Body prep details ?

[bsmooth]

I've watched a few different series, mostly beginner ones to get up to speed.But there are quite different ways it seems, some sand all the bodies before anything to roughen up the body to take paint better, some only get rid of molding lines with sanding but don't sand the whole surface. Some scribe all the body lines like doors and things.

 I'm taking the sand the all the whole body, as it seems a good thing to do only using 600 grit so as not to change too much of the actual body details.

What are your own personal body prep details?

[mustang1989]

As for me, I get the body as smooth as I can get it and make excess flash, seam mold lines and ejector pin marks disappear. Once all of that is done I prime all of my subjects with Tamiya Rattle Can Primer. That stuff has never let me down and it goes on very smoothly. I usually start by washing the body under cold water with soap and start the wet sanding process with 1000 grit and work my way back to around 8000 on bare plastic just to make sure there are no sanding marks that can bleed through to the color and clear coats on down the line. Before primer I wash the body parts again with cold water and soap and blow dry it. Immediately after that I start my primer coat. It's what works for me.

[tatocorvette]

Hi,

I typically work mold lines and deepen panel lines first. Sometimes, but not always, a very light wet sanding with 1200 grit before primer.

Thanks,

[Joel_W]

Same here. I'll remove the molding lines with 400 grit, then hit the whole body and any separate exterior body parts with 600 through 1,500 grit. The idea is to give the primer a better surface to bite into. Going to finer papers will just make the surface as smooth if not smoother then when it came out of the box, which really defeats the point of sanding the body prior to priming.

Joel