When I discovered Curbside Classic, it awakened a long dormant interest in cars that had been slumbering since childhood. Having never taken an auto shop class nor having any mentors in automotive mechanics, I was a late arriver to working on my cars, but it’s rapidly becoming a newfound passion of mine here in my third decade on Planet Earth.
Reading the articles on this website from other passionate people who take pride in their cars and work on them has been very inspirational for me. I love all the articles here, but over the years, watching the ambitions of the dreamers and mad-skilled DIY mechanics like Paul, David Saunders and Keith Thelen, to name a few, has been mind-blowingly awesome. Their DIY spirit was infectious, and it rubbed off on me.
My renaissance started when I bought a VW van that I tinker with as time and funds allow. I did not intend it that way; the damned thing just needs a lot of work and attention. I have a love-hate relationship with it that I have written about before, but overall, I have found it very rewarding to work on.
This summer, I put two large dents into two separate panels on the rear of the van when I scraped up against a cement stanchion at a gas station while trying to avoid a poorly parked Trans-Am.
Ouch! But I might have hurt my pride even more than I did the van!
I hardly even noticed the impact, but when I got out to look at the damage, it was significant. This wasn’t going to buff out; there was real body damage there. Seeing the dents every day when I exited my house stung, and I sought some estimates from some PDR (paintless dent repair) professionals. They all waffled and declined the job, telling me that there was too much stretched metal to affect a PDR.
Nuts.
I next took the van to a body shop that took a thousand photos and then told me that their plan was to find a donor van, cut out a replacement panel, and weld it in. Well, that was some crazy talk, so I told them to terminate the estimate right then. Who knows how many untold thousands of dollars that would cost? More than the van is worth, certainly. It looked like it was either live with the damage, or get my tools out and see what I could do.
Over the next few weeks, I spent some time reading up, watching YouTube videos, and ordering tools. The most significant of the tools new to me was a slide hammer. This technique is a last-ditch, invasive procedure. Having already tried a suction cup dent puller, compressed air and a heat gun with no success, I was running out of options.
A slide hammer involves putting holes into the body of a car and pulling out a dent from the inside.
Finally, the moment arrived when I was standing in front of the van with a power drill in my hand. Once you drill holes into your car, they don’t come out. Did I really think I knew what the heck I was doing? Screw it, I thought. I cranked up some heavy metal on the stereo and went to town on the damaged panels. My wife came home just in time to find me swiss-cheesing the van, and she looked at me like I was half mad; maybe I was, but my confidence was high, even if my experience was low. Neighbors began to walk by as I was working and give me thumbs-ups. “I didn’t know you knew how to do body-work,” one commented. “Neither did I,” I responded.
Please don’t criticize my amateur work. I’d never used Bondo before, I’d never used a slide hammer – this is all uncharted territory for a newbie. I’m just an average unskilled idiot, but I’m learning!
This weekend, I’ll be working on the long crease that I inherited when I took ownership of the van. No holes were necessary for this one, but I’ve still got to get the primer on smoother and more even before I paint.
Gettin’ there!
So what’s your next DIY project? Whether you are looking to tackle something big or small, hopefully this story will get you fired up to take it on!
I plan on putting a new top on my 98 Mustang convertible…today!
It’s midnight here. I finished two hours ago. My first top install, turned out decent.
Apparently replacing the injectors on my son’s newly acquired 2003 Buick Le Sabre. Since it has a misfire on #3 and he spent all his money buying it, insuring it, and getting the misfire diagnosed.
I just bought this 1987 Buick Grand National with some assembly required, which is why I got it for practically nothing and its a car Ive always wanted. Ive never worked on one of these before so it will be a little bit of a challenge
Automotive diy is finding and fixing the dribble in the cooling system of the Galaxie. It’ll be easier (hopefully) than when I rebuilt its entire brake system.
Non-automotive: hanging and mudding drywall. My one sole prior attempt turned out pretty well. After that I need to rehabilitate my toolshed as the roof is leaking. I’m afraid of what might be lurking there.
Kudos for your work on the VW; I would have been tempted to leave them be.
Last DIY auto was spark plug change in 2007 Ford Edge. Have never had to remveo the top of Intake for plugs so it was a bit scary, but went like the videos said it would. Hopefully never have to change them again – 100K service interval. But I might.
Household was a tape/mud/paint project. We live in a “manufactured home” – double wide as most would call it. I detest the batten strips they put over the sheetrock joints, so I spent a couple weeks working on the strips in the evenings when I could and we painted it all over the weekend. Much better.
Toy cars? I got tons of model cars to build…
I have been a manager for parts stores for 20 years and in that time worked at a branch that had automotive paint. I’m not a body person but I have attended clinics on how to use paint guns and matching colours so I have a pretty high standard of what I think is a good paint job. Having said that I have had many customers over the years buy filler, some sandpaper and find a Duplicolor spray bomb thats close, and are very happy with the outcome. I like those types, they know its not going to be perfect. On the other hand, we get customers who think they can buy a spray bomb (we can mix to your paint code and put the paint in a can) and they will have a $1500.00 repair for $30.00. They ask me if the colour will match perfectly, I say nope. With thousands of vehicles being painted there are variations–look at some bumper covers, because bumpers are often molded and painted at a different plant they don’t match the car. Metallics don’t often flop the same, humidity can cause paint match problems–finding a painter is a start, a painter that can fix a panel and blend the paint to match the car is a master. Also, don’t forget 90% of a paint job is prepping the repair–paint won’t cover bad body work. I’ve had customers do some amazing stuff in their own garages but remember to use approved masks, todays paints are full of isocyanates .
