Glazing Putty Fills Imperfections
No matter how good you are at body work you will run into pin holes, sand scratches, and imperfections that pop up just before you begin laying primer on a project. There are many assumptions that are made that glazing putty isn’t important when preparing a car for paint. We decided to list our top uses for glazing putty when painting a car at home.
- Pin Holes in Surface- When applying and sanding body filler you may find that minuscule little pinholes can pop up in the surface and show themselves just before or after primer. These are common and even the best auto body techs get them. Glazing putty can be mixed up and applied with a razor blade over pinholes in body filler or primer. Simply force the glazing putty into the holes as you spread it over the effected area. This should leave just the holes filled and very little filler on the surface. You can then hit the area lightly with a block and 180-320 sandpaper to make sure nothing is above the surface.
- Sanding Scratches- When you’re doing your bodywork you generally need to use an aggressive grit sandpaper like 40 or 80 grit to knock down the ridges in the body filler and rough in the body work. From there you want to work up in grit to 180 320 etc. and if you aren’t diligent with sanding fully with each of those grits you may have small scratches that haven’t been sanded out. These scratches may be too deep to sand out or you simply forgot them. Either way a swipe of glazing putty with your spreader will fill the areas and leave very little residue to be sanded. If you find last minute sanding scratches in your primer you can also use glazing putty to fill those scratches and spot prime before paint.
- Skim Coating a Panel- Another Feature of some Glazing Putties like Eastwood Contour Polyester Glazing Putty is that you can mix it with your standard body filler for a final skim coat over your body work to give a smooth finish with little to no pin holes. You may want to experiment with the ratio but we’ve seen as much as a 50/50 mix before. This will give you a smooth application as well, but very little build. This should be your final coat before primer.
Hopefully that helped clear up and questions you may have about using glazing putty. To see all of our Auto Body Supplies from Sandpaper to Paint and Clear Coat you can visit our site HERE.