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Here is a place where we can discuss rust, dents, cracks, and well, any thing related to body repair. My knowledge of body repair is pretty limited, and I am sure others have questions. This is the place to discuss repairs, how-to, and hopefully, in the end, a picture or two to show off. Links: http://autobody101.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=5 Tools commonly used in body repair: Beginning Tools- 1. Sander - Air is ideal, but for the rest of us with out access to air, a quality random orbit sander will do the trick. 2. Hammers - The very minimum is a Ball Peen hammer. HF makes a decent set of hammers, and luckily, this is something they cant mess up! 3. Body Blocks - Wood in different shapes, helps 4. Mallets - A good rubber mallet, I have 2 different sizes, plus a dead blow hammer is another good tool box addition. 5. A good socket, screw driver, and wrench set - Goes with out saying, a set of extensions as well, but this is something that most of AI already has. Advance Tools- 1. MIG Welder - A good one. Miller and Lincoln are the most ideal, and luckily, 110V powered ones are more than plenty for auto body repair. The duty times will be lower, but for what we are doing here this is plenty. 2. Spot Welder - Good for repairing seams. Personally, I would only buy this if I was doing seem repairs on a regular basis. 3. Slide Hammer & Stud Welder - Good for pulling out dents if you don't have access from the panel. Edit: Updating page, added tools. Will add more as suggested. BrokenKnucklez fucked around with this message at Feb 14, 2013 around 18:08 |
| # ? Feb 13, 2013 01:43 |
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| # ? May 19, 2013 08:20 |
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Now to start discussion, has any one used this product before? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhmZH75-eVE I have a couple of spots on the front bumper on the Cadillac I would like to fix, because really, its the worst looking part on the whole car. Its not completely destroyed but it needs some love and I really don't want to hunt down a whole new bumper.
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| # ? Feb 13, 2013 01:45 |
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I used that product, but for a different purpose. I used it for filling in the staple strips during convertible top replacement. It probably works for the advertized purpose just fine, but is great for any application where a soft filler is required. It smells pretty bad though.
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| # ? Feb 13, 2013 03:17 |
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That product doesn't look bad. The rare times I actually have to do repairs like that instead of the common aftermarket or oem replacement i do the same prep process on the back of the crack as they did on the front and lay down some http://autobodystore.net/Merchant2/...egory_Code=6PRM on the back only and fill both front and back with http://www.autobodytoolmart.com/3m-...Fad_QgodmXQA1w. The style they show looks faster though I don't know that I would trust it to hold up to much further abuse. I would be happy to answer questions when I can. I've been in the industry for seven years in the Seattle area. Recently moved from niche european restoration and customization to full on production. All I have to say is gently caress a used rear body panel. Oh yeah, before you try to buff it out, try a little lacquer thinner.... Turb fucked around with this message at Feb 13, 2013 around 06:12 |
| # ? Feb 13, 2013 06:03 |
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I'll be paying attention to this thread, bodywork is not really one of my skills, so it'd be good to pick up some tips, particularly when it comes to filling and painting.
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| # ? Feb 13, 2013 09:51 |
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Turb posted:That product doesn't look bad. The rare times I actually have to do repairs like that instead of the common aftermarket or oem replacement i do the same prep process on the back of the crack as they did on the front and lay down some http://autobodystore.net/Merchant2/...egory_Code=6PRM on the back only and fill both front and back with http://www.autobodytoolmart.com/3m-...Fad_QgodmXQA1w. The style they show looks faster though I don't know that I would trust it to hold up to much further abuse. If you want to post any pictures here of before, during and after that would be great. AI doesn't really have to much to offer in terms of body repair other than moecow's amazing trucks. Plus for people that want to find a cheap car to fix and flip, products like this are helpful. Full on replacement parts can start getting pricey. A whole new bumper for the STS is 400 plus and I would much rather keep it cheap.
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| # ? Feb 13, 2013 20:00 |
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BrokenKnucklez posted:AI doesn't really have to much to offer in terms of body repair other than moecow's amazing trucks. Don't forget uncle_skin Teach us, O Great Ones!