You also have to factor in fading over time. Even a car that is regularly garaged or a weekend plaything is going to see some degradation of the paint over time.
When the bodyshop did my Inferno Red GT Cruiser after some asshat crinkled the fender in a hit n run, I know he blended fresh paint in over a good portion of the car. Its a tough color, and even in direct sunlight it was near impossible to tell it’d seen work.
I got pretty good at spraying Acrylic Enamel (Dupont Centari), at home which is not particularly easy. Humidity and temperature were both critical factors, as well as a bit of skill. Lacquers were easy, but required more time due to multiple coats and necessary final polishing. Once low VOC products were mandated, containing isocyanates (poison), I gave up. “Oh oh, better get Maaco”.
I’ve spray bombed motorcycles before and my body shop buddy said it was as good as any he could do. It can be done.
Fixing up my B4 Audi 80 TDi… It will be hard but that’s life
I recently finished my ’77 Marquis, for now. This fall I’m tackling the headbolts on my Northstar-equipped DeVille, (all the time cursing GM engineering).
Next spring my beloved. G-van gets some attention. The body is getting so ragged from rust it’s drawing unwanted attention from the local contstabulary. New doors, new rocker panels , some NOS chrome bumpers and a repaint. I’ll install a sunroof, too. In the meantime I’ll tune up my ’68 T-bird for next summer’s cruising.
After that, I might find time to finish my lowrider Caprice. ….. oh and the diff on my Supra needs a rebuild. Geez, I forgot, I have to fix the death-wobble on my Cherokee. After that, well my Mark V has been waiting for a cleanup for 14 years, I’ll get to it. There’s other projects like my GTO and Olds 455, too. Too many projects and not enough time.
Fixing cars as a hobby has turned me into a hillbilly museum curator. It’s a great hobby but it’s easy to go overboard.
I reckon it’ll be removing the original headlamps (faded and crazed past dead) and taillamps (red turn signals) from my 2007 Accord and swapping in the European-spec headlamps (shiny new in their Honda cartons) and used European-spec taillamps (yoinked from a wrecking yard in Australia with a little help from my friends) that are presently stashed in my basement. The European headlamps in this case are better focused than the US-spec items, and the taillamps have proper (amber) turn signals and much wider-angle visibility of the brake and tail lights (80° outboard instead of just 45°).
Neither swap job looks particularly onerous, but there are asterisks and stuff that have been preventing me doing it: the European headlamps have provisions for an aim-adjustment motor, without which the reflectors flop around and can’t be vertically aimed. Fine, so I snagged a pair of the motors, which also provide for manual vertical adjustment…but only within a certain range, so the motors have to be moved to their “0” position before they’re installed on the headlamps, and it takes special circuitry with resistors and stuff to drive the motors. You can’t just apply 12v across two of their terminals and have ’em move. Also, the new headlamps will have to be aimed. This is not simple. Shine-it-on-a-wall methods are a very, very distant second preference, so once this lamp swap is done I’ll have to find a shop that (A) has and (B) uses (C) properly an optical headlamp aiming machine and will gracefully lose the argument about horizontal aimability on an ’07 Accord—as with most cars since ’99, the US-spec headlamps are adjustable only for vertical aim, not horizontal. The European-spec lamps require vertical and horizontal aiming.
And by installing the ECE/ADR tail lights, I’ll lose the rear sidemarker lights. That’s not okeh; those little lights do a very effective job of reducing the chance of being hit in traffic. So I’ll want to add back that function with a pair of these, which on my silver car will just about disappear once drilled into the bumper fascia adjacent to the outboard corner of the taillamp on each side.
So all of that conspires to make these into perpetually postponed projects. :-\
I thought the U.S. model Accord and the European model Accord were quite different? My understanding is/was the U.S. Accord is not sold anywhere except for North America while the European market Accord is the car sold in the U.S. as the Acura TSX?
But then, I haven’t been out of the U.S. in quite a while.
The European Accord is sold in the US as an Acura, and the US Accord is not sold in Europe.
I worked at a company dealing with Honda imports to Australia in 2010, and at that time you could get an “Accord” (like a US Accord) or an “Accord Euro” (Acura TSX).
I assumed the US style one was sold in Asia too, IIRC they were built in Thailand.
Similarly, you could get a Thai built Civic or an English built Civic, and they were different cars.
The US-body ’03-’07 Accord was sold in some countries that use European safety regs and drive on the RH side of the road.
The US-body ’03-’07 Accord was sold in Australia and in Japan, and—obviously from the existence of the ECE/RHT headlamps, in some RH-traffic countries that adhere to the UN (“European” vehicle equipment and safety regulations.
I never fail to be shocked that you don’t own your own optical headlight setting machine, Daniel. I’ve looked into owning one myself, and have learned (via CPF) that a quality machine is available for around $600.
Why haven’t you bought your own yet?
I owned a Hella Beamsetter for quite awhile. Wound up selling it to the University of Iowa for some headlamp research they were doing. I haven’t replaced it because I have a long list of things that more urgently need buying.
There is a rear fog light on the driver’s side rear lamp cluster for the EU-market Honda Accord which on the US-market Acura TSX is occupied by a white backup light. I think you’d have to leave the rear fog light unwired since there is no switch for the rear fog light in the US-market car. If I remember correctly, the European headlights don’t have the orange side reflectors required in the US.
