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Black2na plays wheeler dealer (update 7/17)

B

Black2na

Senior member
As most of you know i own my own body shop and most of my customers are used car dealers. well last week i was asked to give a quote on repairing an 04 impreza. he said the price was to high so i asked him how much he wanted for it and i was told $1500 SOLD! well mechanicaly the car is wicked solid and the interor of the car is really clean. but the car suffers from what looks like a tree or tree branch falling on the car. so it needs a complete overhaul and repair of the exteror. now darn if i only know someone who could do that. but the main reason to buying this car was to fix it and shift it put some extra $$$ in pocket and mabye get my WRX finished (that build thread will be updated after i finish my parts aquirement phase!)

So here is the car
IMG_20120703_141310.jpg

The hood is alot worse then it looks found one cheap so its gonna be replaced. fenders i can repair
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Damaged lift gate
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Keyed to all heck right side door easter bunny anyone!
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Now onto body work! i decided to start from the back and work forward starting with the damaged lift gate!
i took the rear panel on the back of the gate off and got out what i could of the dents by hand what i couldn't ended up using my stud welder and puller.
IMG_20120703_151559.jpg

Closer of the studs
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After that i removed the badging out came my trusty crud thug best $300 spent! removes double sided tape and vinyl stickers without damaging paint or leaving a sticky residue!
IMG_20120703_152448.jpg

Proof it works
IMG_20120703_152603.jpg


Now onward to the dusty bits! time for some body filler! 😀
 
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MMM yes dusty bits ensue here! now with the lift gate cleaned of the dealer stickers and emblem tape and the dents pulled nicely enough for skim coats of filler time for bondo needs a good key here it is sanded down with 80 grit on a DA sander
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First coat of filler thin is always better! keeps it somewhat flexable.
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First coat sanded if you englarge the photo you can see the high and low spots from sanding.
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After this round of sanding i tapped down the highspots and layed another skim coat of bondo and roughed that coat down with 36 grit paper. then i sprayed the gate down with some of this. it normaly trim paint but doubles well as a guide coat
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Guide coat sprayed on bondo
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i started to sand the guide coat off the bondo with 80 grit paper. if you englarge it you can see the levels of sanding
Far left is all the low spots sanded out evenly and the more right it goes the less sanding i have done you can clearly see the 36 grit sandpaper scratches in the middle but not on the far left this is why guide coat is awesome!
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Now sadly i got caught up it just getting work done i did manage to get the rear bumper quarter panels and start on both driver side doors ill have more pictures tomorrow once i get back into the shop! so thats my new project for now i hope to get it primer by tomorrow night. this is gonna be a fast pace build i want it ready for sale as soon as possible! hopefully ill be able to sell it in the 4000 range once im done with it!
 
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result from work over the 4th of july.
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Tucked in the corner to finish later it was a perfect fit almost like it was made to go there!
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I wasnt gonna do a play by play after covering how i did it on the tail gate the rest of the car was done in a similar manor i picked up the new hood this afternoon. and should check out the possible new fenders tomorrow depending on how much i can talk them down. im cheap so unless there a good price ill pass!
 
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Tree or tree branch? That tree was pissed off.


A while back I was car shopping for something dirt cheap and found a lot of cars with some flaw that could be purchased for next to nothing. Sometimes it would be something simple mechanically and they always got my interest, but a lot would have body damage and I'd just ignore those as not being within my abilities.
 
yeah you can really save quite a bit of cash by buying something that needs a bit of work. its how i get most (ie read ALL) of my cars. my MR2 Spyder was a totaled unit, WRX needed and Engine, my 03 silverado didnt run PO thought it needed and engine nope just needed to have the intake piping properly installed. and now this impreza with the massive bodywork needed. but if i was to buy them all in proper order i wouldnt be able to afford them all! i have the ablity and the skill and im cheap!
 
Sorry to hijack...

Since you're obviously skilled at body work, I have a quick question for you:

Is there any DIY solution for removing acorn damage (think small hail damage) from the hood, roof, and trunk of a modern car? My '08 Fusion got pelted pretty bad by oak trees, and I'm really not looking to risk an insurance policy increase or spending a ton of cash out of pocket.

Thanks!

It's funny. In the pictures you said the hood was pretty bad, but it looks so much better than the fenders, haha.
 
CurseTheSky said:
Sorry to hijack...

Since you're obviously skilled at body work, I have a quick question for you:

Is there any DIY solution for removing acorn damage (think small hail damage) from the hood, roof, and trunk of a modern car? My '08 Fusion got pelted pretty bad by oak trees, and I'm really not looking to risk an insurance policy increase or spending a ton of cash out of pocket.

Thanks!

It's funny. In the pictures you said the hood was pretty bad, but it looks so much better than the fenders, haha.
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Thats covered on comp insurance that wont make your rates go up. cause hood and trunk need to be replaced. and the roof would take a good 5-7hours of repair either way its not gonna be a costly fix
 
Yeah, I think somebody was pissed at whoever's car that was. They kicked in his tailgate, fenders and keyed it. Trees tend to land on top of things. Not on the sides.
 
(enter hard core british accent, but not the queen's English, rather the rebellious English suburban English ttick ales Londoners whince in disgust).........

Well done, Ed. With your spanners and such you were able to smarten it up a tick. Crack on, then!

I friggin LOVE wheeler dealers. I'm about ready to take the cars.com hair chick off my ringtone and put the wheeler dealers theme song on.


P.S. Any particular reason for that can of trim paint or just cuz? I've done high spot misting and sanding before but it was usually just with whatever black rattle can was lying around.
 
It really is an art form. Lots of patience involved. I would definitely say its harder than rebuilding an engine.
 
Props. I can't work with anything that doesn't have voltage specs, torque specs, or clearance/tolerance specs. I have two left brains in my skull.
 
manimal said:
Most really good body guys I know are magicians and you sir are one as well!



Wish you were close, I would send you all my body work!
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for the right money/project have tools can and will travel! 😀

exdeath said:
Props. I can't work with anything that doesn't have voltage specs, torque specs, or clearance/tolerance specs. I have two left brains in my skull.
Click to expand...

it certainly an art form. and its simple for you just buy a nice car and make it stupid fast...oh your drop dead sexy cobra comes to mind!
 
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