Automotive painting

[85Yota]

I have welded studs and used slide hammer to try and get the sheet metal closer so you use less filler but some dents you gotta cut/replace the panel. I've also just kept a bunch of bondo since it looked good for a truck that wasn't gonna be a show truck and was gonna get scratched and dented up anyways.

My f150 has lots of dents. Small ones I'll push them out from the bqckside if I ever decide to paint the truck. The cab on mine i need to cut and weld since it's smashed really good on multiple layers. I usually only have cut and replaced metal when it's rotted or if I had a new part of the panel and could do a weld seam where body work wouldn't be as noticeable aka not in middle of a flat panel like bedside or cab.

 

[85Yota]

I may try and get the body work done on this truck and paint it for next season. I'll be doing it all myself to save money, But even the cost of the paint is expensive now in Cali. I've heard of people going to Baja to buy good oil based paint for cheap and bringing back to paint with it.

 

[vcyota92]

I think my 4runner has a ton of body filler on the passenger rear. been thinking about wtf ID do to it if i started trying to make it better. But also would be nice to see what is there and probably could justify getting Fiberglass quarter panels if its to nasty. what did you do about your body sheet metal issues? did you work it out or just massage it enough and call it good with less body filler?

After taking it down to metal I was able to hammer some out, cut and replace some sections, and others just way less was needed to make it smoot. That being said it’s still far from show quality but it’s a good 10/10 paint job. Aka 10feet away at 10mph lol You can see how much was on in one of these pictures and that’s after I was hitting it with a strip disk for a bit