I think I confused your 2007 Accord with a 2007 US-market Acura TSX. If your Accord looks like the one in the attached photo, the 2007 US-market Accord Hybrid has the taillights with clear lenses and it would also have the required rear side marker lights.
The ’06-’07 Accord Hybrid does have amber rear turn signals, and yes, I’d get to keep the sidemarker lights, but they don’t have the wide-angle brake/tail lights. For that you have to have the European-spec tails.
There was a surprising variety of headlamps for the US-body ’03-’07 Accord:
• US/Canada-spec, no horizontal aimability, no motorised vertical aim, no provision for parking lamp (function handled by 2nd filament in turn signal bulb), with amber side reflector. HB4/9006 low beam, HB3/9005 high beam halogen bulbs.
• European-spec, right-hand traffic, with horizontal aimability, with motorised vertical aim, with white parking lamp separate from turn signal, with amber side reflector. HB4/9006 low beam, HB3/9005 high beam halogen bulbs (these are the ones on my basement shelf).
• As above except no side reflector, for RH traffic with European-spec beams or for LH traffic with European-spec or Japanese-spec beams, with chrome bezel or with black bezel, with or without motorised aim.
• Japan-spec, for LH traffic with HID low beam and halogen high beam, without side reflector, with separate parking lamp, without motorised aiming, with horizontal adjustability, with black or chrome bezel.
My sweet college-student niece hit an elk on I-17 last night near her school in Flagstaff, AZ. Her 2004 Jeep Liberty looks to be a total loss, so she and I will be “curbside classic” hunting over Labor Day weekend in the Phoenix area. Since most CC used car purchases need a little maintenance or “spiffing”, I suspect she and I will be working on this project next.
CAI for the Holden, er, SS. Finish glazing the dining room cabinet doors, and that project’s done. Then, oh, I don’t know, maybe finally rebuild my VW projects?
Reinstall exhaust on Buick Rendezvous, hoping it is ready for daughter to use.
Diagnose rear end noise on BMW e36 convertible. Either wheel bearing or brakes.
Oil change on Ford Focus
Oil change on Chevy Suburban.
Remove engine and possibly other running gear from 96 Ford Explorer.
Call scrapper for said Explorer and Infiniti I30.
Move one Willys Wagon out of elements. Pull parts from brother vehicle.
Replace top on BMW.
That’s what I’m doing. I’ll let crew at Costco rotate tires on the Focus.
Away from the garage, building a MAME cabinet with Retropie. One of these days, I’ll finish building that kitchen table. And I really should hit the bee hives with some oxalic acid.
Kudos for getting the nerve to do your own body work! Looks good. Body work is very imposing to me.
Having said that, job 1 is dealing with an immense number of bumper scratches on the 2010 Prius. It has very low bumpers and lots of overhang, and our driveway is lined with big rocks. We’re on a narrow street so sharp turns in and out of the driveway are often required. Scratch! I have a can of Dupli-Color, wax remover, scuffing pad, masking tape and the Sunday paper. Was going to try it today but they’re predicting 95 degrees, too hot for me and the paint. Will try it soon.
Job 2 is fixing the airbag controller on the ’92 Miata. Have put up with the blinking airbag light for years. They say leaky capacitors are common on these, easily fixed once I get the box out, I’m a ham radio electronics workshop guy. Thing is it’s up behind the dash. Must remove the driver’s seat and maybe drop the steering column. Will get around to it one of these days.
Maybe after I retire I’ll convert the Miata to electric power. That’s a huge job that costs quite a bit in parts. But I’ve always wanted to “build a car”. Time will tell.
Auto – Waiting for the Mercedes to come back from the body shop this week after they take out the dozens (hundreds?) of hail-dents. Will write the $250 deductible check for that. Money well spent.
Non-auto – Continue working on painting the outside of the house myself. 3 sides are painted, and I just finished replacing all the rotted trim boards on the chimney this morning. Need to caulk and prime that, then paint the main coat on that and the back of the house and then start working on the trim color overall. It’s a bit of a tossup if it’s really worth doing myself but it’s rewarding (so far) and progress is visible every day.
Painting can be highly rewarding. When we lived in St. Joseph, I repainted the exterior of the house four times to do a color change (two coats of primer, two coats of paint). My industriousness even provided for me painting the gutters to match my trim. It looked awesome.
Then, when we sold it, the new owners reverted back to the very same colors it had been.
When I was growing up (fifties/sixties) my father used to repaint the clapboard siding on our house every other year or so. It was a major production, he would take a week off from work rather than trying to paint in his spare time. The painting was bad enough but even worse was scraping off the loose paint so the new paint would adhere. Scraping was the “entry level position” so when I got old enough I was drafted into manning (childing?) the scraper. I made sure that both of the houses I’ve purchased have had siding, leaving only a minimal amount of trim to be painted. I do need to repaint my yard barn once the weather cools down.
I hate to admit it but I haven’t done any real repair work on one of my cars in at least 25 years. When I started driving any car that I could afford needed constant attention and I suppose I got working on the car out of my system. That is the primary reason I have ended up passing on the opportunity to buy a car from the sixties or seventies; just don’t have the ambition to deal with all of the details of keeping a 50 year old car mobile.
