Play it again, Sam

I have mentioned several times that JMC AutoworX stands behind our work 100%. We take pride in our work and if something isn’t right, we will make it right. That is our guarantee and we mean it … no mealy mouth weaseling here.

Back in 2009 we painted this spoiler as part of the restoration project on Rufus’ 1968 Camaro. For some reason the primer didn’t adhere properly to this fiberglass spoiler. I can’t tell if it was substandard preparation on our part or a failure of the product itself. In the end, it doesn’t matter. Rufus wanted it fixed. I wanted it fixed. There is no way I am going to let the paint just fall off something I painted. No way, no how, not on any day. I told Rufus to bring it back and I would paint it again, on the house of course. He did, I am … and I bet it won’t fall off again.

I know everyone makes mistakes, but that doesn’t mean I have to like them. And when I do make a mistake, you can bet your last dollar that no one is more interested in making it right than I am. No one …

White out #3

The third item painted today was this front bumper off a Hyundai Azzera that the owner wanted painted. They brought me the bumper, I painted it, and tomorrow they will take away to install themselves.

It feels like I have been painting white parts all day. Wait, I guess I have. But not the same white. Oh no, that would be too easy. Even though the whites all look the same in these photos, each piece was a different color … the Charger was different than the Roush, and they both were different than this Hyundai.

I never knew snow blindness was an occupational hazard in the painting business.

White out #2

Back in April a Roush Mustang came into the shop in the need of a touch up. I guess the customer was happy with the results because he is back. This time he wanted the underside of the hood to shine as nicely as the top side. I think we can help with that.

We masked off the top of the hood, the underside as it appears in the pictures, then we painted it. You can see the hood before we started painting in the first photo. The paint is near flat because it only has the base coat, but even that isn’t applied thick enough to fully cover.

The second photo shows me applying the sealer. Because the car is white, this sealer is the lightest of the seven available shades of gray and appears to be white in the photograph, but it is really a very light gray.

The sealer seals the surface below it and provides a surface that promotes paint adhesion. Each paint color specifies one of these seven shades of gray for consistent color.

After the sealer comes the base coat, not seen in these photos, which provides the color for the car. As you saw in the first photo, the base coat dries to a flat, or near flat, finish. But the owner of this car wanted a higher gloss finish than that, so we added the kerpow!, the cleat coat. You can see the the effect the clear coat has on the finish in the third and last photo. It brings out the zing of the finish, adding the depth and sparkle that people expect from a cars finish.

We will let this paint dry a bit, then we will trundle it out to finish drying in the shop to make room for the next item in the booth.

White out #1

The replacement bumper and bumper support beam for the Charger arrived today, so in they went for paint. The first two photos show the parts in the booth prepped and ready to paint.

The next two photos show the bumper after the paint has been applied. I neglected to get a picture of the bumper support, but it is painted as well.

Once the car comes back from having the dent pulled out on the frame machine it will just be a matter of reinstalling these freshly painted pieces and this car will be ready to go.

I’m board

These cornhole boards, which I had wrapped for my business, were made for me by Chris Council. They are well made, look good, and are ACA (American Cornhole Association) compliant to boot.

You can talk to Chris about  your own cornhole boards by sending him an email. Be sure to tell him you found him on the JMC AutoworX site so he knows where you got his email address.

And if you are going to play, you might as well play by the rules. The official rules of cornhole can be found here.

On the straight and narrow

Recognize this Sentra? No? I’m not surprised. It sure didn’t look like this when it arrived at the shop a month ago. Then it was one messed up little car.

The car had been hit so hard in the back that the rear bumper was completely missing and the entire back end of the car was folded up like some kind of weird accordion. But you wouldn’t know it by looking at it now.

The car spent over a week a on the frame machine as it was teased back to true. All the sheet metal behind the rear doors, save the left side quarter panel, has been cut out and replaced with new pieces. The car has been painted, first inside, then underneath, and then finally, the outside, until it is as near factory perfect as man and machine can make it.

I can’t take all the credit for this job … I contact out my frame machine work, but I am very satisfied with how the car turned out. Had the car been much older the amount of damage it sustained would have probably totaled it.

But you wouldn’t know that by looking at it now.

A trip to the shops

Sometimes an innocent decision leads to heartbreak. Take this Toyota 4Runner for example. A simple trip to the shops has put the truck in the shop, damaged by an errant shopping cart.

The first two photos, taken yesterday, show the work performed to repair the dent. We sanded and filled the dent with body filler and then sanded the filler smooth. Body filler, popularly known by the trade name Bondo, is the perfect tool for repairing these small shallow dents. Properly used body filler will last the life of the car while saving the customer time and money.

Where yesterday was spent repairing the dent, today was spent hiding the repair. The third picture shows the 4Runner in the booth, masked, cleaned, and ready to spray.

The fourth photo shows the car after the sealer has been applied. The sealer is used to seal the surface and to provide the paint a surface for good adhesion. The color of the sealer is specified by the paint color and will range in color from nearly white to almost black in seven shades of gray. The color used on this 4Runner is at the darkest end of the scale.

Pictures five and six show the car after the application of the base coat, the color layer of the cars finish. The base coat dries to a near flat finish, as shown in the photos. Because of the location of the repair, this truck required blending of the paint so that the repair cannot be detected.

The human eye is very sensitive to changes in color … so long as the colors are placed next to one another with a clear and sharp line separating them. It is near impossible to mix two batches of paint and achieve an exact color match, but so long as the two colors are very close to the same color, blending the paint denies the eye that sharp and clear line and tricks the eye into seeing one color.

The last two photos, numbers seven and eight, shows what happens to the drab base coat once the clear coat is applied. The clear coat makes all the difference in the world, providing not only protection to the base coat beneath, it also provides the sizzle and pop that makes the automotive finishes some of the most beautiful paint in the world.

The paint will dry overnight in the booth, then tomorrow we will slip the door handles back on the doors and this truck will be ready for another trip to the shops. Hopefully only for purchases and not for repairs this time.

Charge!(r)

When this Charger arrived it appeared at first glance that the only thing damaged on the car was the rear bumper skin. But still waters run deep, and as we dug into the repair we found there was hidden damage. Nothing serious, but a simple sand and spray wasn’t going to do it.

The first two photos show the broken plastic piece that is going to have to be replaced. The last two show the bent support structure to go with the broken plastic.

We will replace the broken plastic and rear bumper and pull the dents out of the metal on the frame machine, but it just another testament to how hard the car was hit. It wasn’t a devastating blow, but it wasn’t a love tap either.

We will get the car mended and painted then it will be ready to charge back into the fray.

Let’s get to work

Do to an over-site on my part, yesterday’s We’re closed for the holiday post has been up all day when we were in fact open for business. I noticed this fact late this afternoon, and made a mental note to myself to make sure to post another entry after the holiday the next time letting everyone know we were open … so to not confuse potential customers.

But since it was late in the afternoon I decided not to publish a new post stating we were open for business … after all there was only a couple of hours to go in the day and I would  be posting pictures of today’s work later anyway.

However, the camera that contains all the pictures I took today, went home with Jordan. So no pictures. What plan are we on now? Plan C? OK, plan C …

I hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day holiday. I certainly did, but now it is time to get back to work. JMC AutoworX is open for business to help you with your automotive repair and restoration needs. 

There … I posted we were open today after all … to help cut down on the confusion, ya know.

JMC AutoworX is closed

JMC AutoworX is closed today in observance of Memorial Day. We will reopen tomorrow to serve you.

Enjoy your holiday!