Help with body repair!

[gpchris]

Anybody know some good sites that can teach me some about body repair? I have some very small dings in the roof, some large smooth dents in the rear quarter and various other dings/dents. All my plastic shit is good.

[5speedz34]

Paintless dent repair.

 

/thread.

[gpchris]

Paintless dent repair.

 

/thread.

 

? Im getting it painted after i get rid of these dents.

 

[5speedz34]

The whole car?

 

What I'm saying is they have this thing called paintless dent repair.

[Dark Ride]

I bought a body work book (pretty sure it was a Haynes manual) and while I haven't used it yet, it seemed to be a pretty good how to.

[bdyman]

i would first look into paintless dent repair, some of those guys are real good at working dents out, the guy we use is amazing at what he does check into that first

 

2nd............no book no online video will ever teach you what a journeyman knows, i never went to school never watched a video, hands on learning is the only way to learn, is a book going to teach you how to shrink the metal back if its to stretched or warped?? is a book gooing to teach you about the new products that we use??

 

is a book kgoing to teach you how to save a panle, is a book going to teach you how to take a flat piece of metal and shape and make something out of it, if a book going to teach you to weld, to section a frame rail, i`ll stop but you see my point, and then when i get a car that was fixed by someone that has no knowledge or experience in body work, it is going to cost you a shit load of money to redo what you did, keep that in mind

[gpchris]

Yes books WILL teach you those things! Although a book will teach you, it doesnt necessarily mean youll be good at it. Im looking on how to do it, Ill try and if i cant do it then ill pay someone.

[bdyman]

no a book wont teach you something us techs have been taught and doing for the past 20yrs, will a book teach you to section a frame rail, is a book going to teach you to take apart a door on a 2008 honda, is a book going to teach you how to mix bondo correctly and what to mix bondo on

 

way to much to be taught and way to much to learn, i stress it so much certain trades can nnot be taught by a book, which to me is a joke and a slap in the face, this is a trade that needs to be taught hands on bottom line, so many factors and real life situations that a book will never teach you

 

you can do what you want and do your own work but iam telling you the truth when i say if i see a car come to me that was done by someone with no experience and it was hacked up to high hell, everything you did has to come back off, and it would need to be fixed the correct way, which means allot more money will come out of your pocket becasue we have to redo what you did

 

most shops and techs work on commission so we dont work for free or for charity, if your unsure and dont feel right about doing it take a journeymans advice and let someone else fix it that has the experience you will thank me in the long run

[digitaloutsider]

You're being ignorant if you think a good book on body work doesn't go over properly mixing body filler and a $20 account for AllData doesn't describe how to take a door apart.

[Regal_GS_1989]

I see what he is saying. The book will give you the general knowledge to know where to start and the procedures to follow to go about doing the body work. But nothing can ever replace hands on experience.

[gpchris]

I understand.. But im trying to learn! How does one learn? I cant just go around fucking with dents until i get it right. I need to know the correct way to do it.

[Garrett Powered]

I would use some rage body filler. unless you are working on a honda or something, then use bondo

[Stevo]

Patience is the best tool.

 

I did my rocker panels and despite using rock guard, you would never knew that the 88's rocker panels were rotted ever.

 

Should you learn how to do it, always have patience, never rush a job.

[GJD5]

You can rent a book from the library called "how to paint your car". It goes into fixing dents also. I'm just going to say, don't expect much your first time around. It's a lot of work and if you use the wrong sander or sand paper grit it won't look right. The darker the color the more those inperfections show too.

[Garrett Powered]

my first paint job was a black metallic base/clear urethane and it has two huge patches of rage and like 40 small dings filled. I did it all with a DA 6" sander from harbor freight. I did prime the whole car a few times though but so far it still looks way better than it did.

