I've been messing around with both on some filler work this week and honestly the rubber block is way better for me. The unisanding block just couldn't flex enough around a tricky curve on a 2010 Ford F-150 rear quarter I was fixing. Maybe it's just my technique but I kept getting low spots with the hard block no matter how careful I was. The rubber one cost me like 15 bucks at the local auto paint store and it let me feather the edges way smoother. Has anyone else noticed a big difference between these two or am I just bad with the unisanding block?
Guy walks into the shop in Nashville and says his buddy can do a bumper swap for half what I quoted. But when I asked if the buddy was gonna blend the paint or just slap it on, he got real quiet. Am I the only one who thinks undercutting on body work just hurts everyone in the long run?
I had a 2020 Honda Civic come in last week with a driver side door that was sitting about a quarter inch low. Customer said they hit a curb funny but the door looked fine at first glance. I loosened the hinges, adjusted the striker, even shimmed the bottom hinge but it kept sagging. After three hours of messing with it I finally realized the A-pillar had a tiny tweak that I missed. Had to pull out the frame rack and do a 2 inch pull to get it back where it needed to be. Total time was 6 hours for something I quoted at 1 hour. Anyone else ever have a simple door job turn into a whole frame pull situation?
Tried using that Rust-Oleum truck bed liner spray on a bumper repair last week. Figured it'd be tough and save time. Looked fine at first, but when I went to put primer over the spot I missed, the liner paint started bubbling and peeling off in sheets. Learned the hard way that stuff has silicone or something in it that paint just wont stick to. Gotta strip it all down and start over now. Has anyone else had this happen with a specific brand of liner?
I was grabbing parts at the NAPA on Main Street in Portland when I heard two guys talking about it. One guy said the EPA is tightening VOC limits starting next July, and shops that don't switch over early are gonna get hit with fines up to $10,000. Made me realize I better start pricing out a waterborne conversion kit for my booth before everyone else jumps on it. Anybody else heard concrete dates on this?
Picked up this fancy digital paint mixing scale off Craigslist last week from a guy who said it was barely used. Got it home and realized it only works with their proprietary software that costs another $200 a month to access. The guy blocked my number after I tried to call him back... the whole thing is useless without that subscription. I could've just bought a decent manual mixing stick setup and a scale for half the price and been fine. Local paint supplier told me they see this all the time with hobbyists jumping into systems they don't fully understand. So now I'm sitting on a bricked machine that takes up space in my garage. Anyone else get burned by one of these high end mixing setups?
I had a 2017 Outback hood last Tuesday with hail damage, figured 3 hours tops for the block and paint. Ended up spending 7 hours because the aluminum had this weird work hardening near the center brace I've never seen before. Anyone else run into unexpected metal behavior that just blew up your time estimate?
I went to a skills seminar in Phoenix back in March, and this guy with 30 years in the business kept insisting epoxy primer is a waste on plastic. He said just scuff and shoot with a self-etching primer like everybody else. I was polite but I disagreed hard. I've been using epoxy on all my bumper jobs for 5 years now, and I almost never get adhesion failures. Last month I had a 2020 Honda CR-V come back after 8 months with the paint lifting on the lower lip. Guess what? The previous shop had used his method. I peeled a chunk off with my fingernail. Has anyone else seen long term results with epoxy on plastics that prove the old timers wrong?
Back then I'd spend a full day on a single quarter panel with 220 grit by hand. Now I grab a DA with 400 and knock it out in 45 minutes. Air tools just change the game completely. Anyone else still prefer hand sanding on tricky curves?
Was grabbing supplies last Tuesday at the NAPA on 5th Street. Guy behind the counter saw I was grabbing 80 grit and just shook his head. Said I was working way too aggressive for modern clear coats and handed me some 220. He was dead on. Who else has had a parts guy save them from doing dumb work?
After 20 years in the trade working on rusted-out trucks in Buffalo, I switched back to metal glaze for deep dings and it outlasted every polyester patch I tried by a good 6 months - has anyone else had that experience with older vehicles?
The owner said he'd been patching it up himself for 20 years and each time he just grabbed whatever rattle can was closest, so I spent three full days sanding down everything from gloss white to flat army green. Has anyone else dealt with a nightmare of mismatched factory versus hardware store paints that just WOULD NOT feather out?
