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Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Bonnet Filler Work & Epoxy | Roundtail Restoration

While I didn't take many pictures (grrrr), you'll have to trust me when I say that I'm really happy with how the bonnet has turned out and, pending a more thorough go-over, I think it's ready for build primer. To the video (a short one):


Like the door and all of the body work that has come before, I added filler to those places that needed it and blocked it down. I tried to get a better product this time prior to hitting it with epoxy again as it's a bit more cumbersome to paint, not to mention that it uses a lot more, too.

As expected, there were some spots that were messed up pretty good. In addition to the nose, another area that I pointed out in this and some previous videos was near the area of the bonnet that is over top the battery. I Never was able to conclusively determine what happened here, but it needed repair regardless.

Some filler on there, but it needs more; still some low spots.

Another rough area (or areas) were around the bonnet latches. My guess is it just gets beat on over the years from latch and unlatching the bonnet. A lot of people also lift the bonnet from the latches, which is a terrible thing to do. All of that, combined with little structural reinforcement in this area leads to a lot of high and low spots.

Passenger's side after some blocking.

Driver's side with fresh filler.

The passenger's side of the bonnet latch area was worse the the driver's side. My guess for this is that the PO would preferentially unlatch the driver's side first (because he was the driver and would normally be on that side of the car), then unlatch the passenger's side and lift. Don't get me wrong, both weren't great, but the passenger's side was noticeably worse.

The nose required a few applications of filler, but it ended up coming out better than I thought it would.

Nose after initial application of filler (I put it on rather heavy - more so than needed) and during blocking.

First round of blocking done, getting the last few low areas with filler.

One thing I haven't mentioned is the blocking. Just absolutely brain-numbing work. I'm sure it would go a lot quicker if I used power tools (orbital sander or the like) but I'm just to afraid of messing it up. I've been really happy with how easy it is to sand down the Evercoat Rage Ultra filler that I'm using and I think it would be very easy to burn right through it with a sander. So, my arms are the sander instead and while it takes longer, it's comes out pretty good.

Final product prior to hitting with epoxy.

Now, like I said, I didn't take many pictures, though I had ample opportunity. I did take a close-up of the repairs to the nose after the epoxy. The "after" picture is not the best because the camera has trouble focusing on the total grey washout and I also rotated the pic to make it sort of line up with the "before".

Again, not the best, but hopefully you get the idea.

I did have one area where I got some air bubbles in the filler, a first for me. Nothing that is not easily fixed with some glazing putty, though.

I think these are the holes for the letter "U" in TRIUMPH. No problem.

And that was about all I did for those visits. May not seem like much, but it takes time to block all of that out. I have a lot of sanding scratches left, too, but I'm hoping the build primer will fill those (otherwise, I'm going to be doing a lot more blocking). Also, as I mention in the video, I was getting a bit burned out on the body work on Sunday so I got the bonnet in epoxy and went home to watch football (sorry, Eagles).

Thanks again to everyone for putting up with my transition back to Blogger. This will be the last post before I point my domain here instead of to the "other" site. See you next time!

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