Body panel finishing

I'm wondering how smooth do you guys like to have your body panels before spraying or spreading anything on it? How much putty is acceptable in your point of view? 1/16" ? 1/8"? ........none at all? High build primer at the most?

The reason i am wondering is that i'm tackling on my first complete bodywork project. I've never done extensive bodywork, however i have the basic knowledge and tools. So this week i started massaging the wheel wells for my truck box. To date, I probably have 6 hours into my first wheel well and only smoothed out only a few dents. It's not that i don't have the patience to do it...just that i want to be able to drive the truck one day lol . And yes i know that speed will come with practice.
How much time would you say it would take you guys to smooth this out? Sorry if the pictures are a bit blurry. But you can see a bit of dents and rusted out metal. I also suppose that those 2 pieces might take me more time than the rest of the bodywork because they are of heavier gauge metal and are quite banged up compared to a fender etc...

Mikey


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Looks like your going to have to make some patches to me.. go out and get some 20 guage steel an start welding... as far as thickness goes for filler they say no more than 1/16" if you need more, use a fiberglass filler.. good luck to ya

The time it takes to get it straight will improve over time, with experience. Idealy you want as little filler as possible. To say that you must use less than 1/16" is a little optimistic in my opinion. There are as many differing opinions on this as there are on most any subject. I have seen it 3/4" thick with no problems, although I would not try that. The products out these days are quite durable, so just try to keep it as thin as possible.

Aaron

Mike you are going to have to deal with the rust first and then worry about fixing the dents... Time really depends on the person.. everyone has an area they are better at than most.. take your time, if you start rushing you may leave this and that thinking it will be ok, then by the time you get to paint you will be unsatisfied with the end result.... Just like not taking care of that rust and putting bodyfiller over it... It will show and come thru in a matter of time.... Trust me, I did it on the first thing I ever painted... covered it in undercoating etc.. still rusted back through... kill the cancer bro

and best of luck to you

Yeah i agree with both of you guys.. and 1/16 is a optimistic thought but that's what everyone here preaches. now 3/4 whoa.. that's way too much...lol.. But I also have seen it with no major probs..

Like Bondo said, if you think that it will be good enough early in the project, it will get worse as you go along. And YES, 1/16" of filler is optimistic. Then again if you set your goals there to start, when you finish you are less likely to have varied enough to have problems. Consider if you set your goal at 1/16" and along the way decide that going 1/2 more (that makes 3/32") you are doing good. On the other hand if you decided to set your goal at 1/2" and then later added 1/2 more (that makes 3/4") that is sloppy.

Take your time and do it as perfect as you can.. Then take a break, and go back and do it better. When you are done, you will be more likely to be satisfied with your work. Atleast you will know that you did your best.

Aaron

Good way to look at it adt