Back then I'd spend a full day on a single quarter panel with 220 grit by hand. Now I grab a DA with 400 and knock it out in 45 minutes. Air tools just change the game completely. Anyone else still prefer hand sanding on tricky curves?
Was grabbing supplies last Tuesday at the NAPA on 5th Street. Guy behind the counter saw I was grabbing 80 grit and just shook his head. Said I was working way too aggressive for modern clear coats and handed me some 220. He was dead on. Who else has had a parts guy save them from doing dumb work?
After 20 years in the trade working on rusted-out trucks in Buffalo, I switched back to metal glaze for deep dings and it outlasted every polyester patch I tried by a good 6 months - has anyone else had that experience with older vehicles?
The owner said he'd been patching it up himself for 20 years and each time he just grabbed whatever rattle can was closest, so I spent three full days sanding down everything from gloss white to flat army green. Has anyone else dealt with a nightmare of mismatched factory versus hardware store paints that just WOULD NOT feather out?
Honestly grabbed a $12 blending pen from the auto parts store for a quarter panel chip on a silver Civic last Saturday and now the blend line is super obvious in sunlight. The color didn't match at all and it dried with a weird matte finish compared to the clear coat. Anyone else had bad luck with those budget blending tools or am I just using them wrong?
Had a car come in with a weird paint peel near the exhaust and I couldnt figure out why until I checked surface temps before spraying. Found out the panel was hitting 140 degrees after a test drive, way too hot for primer to stick. Anyone else use temp guns on repairs or am I just late to the party?
I always laid down filler, waited maybe 10-15 minutes, then started sanding. Thought I was being efficient. Last month a veteran painter I sub for saw me working and asked why my filler looked 'chewed up'. He showed me his method: wait until the filler feels waxy to the touch, then sand. I tried waiting 25 minutes on my next repair and the difference was night and day. No more pinholes, no more pulling out of low spots. Has anyone else had a moment where you realized you were rushing a step that actually needs more time?
I know everyone at the shop has gone crazy for the glue pulling method the last couple years, but I still think a good stud welder gives you way more control on quarter panels. Had a 2018 Civic about 6 months ago where the glue pull left a tiny wave on the edge that took me 45 extra minutes to smooth out. Am I the only one who thinks the old way is still better for certain panels?
He was showing me how temperature changes in the booth affect the clear coat differently than the base. I always figured if the temp was stable, you were good. But he showed me a chart from a shop in Phoenix where a 15 degree swing between morning and afternoon was messing up their jobs for months. They had to adjust their flash times by almost 2 minutes. Now I'm watching my thermometer like a hawk. Any of you guys running into this with the weather getting weird lately?
Last week I had this 2018 F-150 with a nasty crease down the rear quarter panel. I kept going back and forth on whether to use my stud welder or try out this new glue pulling setup I borrowed from a buddy. The dent was right on that body line and I was worried the glue might not have enough hold for how sharp the crease was. I ended up going with the stud welder because I know exactly how it behaves on thicker Ford metal. Pulled it out in about 20 minutes with minimal hammer work but I did burn through a few spots where the paint was thin. It came out pretty clean but now I'm second guessing myself on whether the glue pull would have saved me the paint repair time. Anyone else made the switch from welding to glue for stuff like this and regretted it?
I was going through my books last week and counted up all the jobs I've done since I started my own shop back in 2014. Total came to 503 cars. That number surprised me because I never thought I'd make it past maybe 200. Each one had its own headache, like that Ford Focus with the hit-and-run damage that took me 3 tries to get the color blend right. Or the old Chevy where the frame was tweaked just a hair and I had to pull it on the rack three separate times. It's weird to think about that many cars coming through and how many little tricks I picked up along the way. Anybody else ever count up their total and feel a little thrown off by it?
I was reading a PPG tech sheet last night while waiting for some filler to cure and realized I been running my urethane primer at way too high of a pressure. Like 45 psi for years, when the spec says 28-32 max. No wonder I always got dry spray and orange peel on the edges. Switched it today and the coverage is way smoother. Any of you guys ever catch yourself ignoring the TDS for years?
