Who would have thought...

...to bondo a sewing machine? I didn't like the results I was getting with my paint layers. They were not going on smooth and many, many casting flaws were still obvious. While it's true that I have worked on a lot of cars, I never worked on the OUTSIDES. I don't know a thing about shiny smooth finishes. I finally asked for advice from a guy in Florida who does amazing finishes on Featherweights professionally. He helped me understand what I've been doing wrong.

To rectify the problem, I bought more oven cleaner and stripped the machine down again. This time proved to be significantly more difficult than the first. Then I primed and sanded it twice and then bondoed it:

That pink rash is all casting flaws. They were showing up as craters in the black paint. The black stuff is where the metal is showing through after sanding off the surplus bondo. The surface is very smooth and another coat of primer will reveal any flaws I missed. I probably don't have another coat of primer left in my spray can. This project is starting to get expensive.