body work question

[thorvald]

I started sanding the 80 to paint a couple weeks ago, figured I would do it first before I had to do any rust repair to it, since the paint kept getting worse, especially on top.

so, the hood was repainted-unless toyota used grey primer, base, beige primer, then base , also the driver side fender. there doesn't appear to be any body work done to either though, least nothing obvious (guessing they might have been replacement parts?


I started working some on the top the last two days and found a dent, with holes filled in (puller of some sort, im guessing?) all across the back, going from one corner to the other. there's also a spot on passenger side front thats dented. haven't got to the drivers side front pillar yet.

what would be the best thing to do? fill it back in smooth? cut it out?

I was hoping just to paint

what would be guesses as to most likely cause? rollover?

thanks
Scott

 

[LandCrusher'70]

Whoa. Looks like an enormous patch. Does it stop where you quit sanding? (doesn’t look like it)

If it were me, I wouldn’t be able to stop until I’d found the extent of the repair.

If the rest of the top doesn’t look too bad, maybe just smooth it back in and lightly sand the remainder.

 

[-Spike-]

By digging all that up, you're creating a new headache for yourself. If there wasn't anything visibly wrong with the repair, leave it alone. If you sand into the body filler, it will have to be recoated and reshaped. If you're just painting the truck, you should only be sanding the top layer of paint, not stripping it all off unless you are dealing with some issue.

-Spike

 

[thorvald]

By digging all that up, you're creating a new headache for yourself. If there wasn't anything visibly wrong with the repair, leave it alone. If you sand into the body filler, it will have to be recoated and reshaped. If you're just painting the truck, you should only be sanding the top layer of paint, not stripping it all off unless you are dealing with some issue.

-Spike

well, I'm changing the color to a metallic blue, so from what I had read it seemed best to strip it to metal. the repair must have either been done a while ago or not painted great, since the clear coat was failing on the hood and roof when we bought it. we (naively) thought it was original paint since there aren't any obvious masking marks and the repair was unnoticeable before.

I guess if it's not going to harm anything, I'll fill it back in when I'm ready to paint.

thanks,
Scott

 

[-Spike-]

Changing color is no reason to strip paint. Old paint that isn't adhering would be a good reason though. Only take off the layer of paint that's not sticking. The more you sand, the more it's going to show after the new paint is applied, unless you really know what you are doing. If I were to strip a car to metal, I'd be putting a lot of primer coats on to smooth everything back out, sanding between them. It's easier to teach someone to spray paint than it is to teach them to prepare for spraying, there's a lot of technique and therefore a lot of ways to muck it up.

-Spike