Had a guy come in last month. Been doing paint work for 40 years maybe more. Watched me wet sand a blend for 20 minutes straight. He just goes "you're burnishing that clear right into the ground." Changed my whole process. Now I do 3 quick passes with 1500 grit and move on. Way less orange peel issues. Anyone else had an old school painter save them from bad habits?
Customer brought their car in for what looked like a simple rock chip near the rear wheel. I started sanding and found bondo from a previous shoddy repair that was bubbling underneath. Ended up stripping the whole panel, fixing the old dent, and shooting it again. Took me 3 extra hours but the customer was happy. Ever run into hidden damage that blew up a quick job?
Everyone told me I was crazy for ditching the DA sander on a custom clear coat job. I was working on a 2018 Mustang last week in my shop near Dallas, and the orange peel was brutal. I grabbed some 2000 grit paper and a spray bottle of water, and just started sanding by hand. Took me about 3 hours total for the whole hood, but the finish came out way smoother than I expected. No swirl marks or burn through spots like I get with the DA sometimes. I think people sleep on hand sanding because it takes longer, but for smaller panels it's honestly worth it. Has anyone else had good luck with this over a machine?
Last Thursday I was fitting a replacement fender on a '15 Civic and forgot to lock the height stand. Fender slipped, landed edge-first on the hood, left a nasty 4 inch gouge. Had to eat the cost of repainting both panels out of my own pocket, $380 total. Anybody else had a stupid mistake like that cost them real money?
Had a dent on a 2018 F-150 rear quarter panel last week and debated between a $200 Amazon puller and the fancy Dentcraft kit my buddy swears by. I went with the cheap one and spent 2 hours on a 4 inch crease near the taillight. Pulled it smooth enough for filler after some practice pulls. Anyone else try the budget welders or am I just lucky?
Last month I had a guy bring in a 2018 F-150 with a dent the size of my fist on the door. Three years ago I would have just mixed up some filler, sanded it down, and had it painted in a day. But now everyone wants PDR to keep the original paint. I spent 4 hours on that door with my tools and still couldn't get it perfect. The customer was happy but I felt like I was fighting the metal the whole time. Anyone else tired of how much the trade has shifted away from traditional body work?
I was aligning a new door on a Silverado and the gap at the bottom was off by 3mm. Took me 4 hours to realize the hinge pillar was tweaked 2mm out of spec from a prior hit. Has anyone else had factory pillars throw off your gaps like that?
I had a golf ball ding on my hood last month in Portland, and the PDR guy quoted $150 but said he couldnt guarantee it would look perfect. So I went the old school route and spent $60 on filler, primer, and paint at the local auto parts store and did it myself in my garage. The repair came out smooth and invisible, way better than the wavy surface I see from a lot of PDR jobs around town. Has anyone else had better luck with traditional body work over PDR for certain dents?
I was training a new guy at the shop yesterday and he showed me this tool from PPG that scans your panel and suggests the exact mix in seconds. Has anyone else tried one of these AI color scanners yet or am I late to the party?
I run a small shop outside Cleveland, and last month we had this Tuesday that was nuts. Three different customers showed up, all with 2015 to 2017 Ford Fusions, all with rust bubbling on the driver side rear wheel arch. I spent the whole day patching those panels and it felt like a weird assembly line. It stood out because I usually see one rust repair every few weeks, not three in a single shift. Has anyone else ever gotten a bunch of the same issue roll in back to back like that?
I spent about 6 months doing paint prep on this 2010 F-150 I was restoring. I thought I was being smart using 80-grit on everything to save time. Then a guy named Mike who's been doing body work for 30 years walked past my bay and asked why I was putting tiger stripes in my primer. I had no clue what he meant until he showed me the deep scratches I was leaving. He said I needed to step down through 120 and 220 before sealer. I felt like an idiot but it made the final paint job way smoother. Do you guys stick to a strict grit order or do you ever skip levels to save time?
Three separate customers showed up mad about paint mismatches from a job I did 8 months ago, and the blizzard meant my paint rep couldn't get here to check the mixing machine until Friday - has anyone else had a day where everything just falls apart at once?
I used to be the guy who would spend 2 hours masking and taping off a car before painting. Thought it was the only way to get clean lines. Then a veteran painter at a shop in Phoenix told me I was wasting time and that paper and tape are just crutches. He showed me his method of laying down tape in 20 minutes max and using a steady hand for the rest. I tried it on a 2014 Honda Civic last month and my edges came out cleaner than ever. Now I save about 90 minutes per car. Has anyone else found that less prep actually gives better results?
I stopped by Casey's Auto Body on 7th Street last week to drop off a bumper for my neighbor and I swear the paint they mixed for a 2017 Honda Civic was closer to a sunset orange than the factory red. The guy behind the counter said 'it'll blend in' but idk, it looked pretty bad under the shop lights. Has anyone else had a shop try to rush a color match like that?
I wasted an afternoon trying to fix a cracked bumper cover with one of those cheap plastic welders. The thing melted the plastic unevenly and left a mess I had to grind out. Lost about 4 hours and $30 on that experiment. Anyone else get burned by one of those budget tools?
Was waiting at the NAPA counter last week and heard the guy behind me tell the clerk that body filler is "just Bondo, it's all the same." Got me thinking about how I used to think that too, until I switched to a premium filler and noticed way less pinholes and shrinkage on a big quarter panel job. The cheap stuff cost me more in sanding time and rework, you know? Have you guys noticed a big difference between cheap and expensive filler brands or is it just me?
I walked into this place near the Strip District to grab some basecoat and watched the guy behind the counter eyeball the tinting. He didn't even shake the cans right and the color came out streaky. I mean, maybe it's just me but if you're running a pro shop you gotta at least follow the basic steps. Has anyone else dealt with a supplier that just doesn't care about quality?
Bought one of those digital paint thickness gauges off Amazon thinking it would save me time. First three cars I checked with it gave readings that didn't match what I found after sanding down. Turned out the calibration was junk and I wasted two hours rechecking everything with my old magnetic gauge. Anyone else get burned by cheap measuring tools?
I was dead set on using a blendable 2K primer for everything, thought it was the only way to get good results on multi-panel jobs. Then a guy at the NAPA counter handed me a quart of Sikkens Autoclear single-stage surfacer and told me to try it on a quarter panel job I had last month. One pass, no orange peel, sanded flat in half the time. Has anyone else found that switching primer types solved their finish issues?
Bought a beat up 3-phase exhaust fan off a guy in Tacoma for $600 instead of spending $3k new, just had to rewire it. Anyone else gamble on used gear like that and come out ahead?
I was reading through some old training manuals from the 90s I found in my shop's back office, and it said painters back then waited up to 72 hours for single-stage urethane to fully cure before buffing. Now I can shoot a basecoat-clearcoat job and wet sand it the same afternoon with modern hardeners. Makes me wonder how many of those old jobs got ruined by rushing the cure time. Does anyone here still work with materials that take more than a day to harden?
Tried to pull a dent on the rear quarter panel last Tuesday. Figured I could get it smooth in about 45 minutes. Three hours later I was still chasing high spots with a hammer and dollies. What did I learn? You can't skip the metal finishing steps just because you're in a hurry. Has anyone else wasted a whole afternoon on a panel they thought would be quick?