c/auto-body-repairers

My $120 'dent puller' kit turned out to be a glorified glue gun for my truck's hood

I saw this online ad for a professional dent removal kit and figured it'd save me a trip to the shop for a small ding. The kit had these glue tabs you melt on with a special gun, then you screw a puller into the tab. I followed the steps on my F-150's hood, and when I pulled, the tab just ripped off, taking a perfect circle of factory paint with it. Now I have a tiny dent and a quarter-sized bald spot that needs a full repaint. Has anyone actually had a good result with one of these glue pull systems, or are they all just a fast track to making more work?

Been spraying clear coat wrong for a decade, found out from a dented fender.

Had a 2015 F-150 fender come back with a weird haze after I fixed a dent, and the customer pointed it out. Turns out I was holding the spray gun too far away, about 18 inches, thinking it gave a smoother finish. How do you guys judge your spray distance on metallics?

PSA: I was using the wrong grit sequence on filler for years until a job in Tacoma

I was doing a repair on a 2018 F-150 bed side and the filler kept showing scratches after paint. The painter, this old guy named Ray, came over and asked if I went straight from 80 to 180 grit. I said yeah, like always. He told me to add a 120 step in between, said it cuts the deep scratches from the 80 without leaving its own marks for the 180 to chase. Tried it on the next panel and the difference was night and day. How many of you stick to a strict grit progression versus jumping around?

Vent: The before and after on this 'repair' I saw at a local auction

A 2015 Civic came in with a dented quarter panel, and the 'fix' was just a gallon of bondo shaped with a putty knife... looked okay from twenty feet away. After a single Michigan winter, the whole patch cracked and fell off in the car wash, leaving a weird, cratered mess. Has anyone else seen a shortcut that spectacularly backfire?

Hot take: I switched from hand filing to a 3M Trizact system for final sanding and it cut my time in half.

For years I used traditional sandpaper blocks on every panel, but after a job on a full Corvette repaint last fall, I tried the Trizact discs on a DA. The finish was just as good, and I saved about 4 hours on the whole car. Anyone else make a big switch in their prep work recently?

The clear coat on these new electric cars is a whole different animal

Honestly, I've been doing this for fifteen years and the paint jobs on the new EVs are a real change. I had a Rivian in the shop last week for a door ding, and the clear coat was way harder than anything I've sanded on a regular truck. It took me almost twice as long to feather it out properly. My old 1500 grit paper barely made a dent. I think it's something about the factory process or the paint itself being more eco-friendly. It's not just Rivian either, I've seen it on Teslas and the new Ford Lightnings. Anyone else run into this and found a better way to cut through it without burning through the base coat?

PSA: A customer in my shop today asked me to match a paint code from 1987

He brought in a quarter panel from a 1987 Ford F-150, and the paint code on the door was completely faded. I had to dig through my old mixing books from the back room, and even then, the formula called for a toner they stopped making around 1995. We ended up doing a spray-out card and custom blending it by eye, which took almost three hours. How do you all handle matching paint for vehicles that are older than some of the techs in the shop?

Just found out something wild about clear coat thickness

Honestly, I was always told a factory clear coat was super thin, like maybe 2 mils. I was reading an old tech bulletin from a paint supplier and it said on some modern cars it can be over 4 mils straight from the plant. That blew my mind because I've been sanding way too carefully on some blends. Has anyone else run into a car where the factory clear was way thicker than expected?

An old guy at the salvage yard showed me a trick for pulling dents with a slide hammer I'd never seen before.

He was pulling a fender off a 90s Civic and said 'kid, you're fighting it, let the tool do the work.' He hooked it differently, used way less force, and the panel popped right out. Anyone know other old-school tricks like that for stubborn body work?

Can we talk about those cheap plastic dent puller kits?

I saw one at Harbor Freight for like $25 and figured it was junk. A buddy convinced me to try it on a shallow door ding on a 2015 Civic we had in the shop. We heated the area, used the glue tabs, and it popped out nearly perfect in maybe 20 minutes. I was shocked it actually worked on something that minor. Has anyone else had a legit good result with these, or did I just get lucky?

Vent: I fixed a tricky quarter panel dent with a heat gun and dry ice

Had a 2018 Civic with a deep crease right on the body line, and pulling it was just making it worse. Out of ideas, I remembered an old timer talking about metal memory. I heated the area with a heat gun for about 30 seconds, then quickly ran a block of dry ice over it. The metal actually snapped back about 80% of the way, saving me hours of filler work. Has anyone else used temperature tricks on modern sheet metal?

