Hey, it’s Tony from LearnAutoBodyAndPaint. Thanks for watching the video and checking out the blog. Our topic for today is how to Start Body Work and Epoxy Work for Bumper Lip
First thing you want to do before starting a project, which I probably said in one of my older videos is, to go around the car, mark the dents and the body work that you need to do with an X or encircle them.
There’s a little bit of cracking that I see. We need to sand that out good and prime that area really well. We also have dents on the fender, on the hood and other areas as well.
You probably need to go around the car a couple of times to make sure you get everything. It literally takes five minutes to do all these.
Step one is done. We took off the rear bumper cover and start attaching our lower body kit area. We alo have pieces that we ordered off of eBay.
Once our dry fit is done, we’re going to throw it into the car and show you how it looks. We’ll take these parts off as shown in the video.
Then, we’ll dry sand the whole area down with 80-grit, including our rear diffuser. Then, we’ll bolt everything back up. After which, we’ll get some epoxy and fill the seams with it, so it’s molded and it looks like one piece to the bumper cover. I want to make the seam unnoticeable.
You can also just have it as is, with the seam, without putting the epoxy. You can just sand it, prime, and paint it.
It’s a pretty simple process. You’re going to get bolts when you order your lip kit, or whatever you’re doing. You need to line it up as best as you could and dry fit it. Please watch the video as I show you how to do it.
Then, we’ll get it all off afterwards. We’ll sand both pieces with 80-grit, so we have something to the 3M epoxy to adhere to. You’ll need to scuff it up, so I like to use 80-grit.
I’ll use the Applicator Gun. It’s a one-time investment. You can always put it on eBay if you like to sell dispose of it.
With one tip, we’re going to do our trunk and all of our epoxy work on the car. We’re going to load it on heavy, so we don’t need to load it on again. Then, we’re going to sand it out and do our body work.
If there are a couple of light areas that we want to do, we’ll just put a little bit of body filler on it.
Check out the video as I show you how to put the applicator gun together. It’s a pretty simple process. You just need to squeeze it into the seams.
You want to make sure that you have all of your body parts ready for your epoxy, so you don’t waste your mixing nozzles. They’re about a dollar each.
I did all of my body work done in one shot – the front bumper cover, rear bumper cover and trunk lip.
As you can see on the video, I lift it up a little, squeezing it in and letting it go, to make sure we have epoxy underneath. Then, you need to tighten it up just a little. Use your fingers to smoothen it out.
We used about less than half. You can do two body kits on cars if you wanted to. Not too bad. Maybe we used twenty bucks worth on the car.
It’s a good value as you’re putting some good epoxy on your car. This way, your plastics, fiber glass and whatever you’re molding will be bonded together. It sets up in a few hours and you’re ready for sanding. Although, we’re going to let it cure overnight. We could go over it with 80-grit and shape it.
We can easily use body filler for all our body work with this. You just have to make sure to properly store your gun as how I show you in the video.
It’s Tony from LearnAutoBodyAndPaint. I hope you liked this short video. If you want the complete Mazda Miata Project, please check out the LearnAutoBodyAndPaint VIP Course.
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Talk soon! Cheers!
Tony
Other Helpful Links:
Getting Started With Auto Body & Paint Work Mazda Miata
Applying Automotive Primer, Automotive Epoxy Primer and Primer Sealer
PAINT PREP – What Parts or Trim Should You Remove When Painting a Car?
How to Apply Auto Primer: Part of the Bodywork Repair Process