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| # ? Feb 13, 2013 20:24 |
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A surform is extremely useful for roughing out shapes and taking the bulk of filler down. For panel beating, bending an old file to make a slap stick really helps with moving the metal. I try to do as much with the metal as possible before going to the filler to try to minimse the work. Sometimes the fumes or the repetitive sanding get to you. 
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| # ? Feb 13, 2013 21:23 |
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Step 1. buy 400 dollar chinese welder Step 2. cut out rust Step 3. booger weld patches in Step 4. drink some beer and give no fucks. Having never done body work, I cut the lovely bondo out of my RS and welded in a patch panel.      I also did the rocker repair on my shortly owned jeep cherokee:        And I patched the rust on my 600 dollar luxury subaru cruise ship:     420 make booger welds every day
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| # ? Feb 14, 2013 02:51 |
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BrokenKnucklez posted:Now to start discussion, has any one used this product before? I used it to repair a bug deflector on my old Spec V. Worked well but I have my doubts about how well it would hold up should the bumper ever take another bump. It's likely to be rather brittle and weak around the repair area.
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| # ? Feb 14, 2013 03:47 |
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BrokenKnucklez posted:If you want to post any pictures here of before, during and after that would be great. AI doesn't really have to much to offer in terms of body repair other than moecow's amazing trucks. Plus for people that want to find a cheap car to fix and flip, products like this are helpful. Full on replacement parts can start getting pricey. A whole new bumper for the STS is 400 plus and I would much rather keep it cheap. I almost never end up doing these kind of repairs because because replacement bumpers are usually so cheap. The way we look at is 200 dollars for a new part(most oems, most aftermarket stuff is going to be sub 100 area) at 50 an hour to repair leaves 4 hours to repair minus a little for prep time, there is not much I can actually repair on a bumper in a book time of four hours, much less two. Bumper repairs are generally frowned upon for warranty reasons unless it is mostly scratch removal. In your case repair might make sense especially if the repair is kept far away from the areas that that bumper meets the fenders so the factory color can be left there and the chance of color match becoming an issue becomes way reduced. With a new bumper it can be very hard to "butt match" a color in a way that is unnoticeable especially if you have one of those crazy pearl cadillac colors. Post some pics duh..... Also you kick rear end slow is fast Here are some pictures of the first welding project I ever did, used about 100 pounds of drat sand on that little area and just generally had no idea what the hell I was doing, guess the car??  
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| # ? Feb 14, 2013 05:26 |
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BrokenKnucklez posted:AI doesn't really have to much to offer in terms of body repair other than moecow's amazing trucks. How the gently caress did you forget Kevbarlas and his mind bending ability to resurrect a van from a pile of iron oxide?
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| # ? Feb 14, 2013 12:48 |
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Ferremit posted:How the gently caress did you forget Kevbarlas and his mind bending ability to resurrect a van from a pile of iron oxide? Nah, he's cheating and building a completely new van, just using the old one as a rough template 
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| # ? Feb 14, 2013 13:18 |
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Any tips for pulling a large dent out of a plastic bumper? I'm going to try and fix as many of the body issues on my Mazda as I can and I then plan to plasti dip the entire car. But I need a smooth, undented surface for that.
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| # ? Feb 14, 2013 23:53 |
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^ Can you get at the dent from behind, or barring that, get the entire bumper off the car? In my experience unless the plastic is cracked pushing the dent from behind almost always pops it back out.
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| # ? Feb 15, 2013 03:59 |
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Rhyno posted:Any tips for pulling a large dent out of a plastic bumper? I'm going to try and fix as many of the body issues on my Mazda as I can and I then plan to plasti dip the entire car. But I need a smooth, undented surface for that. Yeah, use a heat gun or i guess a hair dryer and warm the entire area up pretty good, then get at it from the backside with your hand or something round like the back of a screwdriver if the dent is small and work it back, real warm is the key here. Be careful not to get it too hot if you don't plan on breaking paint/sanding it out after.