Curious as to your choice of two coats of primer. Primer is white, plus it doesn’t have much pigment, so it’s actually not really good at hiding an existing color. Primer is just good at sticking, and sealing unprimered surfaces. But there’s really no point in putting primer over a reasonably solid coat of paint before repainting. Unless you really like painting. 🙂
That was my somewhat my thought at the time as well. However, there was the Mrs. Jason factor (combined with my being young and dumb at the time). When the primer still reflected the old color, I witnessed a certain degree of angst. Thus, the second coat….
I’ve spent the last week installing new cedar shingles on one wall of the house. It’s about 95% done and has been enjoyable overall, partly because I used it as an excuse to buy some new tools that made things go easier. Spending money on tools is a permitted luxury when you’re saving money by doing the work yourself.
I agree exterior painting is one of the more rewarding home maintenance jobs. I’ve painted mine twice in the last 25 years, and found it satisfying both times. There was one small triangle at the back however that I couldn’t reach, and it remained in a ‘contrasting colour’ for many years. I finally hired someone this summer to get it done.
Great looking job on that dent. I’ve seen 1 or 2 instances where folks drilled the holes and pulled most of the metal out…but never smoothed the body or painted the affected area, they should have left well enough alone.
I would like to paint the roof on my car, but I don’t have a garage and the paint would have to dry nearly instantly to avoid being damaged by dirt falling out of the trees on my property.
I am considering finding a car I can work on that needs mechanical fixing and no painting. Perhaps a 80s or 90s Civic or a Miata.
I have a full respray planned for my old Hillman, better quality paint and thinners this time but same colours it is now,
Those dents you pulled on your van, a friend of mine repairing a split screen van has a nifty mod done to his slide hammer he fitted a drill chuck so just spot welds nails to the low areas in panels and attaches the slide hammer with the chuck and pulls the dents no holes to fill,
I taught myself how to shrink dents out of panels a bit more complicated than drilling and pulling but doable if you have the time and of course the tools, your van looks fine good job.
Two minor projects are queued up and one major.
The Chevy pickup needs a left front wheel ABS sensor, according to the OBDII code. Since the brakes pulsate a bit, but are far from worn out, a complete brake inspection is in order. Rotor has to come off to replace the sensor anyway.
VW Thing is getting a new muffler, since the rusty aftermarket one is incredibly loud. Found a stock replacement made in Europe.
Karmann Ghia needs an engine teardown and reseal only because it leaks oil everywhere, but runs fine, with only 36,000 original miles. Clutch is oiled up due to failed seal.
I just completed a brake job on my old 98 Nissan Altima. Rear rotors and pads front and rear. The highway shimmy is now gone and it stops a lot better than it used to. While doing the front brakes I realized the front wheel bearing was loose, explaining the noise I kept hearing. Tried to tighten it up but the noise came back and then started making a terrible knocking sound. After googling the repair procedure and realizing I would need a press to get the old bearing out I left it to my mechanic who replaced it and the hub I had trashed for $460 CDN.
I completed an oil change on the wife’s previa today and topped up the supercharger oil. This required jack stands and some contortion to reach the supercharger fill plug and a greasy arm as the tiny fill hole will not take much oil without spilling.
Next up is to refresh the brake fluid in both cars and a new front window for the Altima. Or maybe I should get a new car or 2. Who am I kidding I hate car payments. Maybe I need a spare beater for when the others decide to take the day off.
Today’s unexpected DIY project- Plug A Tire.
On my way to a car show about 30 miles away this morning TPMS light comes on. Quick inspection reveals no flat, so I finish trip. Come home, check air pressures. Left Rear is 25 PSI. Raise car, spin wheel, find roofing nail in tread. Remove nail, file, plug.
Nice bodywork Scott. On flat panels like this you should always use a “skateboard”, a long sanding block, to make sure your filler does not have ripples. Also body shops use stud welders to pull dents like this without drilling holes. What you did is fine though.
Keep trying new stuff!
Maybe … Struts on my 02 Outback. Would save me about $1000 ($500 vs $1500) and I’d end with some tools I don’t have now (impact wrench, decent jack). But I’ll have to clear space in the garage, and find the time. (And it can’t take long, as the Subie is #2Son’s ride to school — I’ll have to drive him while it is OOC.)
Well if it is a real time crunch you could do one corner at a time. Sure it is not ideal to drive like that but it wouldn’t be the most dangerous thing to do one one evening/weekend and the other the next. Check for the quick struts with new springs and the time to swap them is cut in half and makes it much more DIY friendly.
Drilling holes for a slide puller… oh no. Stud welder is the only way to go. I could have used that once but paid the money for a stud welder and am glad I did. Or use a paintless dent repair guy to massage that. I once hit the top rear corner of my Focus on a mailbox. Nice dent that really irritated me. Located a fellow on Craigslist who was mobile and he came to my office. Absolutely spectacular and only $175 for a dent bigger than a good sized fist. Paint was unfazed.
An issue with all those holes is that they are open behind the panel. Each hole exposes a small amount of bare steel. Bondo absorbs water. Water and bare steel equal rust.
My current projects in process now:
1. Finish up Polara gasket change on tranny pan, replacing rear trans mount, replacing 4 core plugs to clean interior of block and right now draining out the system, after cleaner, for new coolant.
2. R&R entire front suspension of the Park Lane from ball joints, to bushings, to tie rods, to all steering components. Of course refinish the A-arms.
