The testimonial to good bodywork is it appearing as if none were done. Most of us have tried to do some body work at one time or another and one of the most challenging tasks is getting body panels, fenders, hoods, doors, etc. to appear straight and crisp as new. The added headache on street rods is the compound curves that gracefully bend in different directions at different angles. On a lot of 50's and 60's cars you have quarter panels, hoods and trunk lids a mile long!
Most of you are familiar with standard rubber sanding blocks and 16" file boards and while these tried and true tools are the basics, there are some exciting new blocks, developed by a bodyman named John Wheeler in Minnesota, that can make life whole lot easier and get the job done better. I am always skeptical when someone tries to re-invent the wheel, but after having used these new tools (I bought the pro kit assortment), I would now never be without them for doing show quality work. The company is called Adjustability Flexibility Sanders or AFS and can be found at www.adjustflexsand.com. As the name suggests, the big difference is that you can remove steel rods from the sanding blocks and they will bend while still giving a flat backing for the abrasive. They also have extra long boards (21" and even a 36") which save mega time when trying to get large panels dead straight. The only hassle is the paper you need, it is stick-on file board rolls which you cut to length. This is sometimes hard to find and the backing is a pain to try and peel off. That said, this is a cheap way to buy paper and the rolls last a long time and just about any grit is available unlike standard file board paper. The foam handles are very comfortable and the paper sticks on a spring steel pad that is molded right in. With the rods in place the boards are very flat, and the foam slightly extend past the steel pad which helps prevent gauging with the edge (a common problem with file boards).
When using any type of sanding board/block, remember to use a criss cross diagonal pattern in your strokes and to let the sand paper cut, don't force it down with excess pressure. If you are using these new boards with water paper - do not dip them in a water bucket as the paper will come off, use a plastic bottle, hose or sponge to gently feed clean water to the area your sanding. Lightly spray some black over the primer and start blocking and you will quickly see all the high and low spots appear as you try and remove all the black dots.
The flexible part really kicks in when doing curvey cars and fenders. Bend the block to conform and you can block sand evenly over a large curved area which was impossible to do before. Because of all the available grit in the rolls you can now use a long block for finish sanding which contributes to making it really straight and crisp! I really like the little "guitar block" for doing tight detail sanding on small objects which are often rounded. I had already block sanded my brother's big one- piece fiberglass body for his drag bike and painted it and decided to use some p800 water paper on one of my new long AFS sanders and block it to reclear - I immediately started going through the paint as high spots were cut down! It was far from "dead" straight, and wish I had one of these blocks when I started, I know now - so do you.
John