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| # ? Feb 15, 2013 08:00 |
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The area above the windshield on my beater '96 Outback is starting to get pretty rusty. No holes yet, but lots of surface rust. How much should I expect to pay for someone to fix that and install a new gasket around the windshield?
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| # ? Feb 15, 2013 15:31 |
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Polymerized Cum posted:The area above the windshield on my beater '96 Outback is starting to get pretty rusty. No holes yet, but lots of surface rust. How much should I expect to pay for someone to fix that and install a new gasket around the windshield? I've got the same thing happening to my rear hatch, I got an estimate for $900 from a small shop in Albany NY, which included panel-matching the paint. I can see they wouldn't want to ship a hack job from their garage, but it was a little overkill for me and I'll probably end up doing it myself this summer.
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| # ? Feb 16, 2013 06:31 |
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NoWake posted:I've got the same thing happening to my rear hatch, I got an estimate for $900 from a small shop in Albany NY, which included panel-matching the paint. I can see they wouldn't want to ship a hack job from their garage, but it was a little overkill for me and I'll probably end up doing it myself this summer. If it is the hatch itself, just junkyard another one the same color and swap the part out. car-parts.com is how I find my panels. If it's the unibody, then yeah, you get to DIY fix it.
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| # ? Feb 17, 2013 01:47 |
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Can I use a stick welder to do general auto repairs, rocker panels, quarter panel or hatch rust etc, or do I need to get a mig? I became pretty proficient with an arc welder in the past (10+ years ago) and I imagine it would be easy to pick it back up. I never got to use the mig welder because there was always some redneck in the Shop class hogging it and trying to catch himself on fire.
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| # ? Feb 20, 2013 02:13 |
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For most body welding, issues can be solved with a few tacks, right? No need for solder lines unless it's structurally integral?
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| # ? Feb 20, 2013 05:41 |
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ThirstyBuck posted:Can I use a stick welder to do general auto repairs, rocker panels, quarter panel or hatch rust etc, or do I need to get a mig? I became pretty proficient with an arc welder in the past (10+ years ago) and I imagine it would be easy to pick it back up. I never got to use the mig welder because there was always some redneck in the Shop class hogging it and trying to catch himself on fire. Stick is going to probably be too hot for sheet metal. A 120V MIG would be fine, cheap, and widely available.
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| # ? Feb 20, 2013 15:48 |
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ThirstyBuck posted:Can I use a stick welder to do general auto repairs, rocker panels, quarter panel or hatch rust etc, or do I need to get a mig? I became pretty proficient with an arc welder in the past (10+ years ago) and I imagine it would be easy to pick it back up. I never got to use the mig welder because there was always some redneck in the Shop class hogging it and trying to catch himself on fire.
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| # ? Feb 20, 2013 17:29 |
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InitialDave posted:If you're really good, probably. But it does strike me as making things artificially difficult for yourself. Sounds like I need to look into getting a mig welder and learning how to use it. I assume some of the arc welding skills will transfer mig? Time to google and go to the library. Thanks for your input
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| # ? Feb 21, 2013 17:53 |
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The only thing with mig welds is they are a bit hard compared to the surrounding area. I generally prefer to tig repairs.
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| # ? Feb 21, 2013 20:35 |
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As someone with a background in body shop repair, you guys are scaring the poo poo out of me.
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| # ? Feb 22, 2013 02:25 |
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:As someone with a background in body shop repair, you guys are scaring the poo poo out of me. Care to enlighten the proletariat?..
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| # ? Feb 22, 2013 02:40 |
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:As someone with a background in body shop repair, you guys are scaring the poo poo out of me. I love you Kyoon. Please elaborate because I know this is gonna be excellent.
