c/auto-body-repairers

Hit 500 jobs without keeping a single log, finally did the math

Was cleaning out the work truck last week and counted the repair orders, 514 in 3 years. Most were bumper covers and door dings, but seeing that number made me realize how much I actually learned without writing anything down. Anyone else ever tally up their jobs and get surprised by the total?

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cameronb52•21h ago

Paint correction on a 2012 Toyota changed my mind about cheap DA polishers

I used to swear you needed a $600 polisher to get a real mirror finish. Then a buddy talked me into trying his $120 one on this beat-up Corolla that had swirls everywhere. Spent a Saturday in Arlington doing a two-stage correction, and I'll be honest, the results came out 90% as good as my expensive setup. The machine ran a little hot after 3 hours, but it never bogged down or stalled on the tough panels. My customer even asked if I'd repainted the hood, that's how clean it looked. Has anyone else had good luck with budget DA's, or did I just get a lucky one?

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sethh58•1d ago

One customer in Phoenix taught me more than any class

Back in 2008 I was patching a fender on a beat-up Civic when the owner, an older guy, came out and watched me work for a few minutes. He said "you sand that filler twice as smooth and you won't see it through the paint next summer." I took his advice, wet sanded again, and the final coat came out like glass. That little tip saved me from a comeback repair on a $400 job, and I still use it every week. Anybody else get a game-changer tip from a random customer instead of a shop vet?

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holly_garcia•4d ago

The $60 anti-fog spray that saved my whole afternoon

Spent $60 on a can of anti-fog compound for interior windshield work after a customer's defroster repair kept fogging up during my test drive in Spokane. It fixed the issue instantly and stopped me from redoing the whole job, has anyone else found a cheaper trick for this?

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paule53•4d ago

Found out a paint thickness gauge can read through clear coat

I was checking a used bumper at a shop in Akron last month and the tech pointed out our cheap gauge was reading 12 mils on a panel with fresh clear, which explained why I kept getting burned on repaint jobs.

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evant48•15d ago

Finally dropped $180 on a real frame rack pull kit

Been fighting a bent unibody rail on a 2018 Civic for three days with my old slide hammer setup, and I gave in and ordered the adjustable pulling kit with the laser guides. Took the guesswork out of measuring my pulls and I got the panel gaps within spec on the first try this morning. Anyone else bite the bullet on specialty tooling and wonder why they waited so long?

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coleman.seth•17d ago

Went to a junkyard in Phoenix, found a car with a full gallon of milk in the trunk

Stopped by Pick-n-Pull off the 10 last Saturday. Walked past this old Impala, trunk was popped. Inside sat a full gallon of milk, still cold somehow. It was 95 degrees out. Someone must have pulled the battery and the trunk latch failed. I grabbed a fender off it for $40, but I couldn't stop thinking about that milk. How long was it in there? Did the owner know? I almost took a picture for the shop guys. Now I double check every trunk I open on salvage cars. Anyone else find weird stuff stashed in wrecks?

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claire_butler1•17d ago

A kid at the parts counter made me rethink my whole spray booth setup

Had a 19 year old apprentice ask why I still bake panels at 140 degrees when the new waterborne clears cure at 120, and after checking the data sheet from last Tuesday I realized he was right, so has anyone else adjusted their oven temps after talking to someone half their age?

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seanjohnson•17d ago

OEM vs aftermarket fenders on a 2014 Civic, what's your call?

Got a 2014 Civic in the shop last week, rear quarter was bent bad and the customer wanted a used aftermarket fender to save $180 over the OEM part. I went with OEM because the aftermarket one had a gap at the door line I couldn't live with, but now I'm second guessing if I overcharged the guy. Anyone else run into this and what side do you land on when the price difference is that close?

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paige_ellis59•19d ago

Rolled the dice on a used spot welder from a pawn shop in Reno

Bought a 10 year old spot welder for 150 bucks at a pawn shop near the airport last month. The old one died during a quarter panel on a 2014 Civic. Took a chance because the gun looked decent, and after cleaning the tips and testing on scrap metal, it pulled clean welds. Saved me from dropping 600 on a new one, but I still keep my backup flanging pliers close. Anyone else ever score shop tools from weird places like pawn shops or estate sales?

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keithharris•20d ago

Bonding strips vs. the stud welder on a 92 F150

Honestly, when the old glue-on bonding strips came loose on my buddy's F150, I had two ways to go. Either pop for the stud welder setup and do it right, or stick with the strips like we did back in the day. I picked the studs, cost me about 60 bucks for the kit off the truck. Took me 2 hours to pull the dents and glue the fresh panel on, but man, the strips would've failed inside a month with the rust we've got here in Dayton. The welder leaves tiny marks you gotta grind down, but the hold is solid, no shake at speed. My uncle still swears by the strips on dry climate cars, but I'm not touching them again on anything that sees salt. Anyone else make that switch and regret the extra cleanup time?

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derek_bell•23d ago

A customer's complaint about orange peel changed my clear coat game

Last month a guy in a fresh silver Honda pointed out door jam overspray and said it looked like a textured paint sample. I always thought my final coat was glassy, so I grabbed a paint gauge and found I was laying clear at 2.2 mils, way past what the tech sheet says. Now I set my gun to 1.8 mils and back off the fan overlap to 50 percent, and the orange peel basically vanished. Has anyone else had a customer call out something you thought was fine, and it turned out they were right about the numbers?

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rileyl98•24d ago

One customer complaint about my filler work changed my whole sanding routine

Last month a guy in Phoenix pointed out waviness under his fender that I'd missed after two paint jobs. He said 'you're blocking too early,' so now I let filler cure 24 hours and use a guide coat before any 80 grit passes. Anyone else get burned by rushing the cure time?

