Autobody self training

[IH82BL8]

I've been thinking about learning autobody and looking into training for it. It seems like a substantial commitment. Then I started thinking, I'm a self-taught mechanic, from years of reading, asking questions and T and E. Why couldn't I learn autobody the same way? I'm only thinking of painting my own cars. Worst case scenario: I'd have to do the car over.

I'm pretty sure some of you have done this. Any thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[gahrajmahal]

How is your patience? I went to vocational school in the 70's for auto body repair and worked in the trade for many years. Can you paint your own stuff? Absolutely. Will you be satisfied with the results? Probably. A great tool that wasn't around in my day is YouTube. You can see what a proper spray gun distance looks like. You can see what 1/2 spray overlap should look like. To evaluate your body work skills, have you ever done any drywall? If your joints are invisible you will be happy with your body work.
My best piece of advice... PATIENCE

My paint job I did last year in the driveway.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=539437

 

[KenC]

Go here: http://autobodystore.com/forum/index.php

Great forum, he sells good merchandise if you need it, read the info in the forum, then ask questions. You'll get good info.

 

[Falcon67]

I've done a couple of cars in paint and done some body work. I did all the work on the Falcon. You can tell I'm not a metal expert LOL. BUT - it was OK for me. It needs a full sanding down and a re-shoot but the wifes racer needs it worse. The hood on the car is a Crites scoop bonded to a US Body 'glass hood, all done at home. The paint you can do for sure, and it'll teach you great respect for the pro painters. I did mine initially with a conventional gun and 1 1/2 gallons of two stage DuPont Fulthane paint. Huge mess, three coats and it actually stuck to the car. And in spite of heaving masking all over the shop, to just about everything else LOL. 4 hours in a paint suit in 95F weather is unpleasant. The prep work takes forever but makes or breaks the job. I have done later repairs to the car with my $99 no name HVLP gun and make it look good. Go to the wrecking yard (or maybe hit up a local body shop) and get a few common (cheap) dented fenders and maybe a hood for practice. Use materials from the same paint line - PPG, duPont, etc so you know they will work together.

Also - I have yet to go into a pro auto paint shop and not have the counter guys be all ready to help you out on a project. Best source of info. Place I worked with in Houston even offered to set me up in a PPG class held by PPGs rep. We moved before I could take advantage of that deal.

I have not done base-clear yet. IMHO The two stage stuff is good to learn on because if you screw it up, just sand it down and do over. I re-shot the tail end of the Falcon 3 years ago to get rid of all the burnout rock chips and misc damage. It was winter and I mixed up with the correct reducer and had heat going, but turned out the metal was too cold where I had to work. What looked great after two coats turned into a giant run fest after about 15 minutes. Well s#$t. What to do? Ah, "easy" fix - mix more and shoot the hell out of the *** end of the car, let it dry a day then start with the run trimmer, then 220 wet, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500. After about a day of sanding, hey looks pretty good. Shiny too.

Here's the hood after laying down some Fultane white with the HVLP gun. Spent about a week on bonding the parts and smoothing the transition. I don't sand anything after unless it's really screwed up.

 

[tolken4]

Sorry to hijack the thread, but let me ask you this. A newb question.
You shot that in your driveway? Where does the paint go?

I have a gun, compressor, the energy, and a soda machine along with many other things I want to paint. (well try to

I just haven't even started because I have it in my head, no paint booth, no painty?

 

[Falcon67]

If you use an good HVLP gun, there is not that much overspray and more paint goes on the car. The rest - make sure the neighbor's cars aren't sitting close by LOL. Actually, I shot that hood with HVLP and my red truck was parked about 20' away - no overspray.

With a conventional gun, it goes all over. Really. When I painted my car the first time, I used fans with filters in the two 24" wide end windows. The exit for the fumes was a 22' x 16' shed that was part of the shop front. I watered everything down and covered everything with tape and plastic - floor, tool boxes, benches, etc. When I was done, paint was on tools in the box, on the floor under the plastic, had traveled out the door, around the building (70' total distance) and back into the fan filters. There was overspray on stuff in the shop attic too.

I would not shoot without a booth of some sort, for no other reason that just to keep things off the car while the paint flashes. Bugs love the stuff. For real. Come look at the roof of my race car and you'll see about 8 spots where I picked gnats out of the paint. They got in there between hanging up the gun and shutting the door.

 

[larryq]

Kevin Tetz does a nice series of DVDs on body work basics and painting your own car, color sanding and buffing, even detailing. Definitely recommend checking out his site at paintucation.com. I own several of the videos and love them.

 

[darkk]

I ran a body shop for many years. For learning, your best bet is to see if you can learn from some one in the business. Unfortunately not everyone will have *the feel* necessary to do good finish work. A lot of people can eventually do fair work, but only the truely talented are capable of nice finish work. Like lots of other trades, it takes a lot of practice. If you want to do your own work, buy a few books/dvd's on the subject and start practicing. As I said earlier, find a friend in the business and learn from them.

 

[Kevin54]

I ran a body shop for many years. For learning, your best bet is to see if you can learn from some one in the business. Unfortunately not everyone will have *the feel* necessary to do good finish work. A lot of people can eventually do fair work, but only the truely talented are capable of nice finish work. Like lots of other trades, it takes a lot of practice. If you want to do your own work, buy a few books/dvd's on the subject and start practicing. As I said earlier, find a friend in the business and learn from them.

That's the best advice right there.