Honestly grabbed a $12 blending pen from the auto parts store for a quarter panel chip on a silver Civic last Saturday and now the blend line is super obvious in sunlight. The color didn't match at all and it dried with a weird matte finish compared to the clear coat. Anyone else had bad luck with those budget blending tools or am I just using them wrong?
Had a car come in with a weird paint peel near the exhaust and I couldnt figure out why until I checked surface temps before spraying. Found out the panel was hitting 140 degrees after a test drive, way too hot for primer to stick. Anyone else use temp guns on repairs or am I just late to the party?
I always laid down filler, waited maybe 10-15 minutes, then started sanding. Thought I was being efficient. Last month a veteran painter I sub for saw me working and asked why my filler looked 'chewed up'. He showed me his method: wait until the filler feels waxy to the touch, then sand. I tried waiting 25 minutes on my next repair and the difference was night and day. No more pinholes, no more pulling out of low spots. Has anyone else had a moment where you realized you were rushing a step that actually needs more time?
I know everyone at the shop has gone crazy for the glue pulling method the last couple years, but I still think a good stud welder gives you way more control on quarter panels. Had a 2018 Civic about 6 months ago where the glue pull left a tiny wave on the edge that took me 45 extra minutes to smooth out. Am I the only one who thinks the old way is still better for certain panels?
He was showing me how temperature changes in the booth affect the clear coat differently than the base. I always figured if the temp was stable, you were good. But he showed me a chart from a shop in Phoenix where a 15 degree swing between morning and afternoon was messing up their jobs for months. They had to adjust their flash times by almost 2 minutes. Now I'm watching my thermometer like a hawk. Any of you guys running into this with the weather getting weird lately?
Last week I had this 2018 F-150 with a nasty crease down the rear quarter panel. I kept going back and forth on whether to use my stud welder or try out this new glue pulling setup I borrowed from a buddy. The dent was right on that body line and I was worried the glue might not have enough hold for how sharp the crease was. I ended up going with the stud welder because I know exactly how it behaves on thicker Ford metal. Pulled it out in about 20 minutes with minimal hammer work but I did burn through a few spots where the paint was thin. It came out pretty clean but now I'm second guessing myself on whether the glue pull would have saved me the paint repair time. Anyone else made the switch from welding to glue for stuff like this and regretted it?
I was going through my books last week and counted up all the jobs I've done since I started my own shop back in 2014. Total came to 503 cars. That number surprised me because I never thought I'd make it past maybe 200. Each one had its own headache, like that Ford Focus with the hit-and-run damage that took me 3 tries to get the color blend right. Or the old Chevy where the frame was tweaked just a hair and I had to pull it on the rack three separate times. It's weird to think about that many cars coming through and how many little tricks I picked up along the way. Anybody else ever count up their total and feel a little thrown off by it?
I was reading a PPG tech sheet last night while waiting for some filler to cure and realized I been running my urethane primer at way too high of a pressure. Like 45 psi for years, when the spec says 28-32 max. No wonder I always got dry spray and orange peel on the edges. Switched it today and the coverage is way smoother. Any of you guys ever catch yourself ignoring the TDS for years?
Had a weirdly good day last week. A 2017 Civic came in with a busted bumper, a 2015 F-150 with a dented tailgate, and an old Subaru with a quarter panel scrape. All three were done by 1 PM because the paint matched perfect on the first try and the parts actually fit. Anyone else ever get those days where everything just clicks?
Customer brought it to me after the dealer admitted they'd never done a unibody pull before, what's the worst job you took over from someone who clearly didn't know what they were doing?
Guy in a brand new Tesla pulls into my shop in Phoenix last Tuesday, wants me to buff out a scratch on his bumper, and proceeds to stand right over my shoulder the whole time. After I've been wet sanding for maybe 20 minutes, he goes 'so are you close to being done yet?' like I'm painting a room in his house. Does your customers hover like this or do I just have bad luck?
Back in the late 90s I was at a shop in Phoenix and that's what the old guy taught me. Stuff newspaper in the hole, slather bondo over it, sand and paint. Lasted maybe 6 months before it bubbled. Now I cut out the rot entirely and weld in a patch panel every time. Took me until about 2015 to finally stop cutting corners on rust repair. You guys still see guys doing the newspaper trick or did that die out?
I was working on a 2022 C300 in Portland and kept getting this weird halo around my blend. My coworker Dave told me to back off the pressure and use a 2-inch fan pattern instead of a 3-inch. It laid down perfect on the second try, no sanding needed. Anybody else run into halo issues on metallic silver?