[bdyman]

i do understand that you have no one to teach you , being taught from a book or being taught from a online video, will never teach you how to work with each and every metal on the market, the stuff you want to work on is typicall GM 16 gauge metal, what if you like doing body work and want to become an apprentice, is a book goin to teach you how to repair aluminum???, fix high strenght steel,

 

if your close to me i will teach you for free, show you stuff that a book or a classroom will never show you,

 

i belong to allot of automotive forums and when i see like how can i paint, or how can i do this or that, i understand people want to learn save money, i get it, nothing will ever beat hands on learning, a school will never teach you day to day learning, i remember my 1st car i painted ran the clear so bad i had to re do the whole side of the car, did i learn from a book on what to do next, no

 

i was lucky enough to be someones apprenticen and he taught me the trade the way a school never will or a book for that matter

 

like i said if your close to me i will teach you for free

[EviLette]

Paintless dent repair.

 

/thread.

 

? Im getting it painted after i get rid of these dents.

 

 

Exactly.

 

That's why I chose the route of PDR for my car, as opposed to conventional body work. When you are dealing with body work, espescially if you aren't very very good at it, or very detail-oriented, when you paint it, the sanding lines will come back through in the paint. I dont care if the car is white, or if its black. Black just shows it more, but I can see it on white. Maybe that's only because of my years of detailing that I can pick out nuance flaws in paint like that, but that's just what I see.

 

If you go with PDR, everything will be smooth and flawless before you get it painted, so the actual appearance of the paint will come out looking infinitely more clean and well-applied.

 

I'd go with PDR. Shop around. It can be expensive, or it can be cheap. A local car lot here is offering PDR and 199 complete paint jobs... not that I'd trust them as far as I could throw my own car, but I worked in a PDR/Body shop for about a year, and i've seen what PDR can do.

 

My car was HAMMERED with dings, dents, and hail scars. Looking at it now, you'd never know, except for one place on the driver's side where the dent itself was large enough to put tension on a stress line (directly below the window trim at the bottom) so you can still see it in the reflection as you walk by. Other than that... PDR is the way to go.

 

Let me reiterate.

 

PDR > conventional body work, UNLESS its a serious collision and panels have to be replaced.

[carkhz316]

i do understand that you have no one to teach you , being taught from a book or being taught from a online video, will never teach you how to work with each and every metal on the market, the stuff you want to work on is typicall GM 16 gauge metal, what if you like doing body work and want to become an apprentice, is a book goin to teach you how to repair aluminum???, fix high strenght steel,

 

if your close to me i will teach you for free, show you stuff that a book or a classroom will never show you,

 

i belong to allot of automotive forums and when i see like how can i paint, or how can i do this or that, i understand people want to learn save money, i get it, nothing will ever beat hands on learning, a school will never teach you day to day learning, i remember my 1st car i painted ran the clear so bad i had to re do the whole side of the car, did i learn from a book on what to do next, no

 

i was lucky enough to be someones apprenticen and he taught me the trade the way a school never will or a book for that matter

 

like i said if your close to me i will teach you for free

So a school with skilled, master instructors with decades of hands-on experience, teaching one how to do body work doesn't count as learning body work. BUT, you're going to teach someone how to do it properly, and that's okay, right? And about day to day learning. Ya, going and working on something different for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, in a school is COMPLETELY different, and doesn't compare to what you do at a shop, right? I agree that a school's shop and a real world shop can be two completely different experiences. But in my case, I go to school full-time, and work at a shop part time, both of which are PPG, and I-CAR certified, and I can tell you this, they're about the same, except the bosses tell you different ways of doing the same thing. That's about it. You're lucky that you had someone to teach you how do to it in a shop. That doesn't mean you or the shop where you work at/ got taught how to do Body work at are necessarily right, or even any good at it for that matter. I didn't have that luxury for someone to take me under their wing, that's why I went to school for it. So, don't knock it until you try it.

[THe_DeTAiL3R]

For the dents, I would suggest (as everyone else here has) to pay someone to do paintless dent removal. **This is not something you can do yourself!!!!** You can watch though and ask questions! If looks easy, but believe me it's not (that's why they charge so much)

 

Painting a car on the other hand- I think could be an interesting learning experience. You can is white, so if you do a sub-par paint job it will not look as bad as if you tried to paint a black car. If your car doesn't have any rust and you don't have to do bodywork then it should be relatively straightforward. But do you really need a paint job in the first place?

[carkhz316]

^

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