I was watching this old timer at a shop in Denver last month work on a Honda Accord with a nasty crease on the rear door. He spent like 20 minutes just tapping it out with a body hammer and a dolly from the back side, barely touched any filler. It got me thinking about how I usually just glob on bondo for small dents like that. So I tried his method on a Chevy Malibu this week, took my time with the hammer and heat gun, and got it 90% smooth with just a thin skim coat. Saved me about an hour of sanding and probably $20 in filler. Has anyone else gone back to more hammer work instead of piling on the bondo?
Had a guy bring in his 2015 F-150 with a dented driver side rear door. I figured no big deal, but that aluminum skin fought me every step. Took three tries with the stud welder to get a clean pull without burning through the metal. Anybody got a go-to technique for aluminum body panels that doesn't involve replacing the whole door?
Everyone says to grab the DA and feather the edges when you're doing a small dent repair. But I started noticing I was burning through too much filler on the smaller stuff. About 4 months ago I tried using a long board hand file for a door ding on a 2015 Civic in my shop here in St. Louis. The control was way better and I actually saved myself a round of glazing putty because I didn't overshoot the metal. Now I only use the DA for big panels or heavy rust areas. Has anyone else ditched power tools for hand finishing on quarter panels or is that just me being old school?
Was working in my driveway in Des Moines, thought I had a solid grip but the metal gave way about six inches from the edge. The whole job turned into a patch panel replacement that took twice as long, anyone else hit hidden rust like that on older Toyotas?
I stopped into the Maaco on 7th Street last Tuesday to grab some paint matching info for a side job. While I was there, I overheard their lead painter bragging to a customer about how they skip the epoxy primer on newer cars to save time. He said it's unnecessary because factory paint sticks fine as long as you scuff it up good. I told him right there I thought that was bad practice, especially on aluminum panels I've seen bubble up later without proper etch primer underneath. He got defensive and said I was overthinking it for a daily driver. But I've fixed too many peel jobs from places that skip that step, so I stand by calling it out. Has anyone else noticed shops cutting corners like this on prep in your area?
I finally compared PPG Envirobase side by side with Sherwin's AWX on a silver metallic bumper repair. The PPG laid down way smoother with less metallic mottling, had to do three coats with Sherwin to get even coverage. Has anyone else noticed that Sherwin just doesn't flow out as nice on pearls?
Customer brought in a Civic with rear bumper damage. I had to decide between a $450 OEM part from the dealer or a $180 aftermarket cap from a local supplier. I went with the aftermarket because the customer was paying out of pocket and wanted to save. The fit was close but needed about 20 minutes of extra sanding to get the panel gaps right. How much extra work do you guys accept to save a customer some money?
I bought a Harbor Freight HVLP sprayer last spring thinking I'd save some cash painting my personal truck. Figured I could do a decent single-stage job for under $200 total. That thing clogged on me three times before I even got the first coat done. I spent more time taking it apart and cleaning it than actually spraying paint. The finish came out orange peel city because the gun couldn't keep a consistent pattern. Ended up having to sand it all down and borrow my buddy's Devilbiss gun to fix it. That $400 in wasted material and my weekend was just gone. Anyone else get burned by going too cheap on a gun?
For like 3 years I was slapping filler on cracked ABS bumpers and wondering why half of them failed within 6 months. Then a customer brought in a bumper I'd fixed twice before and the crack had spread like a spiderweb under the paint. How long did it take you guys to figure out plastic welding?
Found a used Devilbiss gun in Denver last month. Guy said it was leaking. Cleaned the needle seat and it sprayed perfect. Beats my $300 gun I was using before. Anyone else find diamond in the rough deals like that?
What's the one tool you picked up used that actually outperformed everything you've bought new?
He said solvent lays down way flatter on old single-stage paints and I'd been fighting fisheye for months with waterborne on my '67 Mustang project, has anyone else made that swap and seen better results on vintage metal?
Had a guy bring his silver 2018 F-150 back three times last month because the blend line on his rear quarter panel was just barely visible in direct sunlight. I kept telling myself it was good enough, but he pulled out a flashlight and showed me exactly where I was half-assing the fade-out. Switched to a slower reducer and started using a finer grit on my final sand, now I can't unsee the difference. Anyone else had a customer call you out on something that actually made your work better?
He said he'd been doing it that way for years and that the paint was the expensive part, not the gun - has anyone else seen a cheap gun actually ruin a high-dollar job like that?
An old body guy watched me block sand a quarter panel and said I was running the block too quick, leaving high spots. I slowed down to half my usual pace and the primer laid down way flatter. Has anyone else gotten a simple critique that completely changed their prep work?
Swapped out the filler on a 2018 Civic door in Nashville last Tuesday. Saved about an hour on drying time but had to redo two pulls because the metal was thinner than I expected. Anybody else find stud welders worth the extra setup hassle on newer cars?
I keep seeing cars come into my shop in Phoenix where someone slathered body filler right over the paint on a plastic bumper repair. The filler just cracks and falls off after a few heat cycles in the sun. I had a customer last week who paid $300 for a repair that peeled off in three months. The right way is to strip it down to bare plastic first, then use a flexible filler made for bumpers. Has anyone else been running into these shoddy quick fixes?
Old timer at the shop I sub for pulled me aside last Tuesday and said I was laying filler way too thick on the first pass. He showed me how to do two thin passes instead of one fat one, and it cut my sanding time by almost half on a quarter panel I was doing on a 2017 F-150. Anyone else pick up a dumb habit that took a seasoned guy pointing it out to fix?
I was doing a quarter panel repair on a 2010 Civic last Tuesday and kept getting pinholes after sanding. Drove me crazy for about an hour until a guy at the shop told me to mix the hardener just a tiny bit less and let it sit 5 minutes before applying. Smoothed out perfect first try after that. Any of you guys run into shrinkage issues with certain brands?
PPG laid down way better for me - less orange peel and no fisheyes even in this humidity. Has anyone else noticed a big difference between the two brands on metallic jobs?
Last Thursday I painted a Mercedes hood at my shop in Phoenix. Used a new sealer I bought from a supply house I never tried before. Looked perfect in the booth but the next morning it was covered in tiny bubbles. Had to strip it all off and start over which cost me like 8 hours of labor. The supplier said they changed the formula without telling anyone. Has anyone else run into sealer adhesion problems with certain brands lately?
Left my SATA in the booth over the holiday and came back Tuesday to find it clogged up again. Tried that trick the old-timer from Maaco told me about - spraying acetone through before you shut down - and it fired right up first trigger pull this time.
I figured a 2 inch DA would save me time on those tight spots around the hinges, but it just kept gouging the paint because the pad was too aggressive. Took me three hours to fix the mistakes with filler and primer, which is way longer than if I'd just hand sanded like always. Anyone else swear by a different tool for this kind of detail work, or am I overthinking it?