What NOT to do.....

OK, since we have many experts here who can give (and are giving) very valuable advice on bodywork and painting techniques..... I thought I show a really bad example of bodywork... ahem.... or should I say stucco ???

Some people seem to think more is better, I found a rust hole in the lower fron corner of this door, cut it out and welded a patch in... then I started stripping the door and found approximately 1 gallon Bondo.... :bomb:


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That stuff is almost 1/2" thick..... :cussing::cussing:

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:cussing::cussing::cussing:


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Here's how I stripped most of the Bondo: Propane torch and a scraper, works really good, not all that great for fiberglass though....
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Too much hardener ????:cussing::cussing::cussing:

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very important : beer.....


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took about 90 minutes incl breaks and beer.... still a fricking mess.....
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i was expecting to see pictures of my car in here.

Steel cars..tisk tisk

turtlevette said:

i was expecting to see pictures of my car in here.

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turtlevette said:

i was expecting to see pictures of my car in here.

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You mean under the bondo??:waxer:

I'm surprised SMYDA hasn't replied yet.... maybe he's still laughing..... :rain::rain:

MYBAD79 said:

I'm surprised SMYDA hasn't replied yet.... maybe he's still laughing..... :rain::rain:

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Believe it or not...........I see that kind of stuff all the time ..... on late model cars. :huh:
Good post.......maybe it will discourage others from doing the same to one of their cars. :thumbs:

Today I used paint stripper on the door's glass... the morons who painted this car white also painted the glass, the door handles, the window cranks.... un F'ing believable.....

i should have taken more photos for everybody's entertainment....

This reminds me of the Earl Sheib horror stories:

Yes Mr customer, our standard paint job is $99.... but we offer upgrades: would you like us to wash the car before we apply the new paint ? Well that's $10 extra..... would you like us to mask the windows for $10 extra or just roll 'em down ????

SMYDA said:

MYBAD79 said:

I'm surprised SMYDA hasn't replied yet.... maybe he's still laughing..... :rain::rain:

Click to expand...

Believe it or not...........I see that kind of stuff all the time ..... on late model cars. :huh:
Good post.......maybe it will discourage others from doing the same to one of their cars. :thumbs:

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OK, dumbassed question here, since it seems from the pix that the metal was smooth, WTF was the purpose, or what was supposedly acheived by adding SO much bondo?? :twitch:

mrvette said:

OK, dumbassed question here, since it seems from the pix that the metal was smooth, WTF was the purpose, or what was supposedly acheived by adding SO much bondo?? :twitch:

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I pulled a few dents and worked it smooth, not shown in the pics....

One gallon of Bondo cost $16.99 at the "zone" and it takes 10 minutes to apply if you dump the entire tube of hardener in it. :lol:

Working all the dents with a hammer and a dolly cost 1.5 hours labor

mrvette said:

OK, dumbassed question here, since it seems from the pix that the metal was smooth, WTF was the purpose, or what was supposedly achieved by adding SO much bondo?? :twitch:

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From what I see there is still a big dent at the bottom of the door.
They did not try to metal straighten before filler.........just filled it up.

MYBAD79 said:

Today I used paint stripper on the door's glass... the morons who painted this car white also painted the glass, the door handles, the window cranks.... un F'ing believable.....

i should have taken more photos for everybody's entertainment....

This reminds me of the Earl Sheib horror stories:

Yes Mr customer, our standard paint job is $99.... but we offer upgrades: would you like us to wash the car before we apply the new paint ? Well that's $10 extra..... would you like us to mask the windows for $10 extra or just roll 'em down ????

Click to expand...

For cleaning over-spray off glass I like to use Glass Cleaner and a Razor blade. Quick and Easy.


Your not kidding when it comes to places like Earl Scheib.
I knew a guy who managed a Maaco shop. Asked him one day how in the
world they could paint one so cheap and still make a profit?

The $99.00 was just to lure you to the door.......they have no intention on
selling the $99 job. Their average ticket is around $1,000.00.

I then asked.....even at a $1000 on an all over.....wheres the profit?

Maaco buys the bargain brand from Dupont in bulk for ALL their stores nationwide
and store it in a warehouse up north somewhere. When a store needs more
paint they order it from their own warehouse.....NOT from any of the local
suppliers.

He then told me they have less then $50.00 in materials on an all over job. :huh:

When I bought my '79 the previous owner had it painted red for $500 .... I had red mufflers, the inside of the rims was red, the windshield had overspray on it... they did not remove the taillights, the side marker lights, nothing....

SMYDA said:

MYBAD79 said:

Today I used paint stripper on the door's glass... the morons who painted this car white also painted the glass, the door handles, the window cranks.... un F'ing believable.....

i should have taken more photos for everybody's entertainment....

This reminds me of the Earl Sheib horror stories:

Yes Mr customer, our standard paint job is $99.... but we offer upgrades: would you like us to wash the car before we apply the new paint ? Well that's $10 extra..... would you like us to mask the windows for $10 extra or just roll 'em down ????

