Chasing AE86 Perfection: Filler and Body work
As I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts, delaying this content slightly is excellent for the brain, even if it is a year later. Im always living in the moment with this resto, and it takes looking back at these photos to see how far we have come. These photos are from this time last year, November 2022, when Jackie was deep in trying to chase the straightest panels on this car.
I had every faith in him; we have been friends for many years, and he has been at this craft for 18-plus years since he was 16 years old. I was fascinated to see the techniques he had picked up since the last time I had seen him in action: a light skim of filler on the panel, followed by large sanding blocks to block the car essentially; the big block would find all the high and low spots to try to give the straightest panels possible, probably better than how this thing rolled out of the factory.
Infrared lights to dry the filler from the inside out; the idea was to sand it back until there is less than 1mm of filler around the carm, where we burn through would be touched up with epoxy.
Jackie spent hours over the weeks blocking and adding light skim all around the car, from the doors to the 1/4 panels to the roof; the black stuff is a guide coat to see where he is working.
The same treatment was given to the arches; Barry could only do so much with these. They would always have required a light skim to make them as smooth and perfect as possible; same with the pockets and anywhere where there was metal work, a light skim to blend the work.
The wings were finished with lead, a little trick the guys wanted to do when we welded up the aerial holes.
It was so cool to see them in all metal; they were treated with a 3m rust converter before all being sanded off, ready for epoxy.
The misery of stripping these! At least they were more or less rust-free; this was the wrong time; thankfully, our old friend Stripped Away Pro, the most dangerous stripper I’ve ever seen, did the trick!
It was wild that these were also red over black, just like my car; even the roof we replaced was from a red over black 86
It’s so good to see these all raw!
More photo updates on this soon. For now, for anyone who enjoys the Blog posts, I hope you enjoy this little photo look back on the progress.