A while back my wife thought it would be wise to drive into the wall at the end of our drive, in my car. This caused a bit of a scratch down the rear passenger door and a significant dent in the rear wheel arch. Needless to say I was not particularly impressed. I have just left it so far but it is beginning to bother me, not being able to afford to pay somebody to fix it I am thinking about doing it myself.

I have never done a serious bodywork repair myself so am very cautious. I am thinking about buying the below kit to knock it back into some sort of decent shape before skimming it with filler and painting over it. Any ideas if this kit is ok or any hints, tips or warnings?

http://www.ldemporium.co.uk/7pc-car-body-repair-tool-kit-p-521.html?utm_campaign=googlesimple&utm_medium=product_search&utm_source=googlesimple

Thanks

Oooo… I shall watch this with interest as I backed The Mighty Vectra into our stone gate post the other day.

The 4ft high x 1ft wide white painted stone gate post with reflective tape on it. 🙄

I hope that interest doesn’t turn into humour when it turns out looking worse than it does now.

After hitting something that wouldn’t look out of place at Stone Henge I am not in a position to laugh at anyone. 😐

Picture of the dent would be useful
The wheel will have to come off and probably the shit shield underneath. So axle stand is a must. Sometimes the wheel arch is double skinned so it may need pulling rather than hitting.
What colour is the car? A straight colour will give best results.

I Ache, my father started off his working life on an 8 year apprenticeship to become a coach builder and then moved in to panel beating when coach building died off. The level of skill required to smooth and fill a panel is far beyond most of us (and to be honest most modern panel beaters) and is the reason most garages will just replce the whole panel 99% of the time.
If you start hitting your car with that cheap hammer and dolly set it will look absolutely s##t.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IL22sLF25s&feature=related[/video]

My repair is a fill and spray job on the bumper.

Here is the pic. The car is a 07 Focus in that metalic baby blue colour. I’m expecting to have to take off the wheel and shit shield my old man has axle stands that I can borrow. I am fully aware that it takes a hell of a lot of skill to be able to knock this back into a shape that looks original and have already been told by a dent company that it is best to replace the panel.

My plan if it is double skinned is to just fill it. Maybe drill a couple of holes in so it has something to bind to.

Untitled by i_ache, on Flickr

Didn’t want to sound like an unhelpful a##e there I Ache just wouldn’t want you to ruin your motor, good luck with the repair.

I understand. I don’t want to ruin it either but tbh it looks crap as it is and I cant afford to get it fixed properly. The worst that can happen is I fill it and it is less noticeable. Either way I get to learn something about panel beating and how to do it the right/wrong way. 😀

i’d be happy taking on some body repairs myself but i’d give that a wide berth.

i think you could make it worse. it might also take a long time.

To be honest the hardest part could well be getting a decent colour match for the paint once you’ve patched it. Metallics are notoriously hard to match when touching up.

Tbh even if you do a perfect repair without a proper paint job it will still look a bit grim.
Anyway,any bits that are now higher than pre crash will want filing down. Then give it all a good rough up with 40 grit.Make sure you have bare metal around the repair area. Whack loads of filler in then shape with a paper and block. Start coarse then get finer.
Then you will need an etch primer then tons of primer,flat with wet and dry. Then paint.
I know what im doing and I wouldn’t even try this at home.

The rear wheel arch might be tricky.

You could get a new door skin and try to fit that, but I can’t for the life of me remember how they’re attached.

If you asked around you’d get the job done professionally for around £300, save up and get it fixed once!

It shouldn’t be too horrendous. That won’t need a new skin and they will be able to keep it below the moulding.
You will get whatever it costs back when you sell the car as you will get knocked on the price with a dodgy repair.

I very much doubt that the door needs a new skin. The dents are only small and should only need a skim with a little filler. If I do a bit if a crap job on the repair I will see it as paying for the hammers/paint as paying for knowledge. TBH I can’t see how I can make the arch look much worse. As long as me metal is all lower than where it is supposed to be then I can fill and sand it back. Everybody is a bit defeatist arn’t they.

Everybody is a bit defeatist arn’t they.

It’s doable, but unless you have the garage space, spray gun and compressor to do the prep and painting it’s going to look rough.

I doubt a body shop would even try to beat the dent out of the door skin. They’ll just skim it with filler.

The arch is defo double skined,
used a hammer & dolly to get the edge straight,
fill & paint.

You will have to go into the ‘door shut’ which means it difficult to paint it all at the same time.

Good luck.

My mate who frequents here now and again has tried doing this himself and its turned into a long running joke now. Because the repair he’s done isn’t exactly ‘invisible’!

Take it to a body shop if you want it doing properly.

I reversed into my neighbours wall a few months back but I CBA to get the scrape done, I think people give you a wider birth on the road if your car has a few battle scars on it. Embrace the the dent, beauty is only skin deep, it’s what’s inside that counts.

HTH

I would embrace the dent if it was a crap car but its not. There are times that I wish I had my old Vectra as I really didn’t care about that. It was crap covered in dents, the boot was the wrong colour, the passenger wing mirror had gaffer tape on it for aerodynamic purposes and it was covered in dents and scratches. It is a bit of a pain having a decent car because you want to keep it decent. I might buy a shitter next.

Home repairs look worse than the original damage normally.

And devalue the car by a lot more too.

If its only worth a few hundred quid, that’s fine. But if it some decent value to you, I would leave it alone personally.

Timely thread.

Mrs North managed to scrape the rear OS door yesterday. Mostly superficial, except one which runs into a dent.

On tasking her with getting it fixed, she had a go at me for delegating to her FFS..!

Cant see whats wrong with that Dobbo.

So, how did you get on?

Did mine today. £10 filler, £13 paint, 4 hours total (most of it was drying time).

Quite pleased. Not up to pro standards but the car isn’t worth it.