3. Replace a hood hinge on the F100 which popped two weeks ago. Strange. After that buff the newish paint with a series of foam pads and my new Flex machine.
4. Install the rebuilt heads on the Cougar while at the same time installing a new camshaft.
5. Paint the replacement hood and bumper cover for my wife’s 626 after she kissed a late model F250 in the rear.
6. Longest one and biggest PIA is the Sable and it’s knock. Clearly isn’t top end as it has been gone through with a fine toothed comb and is now in top shape. So now time to check rod bearings although how this problem could occur right after an oil change and start up in the driveway is puzzling.
My wife’s pos Taurus developed a rod knock at only 89,000 km. I hated that car.
I might get a tattoo on the back of my hand saying “Automotive DIY isn’t worth it!”, just in case I ever do it again. I don’t have the patience, and am trying to wean myself off household DIY too.
Current diy’s
Align and paint the replacement hood on the Silverado
Replace ignition components on the W124 Mercedes to get rid of a nasty miss
Massage the body of the 55 Plymouth to get ready for paint. Also brakes and wiring
Too damn hot to work on cars right now
Nice to see the dent repair coming along so well .
Also good to hear many here are ready to rip in to serious repair jobs .
I have two major engine jobs lined up : 1959 VW Beetle and 1959 metropolitan Nash FHC . the Nash has a BW M35 slushbox that’ll also get over hauled and the VW’s tranny needs to come out so I can swap the nose cone for one I found with a reversing light switch ~ I’m keen to add reversing lamps .
The Morris Minor remains in the dead projct area, hopefully to be re assembled one day .
-Nate
Last DIY project was last week rear beam replacement on my Citroen this is the freshly harvested axle coming out of the parts car
Brice ~ why ? worn out or up grading ? .
-Nate
Weak point on Xsaras and several related PSA vehicles. There’s a whole cottage industry in reconditioning them.
Well done, Scott. I guess you found that good lighting helped with the work ? Surface irregularities stand out well in raking light — an instance where even the best daylight just won’t show everything that’s going on.
We use Bondo on paint-grade cabinetry and furniture; I’ve never used it on metal — yet. Great stuff; harder than spackle and smoother than other wood fillers.
Graduation money would have bought a perfectly nice black ’55 Plymouth 2-door station wagon — but no, I had to have that very rough ’40 Ford Fordor owned by a Providence cop. That didn’t last long; I’m not a glutton for punishment like some of you guys . . . !
TNX .
-Nate
TNX – is that an Acura? A Lincoln? A Caddy? or….? 😉
Replacing the brake light switch on my 1955 Packard.
Trevor
A/C rebuild, just finished!
Gotta do the same for my van. Compressor is shot and traveling anywhere remotely hot without A/C is no fun!
Getting my ’75 Stingray back on the road:
Bumper cap painted
Did the front too!
The finished product. Note my custom fog light installation behind the grille.
Slowly installing my aftermarket stereo system:
Newly acquired ’62 Dodge truck is needing a trans service for the pushbutton Torqueflite, brakes need a good inspection and whatever repair is dictated. I am currently attempting to reupholster the seat, something I have never done. Water pump, timing chain, radiator and new trans cooler have just been crossed off the list.
Did brake pads on the Olds last week. Lots of things on the list to do, but nothing urgent. Maybe the sagging closet shelf this week.
You are a braver man than I am when it comes to body work
Good job looks great
Next auto project is a new heater core for my ’84 Euro 5-speed 300TD, which I’ve put on hold for three years because of all my unplanned projects. Like my ongoing replacement of the flood-destroyed hardwood floor in a rental property, and replacing the water heater in my home that recently sprang a leak!
Happy Motoring, Mark
Looks very good! It is true that bondo absorbs water so if it isn’t too difficult, painting/undercoating the repaired area on the inside is a good idea. Also, I’ve read that spray can primer leaves a porous surface meaning that it would be best to get the topcoat on there soon.
I’ve done a lot of DIY repair and now with YouTube you can almost always find good tips on whatever repair. I’m currently refurbishing a Subaru 2.5.
From what I can see, the bodywork doesn’t look bad at all, especially for a first effort. Certainly looks much better than my first effort, all those years ago. Keep at it, keep learning, fixing your own car is very satisfying. I take it there were no interior panels that could be removed to gain access to the inside of those panels, to knock the dents out from the inside? In any case, Silver can be a difficult color to match, even with the correct OEM paint. If this were my vehicle, instead of spot-painting just the repaired areas, I’d run the masking along that inset character line that runs front to rear and paint the entire area below it, from that line down to the bottom of the van, and from where that line intersects the front wheel arch and on back to the rear of that side of the van. That way, when the new paint doesn’t match (nothing against you or your skills, it’s just that, with luck, it may be pretty close, but it most likely will not match perfectly) then you won’t have large non-matching sections of van, instead you’ll have a nice, subtle, custom two-tone paint effect (no need to do the other side, because with luck, the color difference will be very subtle, and as Von Dutch once said “You can only see one side of the car at a time”). Just some food for thought. It’s worked well for me in the past. Good luck and keep us posted.
As for upcoming projects for me, I’ve got nothing major planned, just an oil & filter change on the DD ’92 LeSabre, and installing a set of vintage stainless steel & white vinyl splash guards (aka mud flaps) on our beloved vintage Brougham. Functional protection for her lower flanks that will also take her overall Broughamnificance up a notch. It’s a win/win.
