The block sanding step of bodywork on your project vehicle is one of the most crucial to getting a straight paint job that doesn’t look like a fun house mirror. We suggest going the extra mile and block standing each step of filler and primer to assure each panel is really straight but there’s a couple spots on the car that can be really tricky.
Body lines on a vehicle are sometimes called “style lines” because auto manufacturers used them to accentuate the shape of the body or the side profile. What these lines really do is add rigidity to the larger panels on the car like the doors, fenders, and rear quarter panels. These lines on some vehicles are very sharp and defined, while other cars are round and smooth. Whichever the case on your vehicle you don’t want to change the profile of those lines or the car will look odd when very it from the side or 3/4 view.
The other problem is that most edges of body lines tend to have thinner coatings on them and are easy to cut/burn through when block sanding. We’ve found that it is best to keep your body filler to a minimum off of the body lines and also take care when sending on or next to body lines. If you’re block sanding a tip is to sand off the panel edges and just up to the body lines but not over them. If the body lines don’t have any major work done to them you can generally just leave them for sanding with a soft hand block with finer paper just to knock any texture off of the surface. Focus your time on the entire panel and leave the body lines for last and you will have less of a chance of burning through a coating and causing an issue as it’s hard to control the pressure on a large block sander and you can easily burn through a corner or edge of a bodyline.
Hopefully that quick tip helps you with your next project. If you want to get supplies to paint your next project visit our full autobody supplies site HERE.