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With Chris Curwen & Expert Auto Painter - Dave Gage (Car Cosmetics)

June 26th, 2007 - Issue 09

In this issue:

• A great testimonial from another one of our delighted customers.
• We're going to make a start on the topic of Bodywork Repair.

TESTIMONIAL:

We'd like to include in today's issue an email we received recently from one of our satisfied customers. His email read as follows:

Hi guys, what can I say, fantastic would not cover it! The most useful videos I have ever bought, been around cars all my life, and have a few parked outside, we have an airport travel company and now I can repair and paint them, I can save a fortune on repairs, thank you.

Reg Dugmore, Millennium Travel, Hartford, CT, USA.

We'd just like to say thank you very much Reg for your kind words.

OK, so onto today's topic:

Bodywork Repair is a separate subject entirely and 'How to Paint a Car - The System' was not designed to teach you 'how to repair vehicle bodywork'.

However, since you will be frequently painting over bodywork it is important that you understand the basic concepts.

If you don't want to deal with bodywork, that is up to you. It could be a wise decision to hire a professional repair center to do that type of work for you.

Of course this could result in you having to wait a while until you get your vehicle back; it will depend on the schedule of that particular repair center.

You should also consider the cost of having your bodywork done by a professional outfit, this may amount to more than you were planning to spend or claim from your insurance company. And who knows what the result will come back like?

You must make sure that the repair center that you hire has an excellent reputation for producing top quality work before you unleash them on your vehicle.

As an example, Car Cosmetics would be able to carry out bodywork repair for approx $50/hour.

The method that they use encompasses a very expensive piece of machinery called the 'Miracle Pull System' costing approx $8000+! This will make it probably out of the price range for the average home auto painter!

The benefits of using such a machine to the professional auto body repairer is that the end result is very accurate due to the design method employed.

And it is also far quicker than conventional panel straightening techniques such as using welded pins and a slide hammer.

Incidentally, Car Cosmetics haven't used welded pins and a slide hammer to straighten a vehicle panel for approx 12 years!

There is a demonstration of the 'miracle pull system' in action shown in 'How to Paint a Car - Part 2'.

Another possible option would be to find a college course where auto body repair is being taught. Talk to the instructors; they may be able to match you up with one of their skilled students looking to practice and hone their skills for a very modest fee.

As well as that, network with car enthusiasts as they may be able to assist you in this area.

Collision Repair

One likely reason you will have to do paint work on your car will be the result of a minor panel dent, such as on a wing.

As already mentioned, one option would be to pay a repair center to take care of the repair for you. However, it is very likely that you can handle doing such a repair job on your own.

Slightly damaged panels can be straightened. Don't worry if your straightening skills aren't the best, you can still do a satisfactory job. Deeper dents will simply require more layers of filler. Remember that you can't apply a single thick layer of filler.

If the area is damaged beyond your repair skills, you can replace the panel.

The basic tools for doing bodywork include an air file, a DA sander, small grinder, dead blow hammer, body hammer, sandpaper and a pry bar.

The best way to learn how to use these tools is to start using them. Experience will come with trial and error. Since the panel is already damaged, why not use it to practice on?

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That's all we have for you this week. Thank you very much for reading. We both hope this issue has been of valued interest to you.

Next week we'll get stuck into how you correctly Straighten a Panel.

Happy Painting!

Chris Curwen & Dave Gage
www.LearnAutoPainting.com