Thanks CH41! Good advice – my plan is to paint the entire two panels that are damaged. Just sanded and primered some more of the gaps this afternoon (see pic). I do have the OEM paint match, and it’s pretty good, but with metallic, it’s tough, and there are a lot of hot spots. Once I get all the imperfections out of the primer, we’ll see how the silver metallic lays on.
Hey that’s really taking shape, you’re moving right along with it, very cool. I see you’re using light gray primer (sandable primer I presume), a “guide coat” of dark gray sandable primer over that, wet-sanded with a sanding block, using 600-grit paper, will reveal any low spots (they’ll remain dark grey). And a coat of Primer Sealer (available at most auto parts stores) once you’re ready to shoot the color coat, will give a smoother surface for the paint than just primer itself. And you’re right, metallic paint can be challenging. But if the color coat comes out rough or not as smooth as you’d like, you can just wet-sand it smooth and try again. Or, as long as it’s not too rough, you may also be able to polish it out with some Fine glaze (nothing too coarse or harsh) to smooth it out and bring up the gloss. Take your time and enjoy the process
If you’re feeling adventurous (and adventure has gotten you this far!) you may want to even trying blending into the surrounding panels. Silver is actually a really great color for this, and the character lines will help the resulting effect as well.
Mask the windows and pillars, mirror, door handle, tires, and the inside of the fuel filler door (but close the door afterward.) Concentrate your initial color coat on the repair area, but once the new paint starts noticeably covering the primer, begin carrying your spray pattern outward, lightening the spray as you get farther from the repair.
EDIT: I missed MoparRocker74’s comments to this effect above.
Oh my; where to start. My whole summer (life, actually) is an endless stream of DIY activities. A couple of weeks ago I had to remodel one of my units so it could be used as a group home for my daughter and another woman with the same disability. Then I had to install utlities and hookups for a washer and dryer in one of my cottages. And the past few days I’ve gotten back to framing up my new little shed/tiny house.
Looks awesome, Paul! I’m curious- have you ever built a gazebo, pool cabana, or anything like that?
No. In Oregon? Pools are not very common here.
I built a complete new house a couple of years ago.https://www.curbsideclassic.com/auto-biography/my-new-future-curbside-classic-2220-monroe-street-i-built-it-my-way/
Put me in the where to start camp as I have been know to accumulate projects quicker than I can get to them.
I’ve most recently been doing some work to one of my houses, some rot repair and replacing a couple of siding and trim boards. Just about have that wrapped up other than putting color on some of the pieces. I got lucky in that there was a can of the trim color in that came with the house but for the body I had to go and get it matched. It took them 3 tries but you really can’t tell though it helps that the paint isn’t that old.
I need to get on with the complete gut and remodel for the master bath in my house, and that will go to the top of the list once I’ve finished the exterior items above and a few other exterior items on mine and another house.
In car work my daughter’s car is due for the trans fluid and coolant to be replaced.
My van needs the tie rods done, the AC fixed and the E track mounted. The AC probably won’t get done this year but the other two need to be done before winter hits and it is called upon on a semi regular basis. I should probably do its trans and diff fluid too, inspect the brakes and at least adjust the parking brake shoes. it will also need a set of tires before winter.
I really want to retrofit the power trailer tow package mirrors on my F250 and I should go ahead and change the trans, transfer and diff fluids in it before winter hits. I also should adjust the parking brake shoes and do a general brake inspection.
I’ve been toying around with plastidipping my daily driver and my daughter’s cars.
In the acquiring projects before finishing others, I just bought a F150 that I’ve done a few things to already. Waiting on my Locksmith to get home from taking his daughter to college to have him cut some additional keys for it. Got lucky and in the owner’s portfolio there was the key code tag. I’ve saved it on a Row 52 search with an eye for a set of the factory step bars and a factory 2″ receiver. The parking brake shoes could also use an adjustment. And of course it needs a set of tires before winter arrives.
In the just completed column, My son and I did the front shocks on his car last night, along with an oil change. We went with the KYB gas-a-just and the instruction sheets were very interesting. Completely different sheets came in each of the boxes. First of all they were instructions for strut cartridges, so they had specific instructions for 73-77 Capri and for the Fiat 128 depending on the OE strut that your particular vehicle was equipped with. The other one was for struts too, but the more common complete assemblies and it including directions on how to cut the OE brake line tab on some vehicles so you don’t have to disconnect the brake line which applies to cars from the 70’s and early 80’s. It is like they madate an instruction sheet but since no one needs one for a standard shock they threw in what ever they had lying around.
I’m up to my ears in needed DIY car repairs. Right now my ’89 Jaguar XJS is at the front of line. It’s finally a limited use runner and I plan to drive it work as a shake down program. I just pulled the left door apart to check and fix the inoperative power window. It needs a front suspension rebuild, a new top, a/c repair, front seat upholstery, and many other things. My major repair on this car so far has been the transmission replacement. Kudos to all you out there picking up your wrenches and diving into repairs on your own. One thing at time.
2003 F250 6.0 – When I get back home in November, I plan to replace the positive battery cable (current one was rigged with a cheap $5 standard cable, a hex head bolt, and lots of electrical tape by the previous owner who was too cheap/broke to put the proper dual battery cable back in), the front passenger ABS wheel speed sensor (requires some creative wire routing to avoid being caught by the oversized tires, again see previous owner), and possibly the #5 injector (appears to be affected by stiction, sitting for 3 months isn’t going to help that…). Not altogether exciting compared to some of the classics I’ve seen people post about here, but at least its something to tinker with.
