In another recent post, I had a video of using a piece of spring steel as a spreader to fill a radius. This is an extension of that. There are a lot of uses for this technique. In the picture below, I put an 'x' in the areas I used this technique.
- All of the surfaces around the radius need to be finished first.
- The face of the wheel arch opening was finished, and the radius taped off and dialed in. This is used as the guide to create the concave transition into the side of the car.
- Spread filler in the concave radius, and then use the spring steel to drag through the wet filler. This will make a consistent and natural radius.
- The transitions where the radius gets larger and smaller will naturally be filled and look 'right'.
- The same was done with the two concave radiuses in the body line going down the car.
- The two crisp lines were established and dialed in and the center convex curve was established.
- The final step is to fill the concave radiuses with spring steel.
- Sometimes it helps to use a different colored hardener for that filler to see where the radius starts and stops. This helps avoid undercutting the side of the car when sanding the radius.
- Here is a link to the video: https://youtu.be/h1yyAqYjZEE