He said the 2% rule is a myth and Ive been making my mud crack for years after a 70 degree day in Phoenix, has anyone else tested different ratios on a hot panel?
Last month I got distracted on a 2018 Accord door and left my slide hammer puller sitting in one spot for like 20 minutes under a heat lamp. Had to sand down a whole blister and reprime it. Anyone else ever zone out and ruin a repair like that?
Honestly, I ran into this older guy named Frank at the parts counter near my shop in Denver. He told me to use dry ice on a big hail dent on a 2018 F-150, said it'd pop right out. Tried it last Wednesday and it did nothing but fog up the panel and waste $30 on dry ice. Then I had to spend an extra hour fixing the mess with my stud welder. Has anyone else gotten garbage tips from guys who think they know everything?
Customer's rear passenger door got smashed in, and I had to choose. Salvage yard wanted $350 for a perfect color match door from a 2019. New aftermarket was $220 plus paint. I went with the new one cause the salvage door had a tiny bit of rust starting near the window seal. Big mistake. The new door didn't line up right, took me an extra 3 hours to tweak the hinges and shim the latch. Customer wasnt happy about the wait either. Has anyone else had a new door just fight them like that?
Asked him how he justifies that rate and he pointed to his 5-stage spray booth and said customers pay for the finish, not the time, so now I'm wondering if I should bump my $65 rate or just upgrade my equipment first.
I don't know what was in the air last month, but I finished four paint jobs in five days without a single run, sag, or dust nib. The first one was a silver Nissan Altima that usually gives me trouble because metallic is hard to match. Then a red Honda Civic came through and I got the blend perfect on the first try. I even did a pearl white Toyota that I was dreading because those are tricky. Felt like I couldn't miss no matter what I shot. Anybody else ever have a week where everything just clicks like that?
I was patching rust on a 2002 F-150 in my shop and cranked the heat too high on my Miller 211. Burned straight through and made a hole the size of a quarter, had to grab a bronze backing plate and start over. Anyone else ever cooked a panel like that with a MIG gun?
Ngl I fell for the hype on one of those high end paint booth filter setups from a vendor at the SEMA show. Thought it would cut down on overspray and drying time in my shop. After 6 months of using it, my paint jobs actually had more dust nibs and the flow felt worse. Went back to my old $40 roll of filters and everything cleared up. Anyone else get burned by a fancy filter system that just didn't work?
I was standing at the paint supply store last Tuesday trying to decide between a $45 3M half face respirator with the pink pancake filters and a $12 no name brand from the clearance rack. The cheap one felt flimsy in my hands and the rubber smelled weird like it would crack after a month. The 3M was heavier but the seal around my face was WAY better when I tried it on in the parking lot. I went with the expensive option because I do clear coat work for 4 hours straight sometimes and I don't want to taste solvent in my mouth for days afterward. After two weeks of using it I can tell the filters are still going strong and my nose feels clean after spraying. Has anyone else noticed a big difference between bargain bin respirators and the name brand ones?
On one hand I'm proud of the volume but on the other hand I'm wondering if I'm wrecking my body for a paycheck, anyone else hit a number that made them stop and question their methods?
I was down in Phoenix last month helping a buddy at his shop and this old timer came in with a 2004 Camry that had a cracked bumper. He pulled out a heat gun and a plastic welding kit I'd never seen before, fixed that crack in like 15 minutes flat. I always just used filler on plastic bumpers, but he showed me how welding them holds up way better over time. Has anyone else tried plastic welding on bumpers instead of filler?
I was working on a 2010 Honda Accord last Saturday and figured I'd save some time by skipping the etching primer on a small quarter panel patch. Told myself it was just a test panel and nobody would see the backside anyway. Seven days later, the paint started lifting at the edges and now I have to strip it all back down to bare metal. Learned my lesson - primer is there for a reason, and cutting corners just doubles your labor. Anyone else ever get burned trying to speed up a repair?
I was reading through some I-CAR data last week and found out that over 40% of new cars now have aluminum hoods or panels. That surprised me because I still see so many guys in my shop pushing to fix steel like it's the only option. On one hand, aluminum is lighter and doesn't rust, but on the other hand, it's way harder to weld and can crack if you don't prep it right. What's your stance - do you stick with steel repairs or have you started swapping in aluminum more often?
