Need Restoration Advice. Looking at buying 1 of 2 '40s for restoration. Both had small dents or dimples from rocks on fenders. One still has bare metal, the other had all dimples and dents carefully "filled" and sanded to perfect smoothness before priming. Similar in quality otherwise. Is filling and sanding imperfections before painting good form or permissible in a quality restoration and will the fill bear up long term? In other words, which is the better starting point for a high-quality restoration?

You are probably better off with the car with the dents in it, than the one that has the filler. Even though you may not be able to completely remove the dents without using filler, you will be able to get the dents smooth enough so you don't need lots of filler. A thin application is usually a pretty good fix, but if it's applied too thick, it will eventually crack. At least by starting out looking at the dent, you'll know that your new bondo job will stick to the metal. When it comes to body filler, less is more...