,but at least I'm not in your shoes
Duracolors,got ya.The wetsanding wasn't good though.After I go through the chore of removing all the friggin oil-if yours was-I beadblast the part then DP it(PPG's epoxy).If I can't I sand it with something course like 80-120 grit then DP it.Once the epoxy has set long enough I red Scotchbrite the area I need to fill and do it.A few gouges like you said will fill right in with some 2 part polyester putty.Look at it after it's primed though,I bet this thing is a nasty wavy mess that's hard to see in raw steel.All those little grooves on the sides left from shrinking the sides while forming are going to show up twice as bad.I won't be surprised if you need to skimcoat it with bondo.I'm doing a Custom Chrome brand-whatever their generic maker is-rear now for my buddies scoot and it needed almost as much work as the last one I got.I rework the rear edge and recut the folded flange on the sides on them automatically and radius all the edges.This crap usually takes me 45 minutes or so along with the normal prep.I like to weld a rod around the rear edge of aftermarket fenders but most people wont go for it,so I'll be making money later when it cracks on them and it needs replaced.Sorry,kind of rambling again.Just clean it really well with grease and wax remover through the metal prepping stage and keep to the 120 or sharp pieces of 220,120 scratches on steel are about the same as 240 on paint so they're nice and aggressive to hold the primer without worrying about having to fill them in with lots of primer and sanding.