Nice work on the VW, and I’m impressed at all the DIY jobs mentioned so far. My own skills are, sadly, minimal. Perhaps I’ll try to get my old neglected chainsaw to start again, though. The idea of working on a motor small enough to pick up is less intimidating.
“Chainsaw, my old friend; you’d never hurt me.”
“Bzzzzzz!”
“Augh!”
Let’s see. Replacing a blown brake line front to back in my ’87 Caprice wagon which let go in rush hour traffic on Friday. While I am at it, a new Master Cylinder as the pedal has never been very firm, and a new rubber line at the rear axle.
Following that, front pads and rotors, exhaust from mid pipe back and diagnosing/repairing an intermittent blower motor on my ’95 Cutlass Ciera.
Those are the immediate projects. My Caprice needs some more love, but it keeps getting pushed back.
For the last month, I’ve been remodeling my garage. I had the walls dry-walled where there were only studs almost two years ago and put on a coat of paint.
Just this month, I scrubbed and clear-coated the floor with a satin finish, as I didn’t want to epoxy coat it because the concrete varies in porosity, and some stains didn’t come out completely, but it does look pretty good.
Two weeks ago, I finally put a second coat of paint on the walls and today I’m scrubbing the footing along the sides and front of the garage floor . After that, I’m painting those. Later, I will install some sort of base boards, as cheaply as I can find, even if it means buying 1 x 3″ furring strips, chamfering the top edge, priming & painting and affixing them to the walls.
I already refurbished the workbench, replaced two old kitchen cabinets on the wall which were falling apart with a nice cabinet ordered from Home Depot along with tossing out a dark green, very rusty 100-year old government cabinet I salvaged from work years ago with one that matches the wall unit.
That will finish the garage project.
Sometime after this I will give my 2012 Impala its first clay treatment. I did this to Wifey’s old CR-V last year, and the result was simply remarkable and ridiculously fast and easy! Of course, I waxed it immediately. I washed, cleaned and waxed the Impala on Friday which took me many hours, not realizing just how those years of highway commuting beat the living tar out of the front end!
Finally, I may have to clay Wifey’s 2015 CR-V as well, but I’ll see.
All this stuff I had no time to do before I retired. Who knew a garage project could be so complex and time-consuming.
Oh yeah – I also have to replace the spark plugs on the Impala as well. It doesn’t look too difficult, but stay tuned! I’m also sure I’ll finally need brakes after 116,000 miles, too.
Being retired is a wonderful thing so far – I have time to do stuff I didn’t have time before!
Underhood cleaning on the ONION.
Recently did a divot and scrape in the side rear bumper after my BFF attempted to back it up to get the garbage cans out while I was in the hospital. He connected with a retaining wall along the driveway.
JB Plastic Weld filled the divot nicely. Color matched to the car’s paint code.
I’m not satisfied with my paint coverage, so it might get another bombing, but considering how upset my friend was, I had a lot of fun just getting it to where it is now. I was strangely not upset at all. He offered to pay for it, but that wasn’t going to happen.
Other projects: new carpeting and rear window gasket for the Valiant, rust repair for the 86 Calais. The rust repair will be professionally done.
My bondo skills have degraded since I did the left rear on the Valiant 30 years ago. It’s starting to come through again and I have a repro left rear lower quarter ready to go.
The Calais will get a through alien anal probe and mechanical reworking from there, probably motor mounts and suspension stuff.
I’ve already had a Blackstone Labs oil analysis done on it and it came back showing antifreeze. But the head gasket was done on it before I got it, so will be monitoring it closely.
Not a lot of DIY, as it’s all bigger than my skills will ever allow. Ironic since the Valiant was purchased because it was simple enough and with as little stuff on it, so that if something went wrong, even EYE would be able to fix it myself.
Excellent job on your van, Scott.
Here’s a before shot
And the finished product
Lessee… installing new gears in an 8.8, rebuilding a C4 and installing a shift kit in it as well as replacing the converter and installing an SFI rated flexplate… all on my ’78 Fairmont.
Kinda off subject, but… what kind of car is that in the header image? It looks so damn familiar, but I can’t place it!
Late to the party here, but I applaud you for taking on the body work. As others have said, silver is nasty to try and match. But a couple of tips I learned from a body man might help.
First, use creases in the body as your stopping points for the new paint. Metallic paints will be a completely different color there even from the factory just because of the way the light hits the panel, so take advantage of that crease.
Second, I learned that if you just spread masking tape like normal, you end up with a thick ridge that you have to sand or polish down. But if you fold the edge of the tape strip back away from the panel it leaves a softer edge to deal with.
For small spot repairs I also learned that instead of masking you can use a piece of cardboard. Cut a hole of maybe 6 inches in the cardboard and hold it about an inch from the surface while you spray your paint from the 8-12 inches that they recommend.
You can avoid all of the nasty masking lines. But spot repairs and silver are usually a bad combination.
I need to respray the lower front air dam on my Fit. I have the paint, just need to find the time.
Great job on the body work! That’s something that I won’t even approach right now.
