Just a trim

Here we have Prius thats in the shop to get a few panels repaired and replaced. A new quarter was in order here and that is on and trimmed out. We did come across a few small parts that had to be ordered and those are on the way. Tomorrow we hope to get this on painted so we can start reassembly on Thursday.

Dang deer

Long time readers to the site may remember this car from a couple of years ago. The owner brought this to us a couple of years ago wanting a different look for her 2008 Mustang GT California Special. We were happy to oblidge. She wanted to remove the factory California Special side decals and replace them with a more noticible painted on stripe. Well, while we were at it, we also laid out a single wide stirpe with pinstirpes on the hood, roof, trunk and bumpers. It really stood out. Well the other evening a deer crossed her path and unfortunately it wanst moving fast enough and it got wacked.  We will be replacing the fender, bumper and head light. Parts are on order and should be here by the end of the week.

Chevy’s ready

The rust on this Chevy is now a thing of the past. The repair turned out really nice. Here are the images from its time in the paint booth. You can see the sealer on the repaired area in the first picture followed by the base coat then the clear coat. The last image shows the finished product with a new pin stripe and a new Z71 decal.

The Doors

We put the Lexus in the booth first thing this morning and Paul worked his magic. The repaired area was sealed with PPG urethane sealer. He then sprayed several coat of white base coat followed by several coats of pearl mid coat. Once the base coat had time to dry, he then sprayed 2 coats PPG urethane clear. It was painted early enough in the day that we were able to get it put back together by the end of the day. This on is now ready to go home for the Holidays.

Its white again

The Camry had its turn in the booth today. As you can see things turned out very well. We all jumped on it this morning. Masking off the areas that were not getting painted and prepping the ones that did get painted. Paul then sealed the new panels, sprayed three coats of the base coat white, then three coats of the pearl mid coat, then wrapped all that up with 2 coats of PPG’s high solids clear. Tomorrow we will start the reassembly process. We hope to be getting this one back to the owner on Friday.

Looking better, deer.

This new, and I do mean NEW Camry is smacked a deer a week ago and we are well into the repair process and ahead of schedule. All of the parts were ordered last Friday and were delivered to the shop first thing this morning. Paul got right to work trimming the hood and fender out so that they could be installed as soon as they were dry, which is what you see here. What I didn’t get a picture of is that the car is now all sanded and washed and in the paint booth for tomorrow. In the morning we will mask off the areas that aren’t getting painted prep the ones that are and Paul will do his magic on making it all pretty again. Wednesday we will put it all back together and try to get it back to the customer as soon as possible.  I know the owner misses it, he hasn’t even made a payment on it yet.

Etching the Mustang

The Mustang has under gone some transformations today. We had to strip all the paint off the door and quarter because of a previous repair that failed. So to ensure that it doesn’t happen again, we properly treated the metal with an etching primer followed by a urethane primer. The etching primer bites into the metal and the urethane primer bites to the etching primer. The urethane primer offers us a nice sandable finish to apply our sealers and paints that will come next week. While we were priming, Paul also sprayed some primer on the repaired dented areas as well. Tomorrow we plan on sanding this one and getting it washed up and ready for paint.

Stripping, no not that kind.

  This Chevy truck is in the shop to get its roof repaired. The paint is peeling off of the roof and before long, it will start rusting making the repair much more costly. We started by removing the antenna and third brake light. We then used a razor blade to strip off the clear coat. Once all that was off, we used the same method to remove the white base coat. Its a tedious process but it must be done to ensure the paint does not peel more in the future. We then sanded off all of the factory e-coat. We then put it in the booth and masked off the areas we dont want to paint. Then a coat of PPG’s acid etching primer was sprayed on the bare metal. Once that was dry, we sealed the roof with urethane sealer followed by base coat then 2 coats of clear coat. This process is the best way to ensure that the paint does not peel any more in the future.

Color time

This Maxima is in the shop to get new parts after being attacked by a deer. Paul painted this as Chris and I was working on the ’52 Ford truck. I didnt get a picture of this one with clear on it, but here it is with the base coat and pearl coats applied. We hope to get this one back together on Monday and back to the owner by Tuesday or Wednesday.

Remember me?

It was great to get back on the 1952 Ford today. We have had a great run on collision work over the past few months and it sure was nice to work on some good ole American iron for a change. We started out on the hood. There were quite a few dents in there. We did a lot of metal work first to minimize the amount of filler. Once the metal was as good as we can get it, a thorough sanding with 80 grit sandpaper on both sides. Once that was complete, these parts were put into the booth and meticulously cleaned and prepped for primer. A coat of PPG’s DP epoxy primer was sprayed on both sides. This is a very slow drying primer, and since it was late in the day before we could get these primed, we will have to spray the super high build primer in the morning. We will then start the blocking process that flattens out the high spots and fills in the low ones whats left gets body filler or a few more taps with a body hammer. Good progress was made today, its really nice to see the transformation.