Hitting the wall

Hitting the wall has different meanings depending on context. Hitting the wall when running means your body has consumed all easily obtainable energy which makes continuing to run very difficult. In body shop terms, hitting the wall means you, well, hit a wall.  With your car.

Such is the case with this Altima. The owner backed into a low concrete wall and scuffed up the rear bumper. Fortunately the covering wasn’t severely damaged and we were able to sand out the scuff marks. You can see me working away with sand paper on one of the two areas in the first picture.

The second picture shows the area sanded smooth and ready to be primed.

The third and last picture shows the two areas primed and the rest of the bumper sanded to roughen up the paint to give the sealer something to stick too.

After paint we will put the bumper back on the car and it will be ready to go. And the wall? As far as the owner’s car is concerned, that’s just another Pink Floyd album.

A mended Miata

Tuesday when I arrived at the shop, this is what I found … a red Miata with a blue door. Not a good look for the car.  What it needed was a bit of red just there.

In the paint booth the car was masked off to prevent the paint from getting on the parts of the car that I didn’t want painted. Masking is a time consuming and tedious task, but not nearly as time consuming or tedious as trying to get overspray off everything, so we always take the time to mask the car well.

The second picture shows the car just after the application of the color layer. This is a better look, at least the whole car is red, but the color is flat and lifeless. That is because the color  layer on a car is flat, or nearly so, and it is the clear coat that provides not only the protection but also the shine.

The third picture shows the difference between just the color layer and color layer with a layer of clear over the top. Yes, the paint is wet in this shot, but most of that shine comes from the clear coat, not from the wetness of the paint.

The last picture shows the car out of the booth with the mirror and door handle installed. Every car at JMC AutoworX is thoroughly cleaned after a repair and as soon as this car is cleaned up, it it will be ready to go back to it’s owner.

Not every car looks good in red. In fact, I would go so far as to say this car doesn’t look good in red. No … I believe it looks marvelous.

Dent? What dent?

Here’s the Versa that had the  silver dollar size dent in the roof after the repair is complete.

I painted the thing, and I know about where the dent was, but even I can’t tell exactly where the repair is. I know the area is in this picture somewhere though.