Men are known to be real fanatics when it comes to cars, and it is pretty common to find a car owner spending all of their free time in the garage working on cleaning or improving their vehicles. Even if there is “nothing to be done” on your car, these types of people will always find something to work on, whether improving the interior or fixing barely visible scratches. When you’re in love with something, you want to make it as perfect as possible.
Things do tend to get a bit tricky when you don’t have a garage, and this is one of the main reasons why people who are car enthusiasts prefer living in a house. If you leave your car outside, which is what you have to do when you don’t have a garage, chances are that you will find scratches and other types of damage on the body a lot more frequently. If you were to take your vehicle at a repair shop every single time something like this happened, it would cost you an entire fortune.
Luckily, the subject of today’s article is some of the best ways to do auto body repairs by yourself, so if you are currently facing the same “struggle” that we described above, or you simply want to learn more, make sure to read until the end. Let’s take a look.
Contents
Advantages of DIY Repairs
Just like we mentioned earlier, if you do these small auto body repairs on your own, you will be able to save a lot of money, as well as time and some frustration. Besides, you will be able to use your car a lot faster if you need it. Now, there obviously has to be some kind of a downside of this, right? Well, the “negatives” are pretty obvious. You have to do all of the repairings by yourself, which means that it will take you some effort, but for car enthusiasts, this is not considered to be “work”.
Another downside is that you have to know what you’re doing in order to make the repairs. This is the kind of a job that requires some previous experience, or at least some kind of beforehand tutoring, which is exactly what we’re here to help you with.
Source: On Line Collision
Most common auto body repairs – Paint Job
There are a few very common auto body repairs that people usually choose to do on their own. The most famous one probably is correcting the paint-job. This is something that a lot of people consider to be unworthy of paying for at a real car-shop, so they choose to do it on their own. They aren’t wrong, however, and this one is a pretty easy-to-do fix.
Each car has a code written somewhere in the documents that indicate the exact color of the paint. By knowing this code, you can go to a car-shop and purchase the exact same paint, which is the first and most important step that you need to take. Upon doing this, you’ll need to think of a way to apply the paint. You can either do it by spraying or by using those correction markers to draw “lines” over the damaged parts.
Most casual car owners don’t really care about the scratches on the side of their car, but for someone who really strives for the perfect and aesthetic look, even the smallest scratch can cause a lot of frustration and the urge to correct it.
Post-Accident Damages
It is much recommended to take your vehicle at a repair shop even after the “mildest” car accident, simply because the damage is usually a lot more than what it looks like from the outside. However, if you are confident in your skills and you think that the damage is just purely “cosmetic”, you can attempt to fix the car body on your own. Another very common DIY Repair is correcting bumps. This can be done in many different ways, but since it is something that concerns the safety of you and your passengers, it is recommended that you leave it to the professionals. For more information, you can visit salernoservicestation.com
The reason for this repair not being recommended to attempt on your own is that an accident might cause a lot more damage to the inside of the car, but that cannot be seen unless you get a professional examination of the entire vehicle. Unlike paint-job corrections, this one might actually be a potential risk for your safety, so don’t be afraid to spend a few dollars and “invest” in your safety.
Source: CarStruction
Fixing the windshield cracks
We all know that a few “cracks” in your paint here and there can cause rust in your automobile’s body. Well, the same thing can happen with cracks in the windshield. Even the smallest ones can become a bigger problem and spread into more damage than you’ve imagined. This is why it is much recommended to fix these things right away, in order to avoid any larger damage. You’ll need the proper windshield crack-fixing kit for this, however, so it wouldn’t be exactly cost-free.
Sanding the body
“Sanding” is a process that is very common amongst DIY auto body repairs, and there are a few ways of doing it, with only one of them being the correct one. If you want to make the sanding look as professional as if it was done at a car shop, you’ll need to use the same tool that they use instead of doing it with your own hands and a piece of sandpaper. There’s nothing wrong with “manual sanding”, but if you are really striving for aesthetics, you should use a tool.
When this is done by hand, you can usually spot the expected human errors which usually involve unusual patterns or leaving some places less sanded than others. A machine has the same pattern, so when you use it for sanding, there won’t be any major differences in the look of your car’s body. It might cost a bit more since these tools are not free, but you’ll get a much more aesthetic and professional look.
