Triumph TR3-POR-15 Rear Left Fender Inner Coating

After a couple of days of non-activity I ventured back into the garage yesterday and spent about 2-1/2 hours doing the final sanding on the front right fender, cleaning up and metal prepping the right front fender rail and sanding the back left fender. I then determined it would be a good idea to coat the rear left fender inner surface with POR15 which I did... 3 fenders are now POR-15 coated (inner)-the right front fender is already painted (the paint looks pretty good) so I might just coat it with a gloss black enamel as the POR-15 would not have a good surface to bite on.

I then applied a coat of high fill primer and etch primer to the front right fender. The fender is still not where I want it to be surface wise so I may need to add some more skim coat filler to the surface in a couple of spots. Today I will do some block sanding and probably apply a guide coat to see how "rippled" the surface really is. I can feel imperfections (dips) when I rub a rag across the surface which is not a good sign. According to an Internet source I referenced yesterday the maximum depth of filler should be 1/16 of an inch to be considered a "professional" job. There is a neat electronic device I saw tested on a Youtube that measures filler depth. I know in some areas (not that many if I think about it) the depth would be greater than 1/16" and the measurement tool would pick this us. The video explanation indicated that a professional would massage the sheet metal to such a degree that a 1/16th depth would be all that was needed to make the surface perfect. Theoretically I can see this as being a good guideline as being the optimum but for my TR3 "reconstruction" it is not realistic to have this professional standard complied to. I do not have the time (nor skill set) to do this myself nor the money to pay someone else to do it. As I stated earlier it is a "fit for purpose" project and perfect panels is not part of the mix. Interestingly the car that they tested (which had a very smooth panel appearance) had exceeded the recommended depth in a few places. I can assume many folks have paid big dollars for "professional" paint jobs which hide filler depths greater than 1/16"!!! I decided yesterday that if I sell the TR sometime in the future I would disclose my knowledge around filler depth...

I made an enquiry a few days about the fender bolts. washers and nuts which I plan to put on order shortly. Hopefully today I will do an inventory of what I need and get the e-mail together.

The garage has got "messy" again (tools, supplies and fenders sitting around all over) which will require some of my attention today. I can't seem to keep the clutter down effectively. I think I need to be more mindful about returning tools and supplies to their rightful places when I finish each day so I don't have to tackle a major clean up when things get out of control.