Had a weirdly good day last week. A 2017 Civic came in with a busted bumper, a 2015 F-150 with a dented tailgate, and an old Subaru with a quarter panel scrape. All three were done by 1 PM because the paint matched perfect on the first try and the parts actually fit. Anyone else ever get those days where everything just clicks?
Customer brought it to me after the dealer admitted they'd never done a unibody pull before, what's the worst job you took over from someone who clearly didn't know what they were doing?
Guy in a brand new Tesla pulls into my shop in Phoenix last Tuesday, wants me to buff out a scratch on his bumper, and proceeds to stand right over my shoulder the whole time. After I've been wet sanding for maybe 20 minutes, he goes 'so are you close to being done yet?' like I'm painting a room in his house. Does your customers hover like this or do I just have bad luck?
Back in the late 90s I was at a shop in Phoenix and that's what the old guy taught me. Stuff newspaper in the hole, slather bondo over it, sand and paint. Lasted maybe 6 months before it bubbled. Now I cut out the rot entirely and weld in a patch panel every time. Took me until about 2015 to finally stop cutting corners on rust repair. You guys still see guys doing the newspaper trick or did that die out?
I was working on a 2022 C300 in Portland and kept getting this weird halo around my blend. My coworker Dave told me to back off the pressure and use a 2-inch fan pattern instead of a 3-inch. It laid down perfect on the second try, no sanding needed. Anybody else run into halo issues on metallic silver?
I keep seeing guys at my shop in Detroit slathering filler on dents that clearly need pulling from the back. Last month I had a 2018 F-150 come in where someone already packed an inch of filler onto a quarter panel. It cracked after three months of Michigan road salt. How is that supposed to hold up when you skip the metal straightening? I spend an extra 20 minutes per panel getting it straight before filler touches it. Has anyone else dealt with come backs from this shortcut?
Had a 2015 Civic come in last Wednesday with a bumper that just wouldn't line up on the driver side. I figured I'd just tweak the brackets and call it done, but the clips were all snapped from a previous hit and the reinforcement bar was bent like 3/8 inch. Ended up pulling the whole front end apart, straightening the bar with a slide hammer, and sourcing new clips from the parts store across town. Has anyone else run into a simple job that just snowballed into a whole day project?
Switched to two thin passes with a 15 minute wait between them six months ago, and not a single crack has come back through on the seams since - anyone else deal with this same issue?
I got roasted on a job last month for laying down too much filler on a dented quarter panel. Old timer I work with said I was making more work for myself and should have pulled the dent more. I changed my method, started spending 20 extra minutes on metal work, and the filler job came out way thinner and better. But I've also seen guys online say filler is fine if you sand it right, so which is it? Any other pros out there switch from heavy filler to pulling dents more, or do you think the extra time isn't worth it?
I was helping out a buddy at his shop in Tulsa last summer and we got a car from another garage that was supposed to have a simple dent repair. But they'd just laid on a half inch of Bondo over rust and it cracked within a week. Now I always check for any weird thick spots before I accept a job from certain places. Anyone else seen this kind of hack work come through?
I picked up a $25 bondo dispenser from an auto parts store in Tucson thinking it would speed up my filler work. It worked great for the first dolly shot, but then the plunger jammed and I had to scrape out half-set filler from the nozzle. Learned my lesson: stick with mixing by hand on a clean board, it's slower but way less frustrating. Anyone else had bad luck with these guns or is it just me?
This dude was going off to the counter guy about how he doesn't use filler, just hammers everything perfect. I've been doing this 12 years in Denver. Last Tuesday I spent 4 hours on a quarter panel on a 2015 F-150 because the customer didn't want to pay for a new one. You better believe I skimmed some filler on it before primer. It's not lazy, it's practical. Anyone else get tired of the purist act?
Last week I was finishing up a 2015 Ford Focus, rear quarter panel damage. Got the primer down, looks good, then I lay the base coat and it all crinkled up on me. Turns out I didn't let the primer flash long enough after the last coat, maybe 5 minutes too short. Took me an extra hour to sand it back down and start over. Anyone else had paint lift from rushing flash times?