I crossed the 500 mark on my repair count last Thursday, which felt like a big deal until I realized the car that pushed me over was this rusty old Taurus with bondo packed three inches deep in the rear quarter panel. It took me six hours just to cut out all the previous patch jobs and get a clean start. Any of you guys track your repair numbers or do you just let the pile speak for itself?
I spent 15 years mixing everything by hand because I figured those $8,000 machines were just a gimmick for rich shops. Then I helped a buddy in Columbus for a week and watched him bang out 3 color-matched jobs in the time it took me to do 1. Has anyone else switched from manual to a digital system and actually seen a real time savings?
I just counted up my work orders and realized I pushed through 500 cars this month, mostly insurance jobs with heavy PDR work. What's the most cars you guys have knocked out in a single month?
Customer brought in a '66 Mustang for a full resto and wanted a perfectly smooth look under the hood. I had to pick between a rotisserie for painting or a downdraft sanding setup. Went with the rotisserie from Eastwood, cost about $1200, and it made the bodywork way easier since I could flip the car over to reach the floor pans. Anyone else deal with these kind of space tradeoffs in a small shop?
I was spraying a 2018 Ford Focus in my booth last Tuesday and halfway through the clear coat started fisheye-ing like crazy. Turns out I left old reducer residue in the cup from a job three days ago. Has anyone else had a similar disaster from skipping a deep clean on their spray equipment?
I got a 2010 Civic in Tuesday with rear quarter damage. Looked like a simple cut and weld job from the initial photo. Three hours in I found bondo hiding rot all the way down the wheel arch. Had to keep cutting back until I hit clean metal. Ended up fabricating a patch panel from scratch because the aftermarket one didn't line up right. The inner structure was tweaked too so I had to pull that straight first. By the time I got it all welded, ground, and in primer it was 10 PM. Shop owner was pissed about the labor hours. Has anyone else dealt with hidden rot making a job go double what you quoted?
Got a 2018 silver Honda Accord in the shop last Tuesday with a nasty scrape on the rear quarter. Spent two hours mixing and spraying test cards and nothing matched right, the flake just laid down weird. Then I remembered an old timer I used to work with back in 2003 in Toledo, he always told me to spray a light dust coat of clear before the final color pass on metallics. Tried it on a scrap panel and it settled the flake perfectly, blended right into the factory paint without any tiger stripes. Anyone else ever use that trick or am I just behind the times?
I was working on a beat up 2012 Civic in Phoenix and the stars aligned, no filler needed on any of the 6 panels I touched, has anyone else had one of those weirdly perfect days where the metal just behaves?
I was at the NAPA store over by highway 99 picking up some clear coat yesterday. This older body man in front of me was telling the counter guy he stopped using cheap tape because it lifted on a 2023 Mustang hood after baking for 20 minutes. He said it cost him 3 hours of rework and an extra $80 in materials to fix the bleed-through. I've been using whatever tape is on sale for years, but hearing that made me grab the 3M stuff today instead. Any of you had bad luck with off-brand tape lifting under heat?
I was helping out at a place in Cleveland a few years ago, and this retiree named Frank saw me struggling with a quarter panel alignment on a '96 Impala. He just said 'Stop fighting the metal, son, listen to what it's telling you' and showed me how the panel had 1/8 inch of flex he'd never get with a hammer alone. Anyone else ever had a old timer drop a piece of advice that totally changed how you work?
I had this fender on a 2002 F-150 with a rust spot maybe the size of a quarter. I figured I'd save time and just fill it with some premium body filler instead of cutting and welding a patch panel. Three months later the whole thing bubbled up and cracked worse than before. Now I get why the old timers say you can't cheat rust repair. Has anyone else tried this shortcut and had it fail or did I just use the wrong product?
Bought their $30 electric DA to save cash on a weekend job, and the pad flew off at 2000 RPM mid-stroke, gouging the clear coat. That discount cost me 3 extra hours of wet sanding and buffing - anybody else have luck with their stuff or is it all junk?