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john_singh•27d ago

Found out I was welding galvanized wrong for 2 years, burnoff trick changed it

Was at a shop in Phoenix and a guy saw me prepping some brackets, said why are you grinding the zinc off when you can just let the weld burn it first... I always thought you had to clean it down to bare metal, but he showed me how the heat does it if you keep the puddle tight. My welds stopped spitting and look way cleaner now, plus I'm not eating up grinding discs like before. Anyone else have a habit like that where a stranger just casually dropped some knowledge that saved you? what made it click for you?

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karen410•28d ago

Surprised to learn my plasma cutter's duty cycle was the real delay

Been doing collision work for about 8 years now, mostly structural stuff. Last month I kept wondering why my cuts were slowing down mid-panel. I finally checked the manual on my Thermal Dynamics unit and saw it had a 40% duty cycle at 40 amps. That means after 4 minutes of straight cutting, it needs 6 minutes off. All those pauses I blamed on my technique were actually the machine protecting itself. Has anyone else hit this and just adjusted their workflow instead of upgrading the unit?

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james_torres•28d ago

Finally passed the paint matching test on a pearl white F-150 after 4 tries

Kept rushing the ground coat and getting that milky blotch in the lower door, this time I let each layer flash for an extra 10 minutes and the metallic laid down flat, has anyone else had more luck slowing down than adding more product?

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wade_perez•1mo ago

Finally ditched my 20-year-old spray gun for a cheap HVLP, night and day difference

I used the same siphon feed Devilbiss since 2004, thought it was fine because I knew its quirks. Last month I borrowed a buddy's $120 HVLP gun from Harbor Freight just to try it on a fender. Same clear coat, same reducer, and it laid down so smooth I thought I messed up the mix. Turns out my old gun was spitting a dry edge I was constantly fixing with wet sanding. Sold the old one for $40 on Craigslist and I'm practicing with the new setup now. Has anyone else had a cheap tool kill a brand name standby?

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luna_kim40•1mo ago

Saw a dent wizard at a county fair and it changed my shop routine

Went to the Tulsa county fair last weekend and there was this guy popping dents on a classic Mustang hood with a heat gun and a plunger, no booth or anything. He fixed a crease the size of a football in like 8 minutes while a crowd watched. I tried that plunger trick on a customer's door this Tuesday and it actually worked for shallow dings. Anyone else ever pick up a repair method from a random street demo or is it just me?

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vera_lewis•1mo ago

Hit 100 panel repairs last month without a single comeback, totally surprised me

I kept a running count in my notebook after I messed up a door skin back in February over in Tulsa. Figured I'd just track how many jobs I did before the next do-over. Last week I hit 100 straight repairs with nobody calling me back for a ding or a misaligned seam. Honestly it made me think about how much my prep work has improved since I started using a stud welder more often. Anybody else keep a personal tally like that or am I just weird about numbers?

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jamiekim•1mo ago

Walked through a body shop in Portland yesterday and noticed something weird

I stopped by a small shop downtown to drop off a part for my cousin and saw they had three different paint booths set up with no lights on. The guy said they only use half of them cause the ventilation is trash on the older ones. It got me thinking about how much money shops waste on gear they can't even use. Has anyone else run into a situation where you had to rework your whole setup cause of bad airflow?

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jamie_taylor•1mo ago

Debate with my painter buddy about wet sanding vs dry sanding

I had a talk with my buddy Mike from that shop over on Elm Street last week. He swears by wet sanding every single repair before primer cause he says it cuts down on his block sanding time by like 30 percent. I always dry sand unless its a huge repair and told him hes wasting water. But then he showed me one of his jobs and the metal was glassy smooth. Makes me wonder if I'm just set in my ways. Anyone else have a hard line on this or switch it up job to job?

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wendy72•1mo ago

Visited a shop in Phoenix that still uses lead body filler

I was down in Phoenix last month helping a buddy with a classic Mustang resto, and I swung by this old school body shop he recommended. The owner, a guy named Frank who's been at it since the 70s, showed me how he still finishes panels with lead instead of plastic filler on high-end jobs. He said it holds up way better in the Arizona heat, no shrinking or cracking after a few years. I watched him torch and shape a bead of lead on a quarter panel, and the smoothness once he filed it down was unreal. Has anyone else come across shops that still do lead work, or is that mostly a lost art now?

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ericgonzalez•1mo ago

A paint rep watched me prep a panel and gave me one pointer that stuck

I was spraying a silver 2018 Honda Accord at the shop in Tampa last month, and this PPG rep stopped by to check on how we mix our clears. He watched me scuff the fender for maybe 30 seconds and said "you're working the scuff pad in circles, go straight lines instead." I told him I'd been doing circles for 8 years, but he showed me how crosshatch scratches let the primer bite way better, so I tried it on that job. Anybody else get told to flip their prep pattern and notice a difference?

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fiona_lane•1mo ago

Hit 500 paint jobs this month without a single comeback

Been keeping track since I started in 2019 and that number floored me. Made me think - has anyone else noticed quality going up across the board or am I just getting lucky with my prep work?

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ericb66•1mo ago

I was dead set against those new flexible sanding blocks until last week

Been doing body work for 22 years out of my shop in Akron, always used the old cork blocks for contour work. A younger guy I trained brought in one of those rubber flex blocks with the mesh pattern and I told him it was a gimmick. But when I had to feather a tricky fender curve on a '97 Civic, that block saved me 45 minutes of fighting with paper bunching up. Has anyone else switched from the old school way and actually seen better results?

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