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| # ? Feb 22, 2013 03:01 |
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Anyone have some good links/advice for painting and blending? My idiot neighbor ran into my Jeep and smashed up my taillights and left a few small dents in the rear quarter metal. I was planning on sanding off the old paint and rattle canning the primer/topcoat/clearcoat on, and I'd like it to look good. It is only like a 3"x3" area. The car is white, and I've heard that's on of the easier colors to blend. Oh, and I've already checked the paint codes and gotten the right shade of white.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 06:12 |
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ExplodingSims posted:Anyone have some good links/advice for painting and blending? My idiot neighbor ran into my Jeep and smashed up my taillights and left a few small dents in the rear quarter metal. I was planning on sanding off the old paint and rattle canning the primer/topcoat/clearcoat on, and I'd like it to look good. It is only like a 3"x3" area. The car is white, and I've heard that's on of the easier colors to blend. You're not going to successfully blend rattle can paint with proper catalyzed paint, regardless of method used. So, before going any further......do you expect this to look right or does it just need to be good enough?
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 15:35 |
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Well, I do have a proper spray gun set up I can use, so if that's what it takes to make it look just right, then that's what I'll do. Out of curiosity why won't rattlecan paint blend up properly? Even if I have the exact same color it won't blend, I'm not just picking up white Rustoleum from Lowes. It just have something to do with the way the paint is mixed or dries or something? This the extent of the damage he did: 
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 16:33 |
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ExplodingSims posted:Well, I do have a proper spray gun set up I can use, so if that's what it takes to make it look just right, then that's what I'll do. Because it's not even CLOSE to being the same kind of paint. Rattlecan pain dries. Real automotive paint is catalyzed and hardens chemically. Also, you can't reasonably get enough material down with rattle cans.....they just don't have the required flow rate. Add those two things together and you have thin paint with mismatching sheen. Then you go to try to polish it to the same sheen and it's so thin you blow right through it down to your primer. There is a compromise, and that's real automotive paint in rattle cans. It actually has the hardener in the can in some contraption that you open by pushing a plunger on the bottom of then can and shaking to mix. Then you have to use it within 4-6 hours or whatever (depending on mix). Still goes on thin. If you've got a gun and a compressor there is literally no reason for you to not use it. So here's the very basics: remove all the material you need to to effect the repair. Try not to get too crazy. In that situation I'd keep it below the body line if possible. Once you have it repaired and the area is defined, you want to tape it off as small as possible and prime it with your high build. Block sand and repeat until it's pretty close. Take down the "lip" left by the paint at the tape line each time. Now tape it off further out by a couple inches. Lay down your midcoat (non high build) primer stopping the stroke at the edge of the high build primer and just dusting to the extent of the tape. You shouldn't be putting down enough material out there to make a sharp edge on the tape. Block sand and repeat until it's right. Now tape out further and do the same thing with your final coat. Make sure you put down enough material, and make sure the edges of the repair are dusted/faded. Give this a couple of days to dry and go after it with a cutting compound and then a polishing compound and you should be close. As far as the part(s) you need to blend, we're talking about in front of the area you are showing. Take off that trim panel at the bottom and do a full prime/pain to the bottom of that panel and choose your spot at the top. You can either blend or you can peel off that red pin stripe, make the center of that your new top (hard) line for the coats and just slap some new pinstripe over it to cover the line. Then you only have a single blend to worry about.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 17:47 |
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Motronic posted:Rattlecan pain dries. Real automotive paint is catalyzed and hardens chemically. That's not strictly true. Lacquers dry and enamels harden chemically. Most rattlecans have enamel paint in them, probably either acrylic or urethane depending on which ones you buy. 2-part rattlecan paint is just a fancy type of enamel, as is proper automotive paint for use with a compressor and spray gun. I absolutely agree that using a compressor and spray gun is by far the best option if you have access to them. Good 1-part rattlecans or 2-part rattlecans can produce reasonably good serviceable results if you have the patience to put on enough layers and sand inbetween, though. You'll spend a whole lot of money on cans and a whole lot of time on sanding, so it's not really worth it compared to doing it the proper way. I painted the hubcaps for my car black using duplicolor enamels. They turned out really well, but I used a lot of time prepping and sanding. I put down 5 layers of matte black and 3 layers of matte clear on top of that, lightly sanding in between layers. In total, I spent probably 3-4 times what the hubcaps cost in paint alone, never mind the time it took. If I had a compressor and even a cheap spray gun, I would have used that instead without hesitation. KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at Feb 23, 2013 around 19:12 |
