Shade Tree Set-up

I received questions about what "Shade Tree" is and what my set up is. I figured, since I am still completing Bondo cycles on Zed, the 1979 Datsun 280ZX, I would post some pictures of my space. Since I am approaching the end of the Bondo cycles, I'll share what I have learned as well.

Zed Bondo Update

Yes, I am still doing cycles with Bondo, but I am much closer to complete. I have learned a few things the long-hard way. I hope these are helpful so you don't make the same errors I did (and sometimes still do). It took me many many hours of failures to learn this, though I am sure there are folks reading this who knew all of it already.

Let's start with how to discover a spot that needs to be fixed. I started with feeling with my hands by moving them fast and slow over the paint-stripped body. A painted surface is much better for seeing issues, by the way. Once you find the spot, you need to determine how large a patch you need to lay for it to become flat. For that, I now use chalk, drawing a circle around the malformation. This allows me to easily spot where to slather on the Bondo without having to re-evaluate while the Bondo is mixed. That leads to my next learning: Bondo viability duration.

Bondo is only usable for a handful of minutes after the hardener has been mixed in. Some say 3-5 minutes. So, rather than making a big blob of it, I make multiple super-small batches. By super-small, I mean like up to a cup of Bondo at a time. From the can, I slap it onto a small sheet of glass for mixing with a spot of hardener that's maybe the size of a US$ dime (or smaller). Once thoroughly mixed into one consistent color, I go after the spots I have marked. I now apply more than what is needed to fill the imperfection as Bondo shrinks a little bit when it dries and you need something to sand away to get it perfect. Once the consistency of Bondo starts shifting from smooth-like-sour-cream to cakey-like-cookie-dough, stop applying it, toss it out and make more. Bear in mind, Bondo will adhere to bare metal and some primers, but not paint. So, your surface might need to be sanded down before you start applying.

This 2-step process is great for getting the area set up, but similar to "you can be a mediocre welder if you are a good grinder", the key to Bondo is sanding. I have tried all kinds of different things to get my panels smooth, and in many cases I removed too much, if I had even applied enough. Assuming I have enough Bondo, removing too much is the next issue. Rather than go through what hasn't worked, I'll focus on what has.... other than: do not use your hands/fingers if you want the contour to be correct. Use a block; you may think your fingers know how to find that flatness. They can sense it when you're checking your work, but they can't push sandpaper to it. Your car, your choice.

First, I have an 8" sanding block with a worn-out 400-grit paper on it. I cut down sheets of 150-grit so I can hold a square with my fingers around half of the sanding block. So, half of the block is 150-grit and half is 400. I try to keep the 400-grit side furthest from the target Bondo and the 150-grit side in the Bondo as much as possible. This way, I am not agro-sanding on areas of the body that are outside the Bondo, while also using that body contour to influence the cut-down of the Bondo with the 150-grit. Obviously, the 150-grit exits the Bondo area some, and it needs to, for feathering the edges. All the while, in the front of your mind know that you are attempting to get the dip-filled-with-Bondo to disappear so the panel is completely without blemish.

Sometimes, for an especially rough area, I will use a worn down piece of 80-grit instead of the 150 to get started. This is simply to accelerate my progress, and I'll switch back to 150 before I get too far. The 80 is just to take that top edge off so the 150 will bite a little bit more. 

Once I think I have the panel smooth, I will use the 400-grit block (without the 150 wrapped) and go over the entire area. Then, I will feel for edges and contour. If necessary, I'll return the 150-grit to half of the block and sand some more. Using 150-grit takes much much longer to sand than the 80-grit, but I have not over-sanded one area since I switched to the 150 as the main contouring grit. Your car, your choice.

Once I got the worst of it done, and many of my old areas corrected, I needed to check the work. So, I shot some automotive sand-able primer on the repaired spots as a guide coat. I would then sand these areas down with the block. I repeated the Bondo cycle where needed. Often, a small imperfection in the Bondo itself (like an air bubble) will force another cycle even if the overall panel is now flat.

At the time I took these pictures of Shade Tree, I had completed the doors and rear hatch. That's why they do not appear in the pictures; they are stowed in the garage until I'm ready with everything else (fenders, shell and hood). That's right; I do not intend to do any more Bondo cycles on those panels.

Shade Tree

I alluded to this concept in my last post. "Shade Tree" is where my kids and I (and anyone else, for that matter) hang out with our cars, making improvements or repairs. I added 2 10-foot x 20-foot Harbor Freight car ports last Fall to extend the car-play season into the rainy season. It turns out, these canopies have made summer car efforts much more pleasant as we are now in the shade. Between my smattering of tools, we can work on 2 or 3 cars at once, and with the lot couch and camping chairs, there's seating when you want to take a break. We have twinkle-light strung up to extend the work day past dark. This is especially useful between the Fall and Spring equinox here in the Pacific NorthWest when it feels like daylight only lasts a handful of hours.

There was a time when I wanted to rent a warehouse and make something like this available to the public. I thought of all the people out there in situations like I had been: using a curb as a ramp to change my oil, getting hassled by apartment management because I opened and then left my hood open to change sparkplugs, or imposing on a friend who had a driveway to do something, and then worrying about that coming between you. I know some folks who have a significant other who does not approve of the mess that is created during the work, so they don't work on their cars much anymore. That's just sad.

Owning a car is already expensive with insurance and fuel. When you add in having to take your car to a mechanic, even for simple things that you can do yourself... simply because you don't have a place to do it? Well, that makes owning a car a class thing, and that's not right. Sometimes, you simply need a car. Maybe mass transit doesn't get you to where you work, and paying to Uber or Lyft every day takes too much of your income. I know. I used to paint new-construction tract houses. By definition, there was no mass transit, because the new construction was going where there used to be a farmer's field. That's just one of 100's of possible examples for why we have our cars. And that was why I wanted to create Shade Tree. So we could keep our gotta-have-it cars running (and a place to clown on our projects) without the hang-ups. Unfortunately, this idea came right around the time that pot was legalized in Oregon, driving up the price-per-square-foot for warehouses almost overnight because the now-legal growers snatched them all up. I could not make numbers work so it could remain cost neutral, much less make any profit, without creating a cost structure that I wouldn't want to pay if I were a consumer. 

So, instead, I use my driveway.

That's it for this week. At my current rate of progress, I may be ready for the final primer as early as next weekend. I know I have many bits (hinges, mirrors, etc) to locate, prep and prime as well, but once done, we will be talking about base paint soon thereafter. Thanks, as always, for following along-