Click to expand...

For cleaning over-spray off glass I like to use Glass Cleaner and a Razor blade. Quick and Easy.


Your not kidding when it comes to places like Earl Scheib.
I knew a guy who managed a Maaco shop. Asked him one day how in the
world they could paint one so cheap and still make a profit?

The $99.00 was just to lure you to the door.......they have no intention on
selling the $99 job. Their average ticket is around $1,000.00.

I then asked.....even at a $1000 on an all over.....wheres the profit?

Maaco buys the bargain brand from Dupont in bulk for ALL their stores nationwide
and store it in a warehouse up north somewhere. When a store needs more
paint they order it from their own warehouse.....NOT from any of the local
suppliers.

He then told me they have less then $50.00 in materials on an all over job. :huh:

Click to expand...

NOW THAT above is total beleif from me.....freeking paint at 50 bux/gallon is about right from Lowes Depot, really now, to a company in the business, WTF is the diff?? toss in some powdered aluminum or brass for reflections and it's the same junk....urethane, myathane, seems like 50 bux should cover it...the rest is sales/marketing/distribution/HYPE.....

:ghost:

mrvette said:

NOW THAT above is total belief from me.....freaking paint at 50 bux/gallon is about right from Lowe's, Depot, really now, to a company in the business, WTF is the diff?? toss in some powdered aluminum or brass for reflections and it's the same junk....urethane, myathane, seems like 50 bux should cover it...the rest is sales/marketing/distribution/HYPE.....

:ghost:

Click to expand...

When I say $50...........I mean everything...NOT just the paint. :shocking:
Places like Maaco make their money on volume......that's why they don't
waste any time on prep.

Yep!.........Paint prices is ALL about marketing. You know the profit is huge
when they can give you a new paintbooth just to buy their products.

SMYDA said:

mrvette said:

NOW THAT above is total belief from me.....freaking paint at 50 bux/gallon is about right from Lowe's, Depot, really now, to a company in the business, WTF is the diff?? toss in some powdered aluminum or brass for reflections and it's the same junk....urethane, myathane, seems like 50 bux should cover it...the rest is sales/marketing/distribution/HYPE.....

:ghost:

Click to expand...

When I say $50...........I mean everything...NOT just the paint. :shocking:
Places like Maaco make their money on volume......that's why they don't
waste any time on prep.

Yep!.........Paint prices is ALL about marketing. You know the profit is huge
when they can give you a new paintbooth just to buy their products.

Click to expand...

WHAT?? BS, no WAY man.....You gotta be kidding?? wonder what volume they require, the airbrush guy down the street from me, he does anything really but mostly not whole cars, but he got a booth there large enough for a huge pickup with good work room.....wondered how he justified that cost....

cute....but his paint quantities are not that large, really, not for bikes and hotrods....

Since we're on the subject of what NOT to do.........:smash:
I just had to post some pics of what rolled into our shop this week......

Those of you who want to paint your own car..........What NOT To Do!!!!!

The Poor Victim.......A Chevy Impala


The photos are not the best.......white is hard to photo.....Note the excessive
Dry Spray and Orange Peel.




To make matters worse.....while the clear was still wet they sprinkled "Glitter"
all over the car (yes the kind you buy at the Arts & Craft stores). :bonkers:
Would have been better if they Cleared over the glitter....But they didn't.
Rubbing your hand over the body is like rubbing P80 grit sand paper.
Guess this was suppose to hide the dry spray stripes all over the car. :huh:


Note the attention to detail when masking the trim. And this is one of the "better" areas.


:nuts: I've been giving the painter "Hell" about this car..............A "GOOD" painter can match that with no problem.........:lol:

I would love to know what they paid for this job........:suicide:

Nah... come on... that's easily wetsanded out...... they do sell 120 grit wet don't they ??? :bump:

Before I came out here, I used to do "backyard" panel beating and spray painting. I was busy practically every weekend doing small/big repairs and full resprays.

One weekend, I heard my neighbour going non stop with an electric orbital sander. I couldn't see what he was up to but the noise suddenly stopped on Friday afternoon. A few minutes later, he comes over and asks me if I have a sander he can borrow. I ask him what he's up to and he tells me he's stripping his car so he can repaint it! He takes me over for a look and his little Ford 3 door hatch thingy is looking like a huge booger.

He'd appplied paint stripper to the whole car first, not realising that the stripper would also damage his plastic parts - indicators, trim, door handle, grille etc. He'd tried to scrape the goo off the car then started sanding the whole thing back to bare steel. It was a real mess, still had stripper stuck in little hard-to-reach areas, some parts of the car were bare steel, some primer, some lumpy colour!

I told him what he'd done wrong and then he asked me how much I would charge to fix it. Can't remember what I charged him now, but I do remember that it took me every afternoon after work the next week and all of the following weekend to do it. :lol: