Best Auto Body Shop in Short Hills







Bike Brake Overview



How to Pick the Right Auto Body Repair Shops

Replacement Parts in Auto Body Shops


Best Tire Deals


No Realignment? Talk to Your Auto Repair Team!



Using Bondo (Fillers) Instead of Replacing the Part



Secrets of the Auto Body Shop



Jeff what are the three questions should ask a body shop before they consider dropping their car off for repairs? Well what's important is that the repair shop actually be qualified to fix that particular vehicle.

Today modern cars require specialized training and equipment to be able to perform repairs to the manufacturer's standards.

For instance, this Mini Cooper and other BMWs require what's called rivet bonding.

So, glue joints and rivets.

They're actually repaired like aircraft today.

This is important because this maintains the structural integrity the manufacturer designed for a repair situation.

Like this fixture frame bench here that utilizes actual jigs to support the vehicle across its entire platform and place factory components precisely where the manufacturer has designated.

These systems are different than generic systems that simply are reverse engineered and don't have jig and holding capacity.

Shops that aren't trained and equipped to properly perform a repair utilizing generic equipment or generic procedures can't restore the vehicle to the manufacturer's standards and that doesn't necessarily maintain the safety ratingdesigned for the vehicle.

You potentially jeopardize the collision energy management system.

The vehicle might not perform the same in a future collision and you could possibly be more injured than you would if the car doesn't perform as the manufacturer intended.

The second question a consumer should ask is "Where does the body shop's loyalty lie?" Is it an independent repair center that relies on satisfied customers to drive business through their door and therefore fixes vehicles correctly? Or is the body shop on the insurance company's "preferred network?" Those body shops rely on the insurance referrals and when those body shops utilize cheap, imitation, and savage parts utilize the quickest possible repair times and keep costs as low as possible that generates the next referral.

But that's a recipe for shortcuts.

The third question, Paul, is "Can the repair shop make this process convenient for me?" Most consumers today want convenience and ease.

Repair shops that are high-quality repair shops are going to put their customers' interests first & do everything they can to have a satisfied customer.

That includes sheduling a rental car, scheduling a tow engaging in conversations with the insurance company and making sure the vehicle is fixed right for the consumer.

What to Look for in an Auto Body Shop




Auto Places Near Me

(upbeat music) - Hey, this is Donnie Smith.

Have you ever overground metal, making it too weak and too thin? Well it's not that hard to do with these thinner metals.

What about when working with body filler? Have you ever gotten it in cracks, gaps, other placesthat you don't want it? Takes quite a bit of time to get that out of there and clean it up.

So if you'd like to learn some tricks, how to prevent over-thinning your metal when working with thin metal, and how to keep fromgetting all the body filler in the places you don'twant it in the first place, then you're in luck, because that's what we'regonna show you in this video.

Alright, let's just goahead and get started.

What we're gonna do to eliminate grinding a lot of the metal off,is to use a DA Sander, and we can use 36 grit, or 80.

I'm using 80 here.

That usually works well.

May take just a little bit longer to remove the paint coatings, but you're not gonna chancegrinding too much metal off.

This does not take the amountof metal that grinding does.

Now with thinner metals,I would recommend this.

Now if you're working on older vehicles, grinding may be a little quicker, and that may still work fine.

Okay, now for the tip of how to eliminate getting body filler in places you don't want it, and that's simply to mask it off.

On the edge, I don't want the body filler wrapping around the edgewhere I have to clean it up, so I'm gonna mask that off.

Any gaps, for instance here, there's a, where the molding goes, I don't want body filler to wrap in there where I'm gonna have to sand it out, so I'm gonna use the bodylines that's on the car, and use that as a dividing line to make nice, sharp lines at, so that the body fillerdoes not get in these areas.

(upbeat music) Okay, now I'm mixing thebody filler up in the tube.

I'm gonna let the air out of the cap, so that it'll mix well.

And once I remove some of the air, I'll put the cap back on, and now I'm just gonnamix it inside the tube, because this hardener reallydoes separate a lot in there.

If you don't do this, you'll have liquid-ysubstance that comes out, and you don't want that, so be sure that you mixit up well in the tube before you use it.

Now I've already got somebody filler out here, and I used a paint stick toput some on this mixing board.

And I'm gonna get this hardener, I'm gonna apply a stripfrom edge of the body filler to the other, and that usually is a pretty good mixing ratio.

And notice I'm using a spreader to mix it.

I'm not using a paint stick to stir it, because that could put air bubbles in it.

If you get air bubblesin your body filler, that's gonna create pinholes, whenever you go to sanding body filler.

So it's always best towork the air bubbles out.

Just spread it out on your filler until it's nice and uniform.

You don't want there tobe any hardener streaks.

You wanna mix it until it's one color.

(upbeat music) Okay, now I have the filler mixed good.

It's nice, uniform, one color.

We don't have any hardener streaks in it, so we know that it's mixed well.

I'm gonna apply the body filler.

Now to do this, I'm gonnaapply a tight coat first, and what that is, iswhere I take a thin coat of body filler, and push really hard down on the spreader, so thatI push it into the metal.

That helps it adhere better to the metal, so that you don't have any problems with adhesion at a later point.

Now once I get the tight coat on, I come back with a fill coat, and that's where I'm gonnaput a little bit less pressure on the spreader, which allows it to fill the damaged area in.

(upbeat music) Okay I have the fill coat applied.

Now here's a tip for you to eliminate a lot of the sanding, and that is to work on your edges, because if you have real hard edges, it's gonna take more sanding.

So what I'm doing here, is I'm using the spreader, and on the edges I'm kind of feathering that body filler out, so that edge is a real thin layer, and you don't have that big, hard edge to try to sand out.

Okay, now let this setup for just a little bit, and you don't want to do it immediately after you apply the body filler.

You wanna let the filler set, but you don't want it to be dry either.

But as it's kind of in its green state, go ahead and pull the tape off.

This will leave you nice clean edges.

And also before it fully cures, you can block sand lightly, you don't wanna sand too hard, just to help level someof the highs and lows.

Okay, now I allow it to dry, and started block sanding it.

Now I'm starting out with 36 grit, because that's gonna levelthe filler really fast, but notice that I'mstaying within the filler.

My block is not slidingout onto the paint, because I don't want those deep scratches getting onto the paint surface.

I'm just wanting to level the filler.

(upbeat music) Also notice that I'm sandingin different directions.

I'm not just going at oneangle the entire time.

So I change it up.

And what sanding indifferent directions does, is it's gonna help youget a more level surface.

So always sand in different directions.

(upbeat music) (sanding) (upbeat music) Once you have it level, switch to 80 grit.

That's what I'm doing here.

First, I'm gonna apply some guide coat, and this just to helpidentify highs and lows, and you'll know whenever you get rid of the 36 grit scratches.

Makes it easier to see this way.

Now also notice I am sandingout on the paint a little bit.

I'm not going too far, but you do wanna sand out further than you did with your 36 grit.

You wanna make sure all 36 grit scratches are removed during this step.

(upbeat music) Okay I finished blocking, and I'm feeling for high areas.

And usually if you seemetal spot areas like this, that's gonna indicate that it is high.

And that happens sometimes, and if it does, what you need to do is get your pick hammer, and lightly tap down on those metal areas.

And what this is gonna do, is it's gonna lower that metal.

(upbeat music) And here's another tip for you.

If you're having problemsfilling the bodywork, and determining highs and lows with your hand, with your bare hand, use something like this, a wipe all, or a towel or somethingto put between the panel and your hand.

And this may help you be able to feel the highs andthe lows much better.

Now I'm gonna use the tape, because I'm gonna be applying some putty, so I'm gonna do the same thingI did with the body filler, the edges, and that indention where the body side molding goes.

I'm gonna tape all that off, to keep all the filler out of that.

Now when using putty, it lays out a littlethinner than body filler, so I usually just go halfway, rather than from one edgeof the filler to the other.

So I'm gonna do about halfthe amount of hardener.

(upbeat music) But everything else is basically the same.

Mix it until it's one uniform color.

Don't want any streaks in there.

And the good thing aboutputty is it's thinner, and it's easier to get a nice skim coat, but you do wanna do the tight coat, followed by a fill coat.

And another thing about a putty, is you can go over the entire repair area, from paint edge to paint edge, and that helps any imperfections you had in your sanding flaws, or sanding scratches,or anything like that, it's gonna fill in.

(upbeat music) And after allowing it tosetup for a few minutes, now I'm gonna peel the tape.

(upbeat music) Now when sanding finish putty, I'm not gonna start out with 36 grit.

I'm gonna start out withthe 80 to level it out.

And also I wanna let it fully dry.

I really don't wanna try to sand putty in its green state, so I'llallow it to dry all the way.

Then I'm gonna get 80 on a block, and I'm gonna sand it.

And I'm gonna cross sand it.

Make sure it's good and level.

(upbeat music) Once I have it leveled with 80, I'm gonna use the guide coat, and then I'm gonna comeback with 150 to 180.

I'm using 150 here I believe, but anywhere between 180and 150 will work fine for smoothing out your 80 grit scratches.

And this guide coat, it will help you identify any lows that you may have if there are any, or let you know whenever you got all the 80 grit scratches sanded out.

(upbeat music) And one last thing you wanna do, before you send it offto start priming it, you wanna make sure it fits.

Make sure everything aligns.

Make sure that your body work is right.

So you're gonna have toput it up to the car, and make sure everything works.

(upbeat music) Always, thanks for watching this video.

Be sure and share it with your friends.

Give us a thumbs up, a like, and be sure to subscribe to our channel.

Also be sure to go to CollisionBlast.


And there we have hours of free autobody and painttraining videos like this one, and a lot of other resources for you.

Thanks again for watching.

Have a safe and productive week, and we'll see you in the next video.

(upbeat music).

How To Straighten Metal On Car Parts

Best Auto Body Shop in New Jersey