NICE ARSE LADY

Jacquie continually tells me that Stella's cracked and wrinkled back end doesn't do her any favours,  Stella that is. When Jacquie told me she was going to visit a chum up in Cambridgeshire for a few days and I had no other plans for Stella I decided to make a start on tidying up her rear.

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It looked like the previous owner had probably backed into something whilst reversing into his garage as there were three dents under the rear bumper, Underseal had previously been applied up to and under the bumper, before the body colour white paint had been sprayed and the fairly minor dents had caused the white paint to split and peel off revealing the black underseal.

I removed the bumper and lowered the exhaust as much as I could by releasing the rubber hangers, With flap wheel fitted to my angle grinder I removed the paint and underseal right round to the rear wheel arches. It was very dirty work, eventually with 80 grade rubbing paper on my electric sander and then on a block I feathered in the layers of paint to the bare metal.

 I filled the dents with Isopon filler, which sets in 20 minutes. The electric sander and sanding block soon shows up the highs and the lows and it took three more fills and sandings before I felt it was ready for primer.

I masked up and gave three coats of primer again leaving 20 minutes between coats, but in the high temperatures the paint was going off almost as It hit the metal. I left the paint to harden overnight and in the morning wet rubbed it down with 600 grade wet and dry paper. Again all the highs and lows were very apparent and it took 4 more increasingly thin layers of filler, before I was satisfied that the lumps and dumps had all but disappeared. I gave the newly filled area 3 more coats of primer and called it a day.

As the day time temperatures were so high, I was up at 6am and out at the garage lightly rubbing down the primer with 1000 grade wet & dry paper. Everything wiped clean and dry, the top coat went on very quickly with good coverage, the lower air temperature was paying off. Within the hour three coats had been applied and it was time  for breakfast and to take Duggie for a walk.

The nest morning I stripped all the masking paper and tape off and rubbed down the whole area including the over spray with very fine 2000 grade paper. Done wet I was left with a very smooth but flat surface. I then got my foam pad on my electric polisher, No.1 polishing liquid dribbled onto the pad and then smeared all over the area and I started buffing away. The new paint has to be kept wet whilst buffing, but when I had finished I couldn't see the difference where the new paint overlaid the original and all now nice and shiny. I think I have almost cracked this spraying lark.

A new stainless rear bumper is on order from Harrington's in Vietnam of all places, but arrival not scheduled until November, so the old one has had to go back on temporally.

In regards to the title of this post, this comment was called out to a friend of mine, many years ago, whilst she was bent over loading the boot of her car in Dalston. She is still happy to remember the compliment.