Worked on the GS a Bit This Afternoon...

So I got through with my adventure getting the parts today, and on the way home I stopped off at Advanced Auto Parts to get some Bondo. It was pretty warm out today so I figured it would be a good day to slap some body filler into the dents on the GS and get them sanded down. I had been planning on going to Autozone, but it's a good thing I stopped at Advanced. Why?? They had the truck bed liner kit that I had been planning on buying on sale for $40. So I saved $14 or so more than I was planning on spending.

When I got home, I slapped some of the Bondo onto the dents. I had already sanded the paint down to bare metal. Now, keep in mind, I have NEVER done any body work at all. I've NEVER used Bondo on anything, so this was going to be something new for me.

Strangely enough, following the directions on the kit that I got produced what I felt were great results. The dents were pretty deep, so I had planned on having to do two or three coats of Bondo, sanding after each one. I got the first coat sanded down and was pretty impressed with myself. For never having done this before, it looked remarkably like pictures on the internet suggested it should look like. I threw down another coat and was even more impressed. After that one dried I sanded it down and did one last coat. This last one took the cake. The largest dent is not even noticeable at all now. The two smaller ones are still SLIGHTLY noticeable, but only because they were dented on a spot that was actually an angle, and you can just barely see that the angle isn't 100% perfect. However, seeing as I'm going to be using the bed liner as paint, I don't think I need to get 100% perfect. That, and it's going to be a rat bike, so looking perfect isn't as important as functioning perfectly.

In order to get the sanding done right, I made a trip to the store and picked up an orbital sander. I got it for cheap, but it works perfectly, and probably saved me several HOURS worth of sanding by hand. Best part about it is I can use it to rough up the other parts on the bike that need to be painted and to do other things around the house.

Who'd have thought, though, that following the direction on something like Bondo would produce great results?? Maybe I'll start reading instructions more often...