Changed my mind about using cheap clear coat on a 2008 F-150 job

I used a budget brand from the local supply house on a full repaint last month, and it started hazing after just three weeks in the sun. I had to sand it all down and redo the whole top coat with a better product. What's the cheapest clear you've used that actually held up for more than a year?

Spent 3 hours chasing a rattle that was just a loose bolt in a door panel

Customer said it was coming from the dash, but it was a 10mm that fell behind the speaker. What's the most misleading noise diagnosis you've gotten from a client?

Appreciation post: The old-school body shop I saw in Memphis last week

They still had the original 1970s paint mixing room, with the big glass jars and hand-written formulas on the wall. Makes you miss when everything wasn't just a computer scan and a factory code, you know?

I was sure my dent puller was fine until a customer's car came back with a paint crack

For years, I used my standard slide hammer on everything, thinking the heat from the glue tabs was no big deal. A 2018 Honda Civic came back a week later with a hairline crack right where I pulled a door ding. The painter, Mike, pointed out that I'd overheated the metal in a small spot, making the paint fail. I switched to a low-temp glue system and haven't had the issue since. Has anyone else run into this with older puller methods?

Rant: I used to think a 3M sanding block was fine for feathering edges until a painter in Spokane showed me his finish.

He pulled out a $40 flexible block from a brand I'd never heard of, and the difference on a 2021 F-150 quarter panel was night and day. Anyone have a go-to feathering tool that isn't the standard gray block?

I was mixing my body filler wrong for months until a job in Tacoma

I was working on a 2018 F-150 bed side and the filler kept sagging before it set. The guy I was helping there asked if I was using the hardener from the old tube, which I was. He pointed out the date code, and it was from two years ago. I swapped to a fresh tube and the mix set up perfect in about eight minutes. Has anyone else had a problem with old hardener making filler act weird?

I was convinced you needed a full spray booth for a proper clear coat until I saw a mobile repair guy's setup in a parking garage.

This was in Phoenix, outside a corporate office park. He had a pop-up tent, a serious respirator, and a high-end HVLP gun. The finish on that BMW bumper was flawless, no dust nibs at all. He said the key was a 3-stage filter on his air supply and only working super early in the morning when the air was still. Made me rethink what's absolutely necessary for a quality job versus just ideal. Has anyone else pulled off a showroom-level finish in a less-than-perfect environment? What was your trick?

Hot take: I think the push for waterborne paint in every shop is moving too fast

I was mixing a job at the supply house in Spokane when a guy next to me, a painter from a big chain shop, said 'if you're not on waterborne, you're not a real painter anymore.' That stuck with me. Our shop is small, our booth is old, and the humidity here makes it a real fight. We tried it on a 2015 F-150 hood and the flash time was a nightmare. Has anyone made the switch in a shop without a perfect climate setup?

Showerthought: I used to think a full quarter inch of filler was just fine for a door ding.

Back in 2010 at the shop in Tacoma, we'd slap on the filler thick and sand it down for what felt like hours. Now I aim for less than an eighth of an inch, maybe just a skim coat, and block it with 80 grit first. The switch came after a job on a classic Mustang where the old thick filler cracked after two summers. It's just stronger and looks better. Anyone else find they use way less filler now than they did a decade back?

I finally gave that new ceramic clear coat a shot on a 2018 F-150 hood

The owner brought it back a full year later and the water beading was still perfect, no haze at all. Anyone else seeing these new formulas hold up that well over time?

Back in the day we used to mix our own glazing putty from a can

Now I just grab a tube of 3M's ready-made stuff. The old way took forever to get smooth and would shrink like crazy after a week. The new stuff goes on easy, dries fast, and stays put. Anyone else remember fighting with that old can and a putty knife for an hour?

Got a 2008 Civic quarter panel with a deep dent right on the body line

Instead of hammering from the back, I used a slide hammer with a small hook to pull it out from the front, then finished with a shrinking disc. It saved me a ton of time and kept the metal from stretching. What's your go-to method for a sharp crease like that?

Hot take: I heard a guy at the parts counter say 'filler over rust is fine if you prime it fast'.

He argued it saves time on a budget job, but I've always cut it all out. What's your shop's rule on this?

Three years ago, a guy in a shop in Spokane showed me how to use a heat gun on a plastic bumper before filler. I thought it was a hack job until I tried it last month on a 2018 Civic.