Unfortunately the body men of old are few and far between now. It seems body work consist of pulling off an old panel and replacing with new. My dad taught me how to do lead work years ago and how to pound out dents. Todays cars are so thin that traditional body work hardly ever gets done on them. There is an art to working metal on older cars.

 

[dodge610]

Teaching yourself that is how I learned believe me there was a lot of T and E but it was worth it all.

 

[bcrn]

I am new here, but I saw this thread and would like to let you know about a site that offers auto body training. It has Kevin Tetz, myself, and other auto body training available. Visit VirtualDIYUniversity

 

[ZRX61]

Go to the wrecking yard (or maybe hit up a local body shop) and get a few common (cheap) dented fenders and maybe a hood for practice.

& when you have repaired the dents it came with, beat the **** out of it with an iron pipe/hammer etc & do it all again... I remember being taught that way.. ya get a beautiful finish on a piece of metal & the instructor promptly hits the damn thing with an iron pipe & says "That looks ok, but what about *BANG!!*..that dent?"

& there's a difference between collision repair (gallon of bondo on the car) & restoration (gallon of bondo on the floor)....

 

[N8]

To quote Nike: "Just do it".

As others have said the best opportunity you can find is to sit with an old timer who is willing to pass on the trade. I have been fortunate to have relationships with some very influential racers from the past who I have formed lasting relationships with. Once that is done and they can see your passion they will unload their knowledge and trust me, they will have more tricks in their brains than you may ever be able to absorb so take notes.
If the above is not available then dig in and learn.
The other suggestion by Flacon67 above is also brilliant. Find some old metal fenders or quarters and get to work on them. You can read and study all day long out of books or through the internet, but you will never truly learn until you put your hands on the metal and work it.
Start small and slow. Don't be shy. Remember, it's only metal. As you look at a piece try to figure out mentally how it got that *dent/crease/hole/* and the best way to reverse the action. It can be very rewarding once you begin to master the trade but it will kick your *** if your not patient with it.

Thanks,
N8

 

[neonnblack]

Go find the cheapest, no title, windows, engine/trans or whetever car witha slightly "used" body and just work on it.

 

[KCarGuy]

I learned bodywork the hard way...by screwing stuff up and redoing it.
Or it didnt last because I took short cuts.
Then I met a Guy who used to have his own body shop until he sold it.
He taught me how to do stuff right and found out that it is alot of work.
That was 30 years ago and everything has changed, the paints are different...but...you have many more avenues to learn from.

 

[tcianci]

Kevin Tetz does a nice series of DVDs on body work basics and painting your own car, color sanding and buffing, even detailing. Definitely recommend checking out his site at paintucation.com. I own several of the videos and love them.

X10, This guy knows his stuff. Eastwood also sells his videos and a great line of reasonably priced equimpent. DO NOT skimp on the safety equipment!

 

[burnitwithfire]

Learning how to turn wrenches on your own is a lot easier than learning bodywork. Bodywork is art and unfortunately some people aren't too artsy. It will take a lot of practice until you are satisfied with your work (unless you have low standards). I've been a bodyguy for 5 years now and I'm still improving and learning new tricks.

Don't start on your project until you have at least worked on a few fenders first. The internet has all the ressources you need but only practice will make you a good bodyguy.

 

[in2everything]

Five years ago when our Civic got rear-ended, I decided to give auto body a shot, and spent quite a bit of time researching and learning as I slowly repaired the car. I believe I got quite a bit of my knowledge by reading the forums at autobody101.com. As for painting, I read quite a bit about the proper steps, but I found excellent videos showing technique on Youtube.

I learned that proper spray technique was important, but proper sanding and patience was even more important. I remember wanting to call it good enough, but I just walked away for a while (or maybe overnight) and started again fresh. It was an awesome learning experience, and we are still driving the car today.

Having already rebuilt and repainted that car, it gave me the confidence to purchase a wicked cheap wrecked truck about 3 years ago now. A short time later, I had it finished, and I am driving it still as well.

Both times I used a Harbor freight carport-thing with tarps enclosing the sides as my paint booth, and the Harbor freight #47016 paint gun shooting Nason paints. Now I'm just waiting to find a wrecked full size truck so I can do it all again.

 

[dolfans]

The library has books you csn check out. Check out www.autobody101.com good site. Another thing to tgink about is checking into going to your local community college to take some classed

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

not rocket science

 

[imperialman67]

Another compromise That I have used is to prime , do the bodywork, block sand , then have the local Macco shoot the final.
With acceptable body work , and removing your own trim ,you can get a decent job from Macco .

 

[Strouty]

Another compromise That I have used is to prime , do the bodywork, block sand , then have the local Macco shoot the final.
With acceptable body work , and removing your own trim ,you can get a decent job from Macco .

Very true, but I would provide the paint as well, we did that for a truck we had, cost about $400 to our specs.

 

[countryroad82]

I learned the hard way on my Chevelle when I was about 17, got into a fight with a fencepost on a wet road, a curve, Mickey Thompson Indy Profile tires, and a damned posi that kicked in while in the sharp curve. A buddy of mines stepdad is a bodyman and showed me the ropes let me bang out the dent and work Bondo for a week before he jumped in and fixed it right. What took me a week to look ok he made it look better than factory in an hour. The moral of this story is practice, it will not come to you overnight. As said before check out Youtube, maybe buy a couple books/ videos and practice, practice, practice I have been doing it since then and I am still learning 12 years later.