| # ? Feb 23, 2013 18:46 |
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I think is the most appropriate thread for this q. My Datsun 510 was in a minor rear quarter fender bender that did in the nice chrome bumper that came with the car. I had the car repaired professionally out of pocket, but I ended up with limited options for bumpers and stuck a spray painted rusty bumper on it while I waited for a nice one. With nice used versions going for $500+ on ebay I've been reluctant, and the wait has lasted 7 years. Ol' Rusty Crusty:  Well, my RSS Craigslist feed finally paid off yesterday and I got a "9/10" rear and a "7/10" front bumper for $250 all in. Well, the seller's opinion of 9/10 (and 7/10 for that matter) and mine seem to differ as it turned out to have have a couple of small dents in it. I am now trying to figure out how to do the best I can to straighten it. Web searches have revealed little. Heat or no heat, the chrome will crack or won't, etc. Anyone here have hands on experience with straightening chrome that can give me some tips? I imagine it is like any other dent, except the metal is substantially thicker and you can't repaint. As you can see the worst dent is slightly creased, but all in all not too severe.  I'd like to try to straighten my front bumper too, but it is more wobbly along the upper edge, so it requires a different approach. Any tips on polishing chrome would be good too!
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 20:15 |
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Rhyno posted:I love you Kyoon. Please elaborate because I know this is gonna be excellent. I don't really want to get in to it or be a hater or whatever because yo, sometimes your beater gets a shitload of rust around the wheel well or whatever and you just bust out the bondo and you're good (enough) to go. If you look at a modern car's structural diagram, there are a bunch of different types of steels chosen for their different behaviors. These form a safety cage which distributs force in an accident and avoids such things as "A-pillar incursions in to your face" which are usually bad for you. Differing types of steels are chemically altered by incorrect application heat, meaning that they don't perform correctly. You can't just grind the rust out of your quarter panel assembly and then patch in what looks to be pot metal, or at best some random fuckin blank you have lying around. I can't find the thing right now but IIHS or NHTSA crashed two of a car a couple years back and put it back together using OEM repair instructions and then also just doing lovely body shop practice work (which frankly is better than the work you guys are doing, I'm sorry). The difference in the subsequent recrash is... significant. Anyhow, if you really want to hear more bitching about home collision repair, I'm happy to oblige. I don't really care one way or another if you guys gently caress with your cars at home, but don't think that just because you made it look correct that it actually is correct. You'd have to pay me a good amount of money to ride in any of Slow is fasts' cars.
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| # ? Feb 24, 2013 03:29 |
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The body repair thread: Repairing your wheel wells with bondo will compromise the crash integrity of your car
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| # ? Feb 24, 2013 04:41 |
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Armchair Engineering Megathread: Blurfing about hurfs none of you went to school for
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| # ? Feb 25, 2013 00:33 |
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:As someone with a background in body shop repair, you guys are scaring the poo poo out of me. This right here, and for what he already said. You guys probably won't die but if you try to sell it at my auction without a Frame/Unibody announcement I'm failing you so hard in post sale inspection.
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| # ? Feb 25, 2013 01:06 |
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:As someone with a background in body shop repair, you guys are scaring the poo poo out of me. I didn't want to be the one to say it. Doing shoddy body work on a winter beater worth $500 is one thing, but I would be pretty careful about metal work if it was a more expensive car or a daily driver. Also, here's a link to an example video of what Kyoon was talking about : Watch this Devyl fucked around with this message at Feb 25, 2013 around 04:26 |
| # ? Feb 25, 2013 04:24 |
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| # ? May 19, 2013 08:20 |
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That's why I'd never sell the Micra I've got. Sure, it looks straight, but it was in a fire hot enough to kink the shell at to top of both B pillars. That metallurgy be hosed.
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| # ? Feb 26, 2013 20:35 |
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