This weekend I’ve been block sanding the primed fenders and continuing the body work on the sidecar. The tubular pieces like the frame will just be wet sanded by hand, but the sheet metal pieces like the fenders and sidecar body have to be straight and smooth before painting.
I sprayed the fenders with a very thin black guide coat before sanding. The guide coat gets sanded away except where there are low spots, providing a visual indicator of where I need to spray more polyester primer. Fortunately, the low spots on the fenders are quite minor and will be easily filled with the next few coats of primer.
I’ve used body filler/surfacer to correct some issues and smooth the contours on the sidecar body. The filler is no more than 1/16 inch thick, so it’s being used appropriately. I’m also working to fill the edge seams so that the edges should have a nice radius when finished. Before, there was simply an exposed sheet metal seam, which looked unfinished. I still have maybe 4 hours of work left on the sidecar body before it’s ready for priming.
I’m working as fast as I can to get everything primed before I leave for Memphis in September. It’s dirty, dusty work.
