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The website is intended as a general purpose guide for amateur and serious d.i.y car body repairers who have access to fairly basic tools. High labour charges and insurance excess payments make even small repairs an expensive item to budget for, especially in todays economic climate. Why not investigate the possibility of repairing your own car and save some money?
Briefly, the topics covered include:
Repairing minor damage to paintwork.
Repairing dents: what can and can’t be repaired and how to do it.
Using bodyfillers & stopper
Rust repairs and panel replacement - bolted and welded panels and doorskins
Masking for a professional result.
What type of paint to use - cellulose, two pack, water based, synthetic?
Primers: Choosing the correct primers for each situation.
Applying solid (plain)colours or metallics on panels or a complete car.
Blending: How to make your repairs virtually undetectable.
Final steps to achieve that showroom mirror finish.
The most expensive item which may be needed for larger repairs is a good spraygun and an air compressor to run it, which will be uneconomic for a "one-off" repair, but perhaps feasible for a keen DIY'er. Small repairs can be painted satisfactorily using aerosol paints, which are usually cellulose paint which has been thinned a little more to work properly at the pressure provided by the canister.
The other alternative to consider is paying a suitably equipped bodyshop to apply the paint after the preparation work has been completed. As most of the cost of a professional repair will be labour charges, quite a large amount of money can be saved this way, because preparation can easily account for 75% of the time involved. Remember, though, that faulty preparation will not be hidden by coats of paint!
Professional bodyshops use power tools which speed up the repair process, but most stages of a repair can still be completed by good old fashioned hard work - it just takes longer! Many bodyshops and coachbuilders will finish all flatting by hand anyway to guarantee a perfect finish.
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