Thread: Body work

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Hi everyone. It's been awhile since I last posted because I'm a beginner in the field of restoration and I've begun the process on my '66 Caprice! I am finishing up the engine/tranny and am about ready to put em' back in, then everything under the hood will be rebuilt and painted. The next step is the bodywork! It has a fairly decent body as far as I can tell except for the driver side fender on the lower corner by the door (bad), the driver rear panel corner by the back bumper, and some rust around the rear window trim. Then there are some chunks of paint missing (down to the metal) in areas from God know what, lol! Anyways, this all brings me to my question....

What is the first step? I really don't have the extra $$$ to replace the panels so they need to be repaired! This is where I summons the great body and paint Gods, lol! I need to prep the body for paint myself because I want to have the feeling of self accomplishment when it's all said and done. I know you guys can appreciate that! So...lay the process on me!


Thanks,
Chris

The rust around your window trim will be worse than it looks,,just wait until you take the trim off,,you will find hole's ( you will have to either weld up the hole's or cut the bad metal out and replace it.)
Metal is porus, like a sponge,,so wherever you see the rust,,you can count on it migrating a bit to where you can't see.

The process of rust repair and body work can vary,,depends on what kind of a job you wanna do, Fair, Good, Excellent. etc.
You will probably need a welding unit, gas or mig,,and some body work tools.
You need to post some pic's for the guy's here,,so's we can all see the extent of the damage and then we'll go from there.

i would also suggest a sand blaster!

Originally posted by Ratitude Racing
i would also suggest a sand blaster!

I totally disagree. In the hands of a beginning restorer, a sand blaster may be the the most destructive tool short of the junkyard crusher.

I agree with Henry Rifle. I sent an otherwise good, slightly rusty A frame to a sand blaster and it came back a useless piece of metal lace. I'll never know whether the rust was that deep or the guy with the sand blaster just kept blasting too long and the thickness of the frame was considerably thicker than body panels.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

ratitude,

Have you ever sandblasted sheet metal?

Yeah, I'm a body man by trade. Your right, an inexperianced person can do some real damage, if not very careful.

Media blasting with shells or some other kind of media will work but not sand. Look for some (I think the name is) aircraft stripper. We use it at our school and add some zinc afterwards because it's an acid that takes the zinc out of the metal too. Either that or buy TONS of sand paper and spend tons of time.

http://www.autobody101.com/ Give this a read and u will know more!!!

Thanks for all of the imput so far. Here are the requested pics to give you all an idea of what I'm workin with.....

Driver Side Quarter Panel Dent
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...t2003/a001.jpg

Driver Side Rear Quarter by Bumper

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...t2003/a003.jpg

Driver Side Around Trim

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...t2003/a002.jpg[/IMG]

Driver Side Lower Front Fender

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...t2003/a004.jpg

Passenger Rear Quarter Panel (behind wheel well)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...t2003/a005.jpg

Driver Door (inner view)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...t2003/a006.jpg

Unkut From the looks of a few of the pics it looks like there may have been some previous repair work preformed at some point (looks like some filler thats cracking in a couple pics). I know you said you dont have the $$$ to buy replacement panels but to be totally honest to fix the problems such as the lower front fenders your best option is to just replace the panel, it will actually be more expensive to try to repair them with patch panels because they would need to be welded in(i'm guessing you dont have a welder?)

The dent is something that you can most likely pull out and reshape but because its right in the body line that gonna be a bit tricky to get back to shape. The rear lower quarters patch panels would be the best bet. Best info i could give you is to buy a couple good bodywork basics books(barnes&knoble book stores carry them) or maybe even check into a bodywork calss at the local community tech/vocational school. Most of the ones around here are only about $150 for 6-8 week classes and you would learn alot of the basics of bodywork and be alot better off to tackle the job yourself.

I also agree with henry and the other guys a sandblaster can do alot of damage to sheet metal!

BG

Blown Goat is right, I would replace the whole front panels. It would be much eaiser and cheaper and save you the headaches. I am patching mine up right now on my 48 and my front fenders look about 5 times worse than that right there and it's a really big pain and will take weeks and a lot of money to fix but I don't really wan't glass fenders on my 48 so that is why I am not buying replacements. I am sure that fenders for a muscle car are cheaper than for big huge old cars.

Well then do you guys know a good, CHEAP place too look for new/old panels? Also, what all do I need to look for?