My next project is a ton of suspension work on the Crown Vic, to get it road legal again so I can finally sell it. Shocks, upper control arm & ball joint driver’s side (pass. side was done 3 years ago), idler arm, brake pads & rotors, sway bar bushings. I think that’s everything? It also needs an exhaust hanger (I’ll have a shop do that, no welder) and the parking brake won’t set (who knows, needs investigation). None of this work is in my comfort zone, but I’m going to give it a go–shop gave me a $1500 estimate, probably more than the car is worth, whereas I was able to get all the parts for around $400.
After that, to get the Volvo back rolling, it needs a center driveshaft bushing, and I need to fix a glitch in the igntion wiring. Oh, and put the dash back together, half disassembled it while replacing the ignition switch (which didn’t even need to be replaced.) And I need to fix the small but troubling water leak in the quarter window area so I no longer need to keep it tarped to keep the rain out.
The house? Blend valve is going bad on the downstairs shower, but if that’s copper lines I’m not touching it. And the backyard is a jungle right now, the garden beds need weeding and mulching, plus we were going to pull out the angled-brick edging and replace with doubled landscape timbers. We’ll see if that happens before the end of the season (looking like no).
The guy doing the estimate at the body shop for your Eurovan must have been smoking crack to try to convince you this kind of damage needs to be cut out and replaced with sectioned in panels!
My own past experiences with bondo repairs has convinced me to leave this to a body shop. Luckily I know a body guy, (for over 20 years now) that does excellent work at very fair prices. He may take a few weeks to get it done, but it’s worth the wait.
I did repair accident damage about 10 years ago when I hit a greasy wet spot on the freeway just as the traffic came to a sudden stop, sliding into the back of a Chevy Van work truck. My bumper went under his, so a new hood, grille, headlamp, right fender, core support, radiator and AC condenser were all needed. Luckily the bumper was untouched and so no frame damage. Every thing was bolt on on the ’86 Jetta, needed no bondo anywhere, got used u pull parts for everything except the radiator which I bought new. I took the hood and fender to my bodyshop guy since I couldn’t find the correct color in any of the yards in my area. Brought the old fender so he could have the paint matched to this, came out really well. At work we had an R12 AC machine and was able to get the system evacuated and recharged for free. All told, cost about $500. A month later I was at the u pull 3 miles from home and of course found a Jetta with perfect hood and fender in the correct color!
Been busy with exterior of my house, just replaced rotted out door frame on the garage side door, have cut down all the overgrown shrubs and backyard fruit trees, have a couple more to go. Washed the house with garden hose and sos pads along with gutter, used leftover paint and did some touching up in a few areas, it’s looking good.
But the gutters are starting to rust out and need to be replaced, need to have this done soon.
Rental house is going to get it’s exterior repainted, but the guy I hired to do it has been
stalling so I may just tell him to forget it and do this myself. I also need to repoint it’s chimney (that’s still up there but the fireplace was removed before I bought the house), and I need to section in some siding where the bathroom window was replaced with a much smaller unit, also done before I bought the house.
Last year I bought a ’87 Jetta, identical to my ’86 down to the paint and interior color. It was in great condition paint and interior wise, I discovered it had a bent right side wishbone and drive axle, needed rear brakes, lines, cylinders and wheel bearings as well, did all the work last year, bought it for a family member who decided she didn’t want it, only have $1000 in it including purchase price, been driving it daily since she declined it.
The ’86 Jetta needs wishbones (bushings worn out), along with rear brakes and a front wheel bearing. My fault here, I replaced an outer CV joint a couple of years ago and after about a year the axle nut came loose, destroying the wheel bearing, Still runs and drives fine, but the bearing is making noise. I have all the parts, and they are in the car, but in the trunk instead of their proper places on the car, having the ’87 around and running fine has slowed my motivation on doing these repairs, but I will get this done soon.
replacing the badly weathered sliding canvas top on one of my festivas. this is motorized and involves a lot of springs and cables and clips. the fabric is glued to some steel plates that travel the length of the roof. i sourced replacement material from germany. it wasn’t cheap so i best not screw it up.
You guys make me feel lazy. I have not done any house projects or car projects in a least ten years. But I have high hopes to change that soon. Earlier this summer I had a two ton thru-the-wall a/c unit installed in my garage. As soon as funds become available I will insulate the interior and possibly put in drywall. The idea is to have a comfortable climate control space to work.
In recent times I have taken the role of managing the project(s) rather than physically doing the labor. I shop for all the parts and supplies needed for the job. I find a person a mechanic/bodyman that will do the work using my parts. And I try to diagnose and research the problem(s) to the best of my ability. This has saved me a lot of money over the years and I have found people (I now consider friends) to do the work. I do find some satisfaction in doing things this way but not as much as when you are turning the wrenches yourself. Recently:
2002 Lincoln TC (wife mobile) (208k miles) drain and replace all fluids, new filters, fix a leak on the intake manifold that was causing a miss.
2002 Ford F150 Harley Davidson (mine) (186k miles) drain and replace all fluids, new filters, and fix a miss on cyl #5, and a few other minor things.
At the shop now is my 1996 Ford E350 Club Wagon (56k miles) drain and replace all fluids, and filters. Service transmission and differential. Fix issue with parking brake.
Next in line is the 2004 MB CL500 (86K miles) regular maintenance and sort out and replace parts on the restraint system.
After the DDs are ready and my garage is in order I have a long list of projects that I am eager to get started on just have not decided which one to tackle first.
Scott you have more guts than I do. I would be horrified to drill holes into a panel. But the end results look good. I admire your enthusiasm.
All done!