so at least i got that cleaned up a bit ,next step onto the wire wheel which i used to go around the edges and get in the tight spots and rip out the old crusty sealers,

next i had to do the long task of removing the cover hooks on the side,basicly this is easy but takes a bit of time hanging on the grinder being as carfull as can be














so there i used the hack saw to chop off the hook then used the angle grinder to carve away the remaining pieces of metal left over from the hook and then used another small belt sander to remove the 2 little steel squares that the hook was welded to ,that works better than trying to drill out the spot welds in this case,after that i used a metal fill to shave the edge of the tray all clean and straight so now its like they were never there!!! hahahha well i was impressed

so the inner wall had been 80# and wire wheeled so back to it with a bit of filler in the nasty parts ,sand back with the block which seems to take like forever , and i ended up here.............






also becasue im using checker plate for the flooring i just gave the floor a quick sanding and ended up putting a coat of primer over it to seal ,it was too ruff to do anything else with it ,ill probably seal it further with a good heavy coating of stone guard ............

so after a very long day and awww yeah before i go on,while i was grinding the last hook off some how a tiny spec of metal flew off and got me in the eye thru my safetey goggles!!!! talk about bad luck ,now its still stuck in there and is anoying the hell out at me ,so to the new owner see the terrible #### i have gone thru to produce this ute!!!!!!! hahahahhaha ok well ive had my winge so where was i ,

awww yeah after a long day of hard work got up to the cleaning up stage and masking up ready for primer so here we are........










i like this stage of the day as when your up to the masking you know its nearly there ......




so a couple coats of etch and then the first coat of 2 pak primer ........










now surely that lookis a little better than this??????






so finally after 4 good heavy coats of 2 pak this is where i got ,that black square in the middle is there the fuel tank service door thing goes i just painted it black so there wasnt white edges fron underneath,,,,












heres the tray lip primed with the hooks removed.....




bit of black for the edges...




and heres the main part all primed.....













so there you go ,its now 1 in the morning im stuft so of to bed ,got a little more work to do on that area soon maybee tomorrow if i get the time,will take yous though the doulble putty process ,a process that makes things alot neated and alot straighter in the long run ,but more on that next time enjoy..................................................................................

so after all that work no one is going to comment???

oh well ill keep burbling to my self ,

so today i finished off the tray side by doing a double putty on it ,for those of you not in the know this is how its done::::::

first thing is small pin holes and tiny chips ,that were previously missed ,so we fill them in with fine fill,see the blue magoo stuff thats it........












and then a good heavy coating of guide coat,that helps you see all the rufff areas.....













now alot of people do this in differnt ways but i do it like this ,
grab the block with 120# on it basicly ive sanded with a bit of 40 # here and there and the 80# and then primed ,the idea is to step your way up the grades ,so sanding with 120# will remove any of those 80# or other scratches put in prevously before the first run of priming ,so block with 120# then go around by hand with 120#
next grab 240# on the block and again go over everything with 240# by hand ,finally a red scotch brite which is quite corse to get in to all the fiddly areas the sand paper cant go and you should end up with some tidy straight clean looking work,normaly you get a few rub thrus here and there ,and you may find small dents that you have missed before ,lucky for me i done it resonably well the first time round and only needed to fix a few pin holes and that,
so heres a few of how the sanding looks......

so here is 120# on the block in progress..










and here finishing of the 120 by hand










then after the 240# and a scotchy heres what i had..................




then clean up the mess and start the masking again then a bit of fresh sealer.....
















all masked up nicley clean and sealed ready to go.............

Heres a comment for you
Its looking great it gives me confidents to give my ute a go and not send it away and pay someone else. Been watching this since day 1 and its great. Keep up the quality its excellent.

then the primer ,so here you spray a few coats over the bare metal and rubb thru areas this gives you build so the next time you go to sand it you dont rub thru as bad ,if at all, then 3 good clean coats and thats it!!!!!! hahahahha so now if i say DOULBLE PUTTY you will know exactley what im onabout!!!!,keep in mind that i will be doing this to the whole ute ,im hoping for a nice straight clean out come so fingers crossed..

heres the primed up shots.......










now heres the wheel tub even it looks a little better if you compare it to before.....










nice straight lip ..............










and thats it ................

Quote:

cheers mate apreciate the comments hoping someone is learning something from this ,cant see why you cant do it yourself ,im doing it all my self ,ill only ask for help if im really stuck ,its all pretty basic stuff as long as you follow the set processes shouldnt have to much dramas ,any help just email me ill try to give some advice if i can ,,.. cheers

Yeah I might have to get some advice from you. How bout smoothing the seams without bog. Mig weld and grind smooth?
Thanks

you could try the wlding how ever you would be in for a hell of a lot of grinding !!!!!!!!!you could also try using sealer first then prime over it and the sand it back and prime it again how ever some areas im guessing would need a little fill here and there,havnt tryed this one yet so not sure how that would turn out,but if your handy with the mig then by all means ,giv it a go,would also be alot stronger ,even if you done like a 20 cm test area with the mig then tryed grinding it off and see what sort of a result you get ,may be just what your looking for then you could look at doing the rest ..................