Customs Bad Body Work, or, What's Under That Paint?

I'm the first one to admit my bodywork and paint skills are amateur at best, but at least I try. I'm getting busy on the '52 DeSoto, and the prior work I'm finding under the paint (the terrible colors are the least of the issue) is, to be kind, schizophrenic.

The car is painted in base coat/clear, and besides the fact that it's an awful, although original color combo, the work is just hard to understand. Somebody went to the trouble to COMPLETELY disassemble the car to paint it. Every thing that could be removed, doors, fenders, tailgate, glass, was all removed to jamb it and paint, BUT, nothing was prepped. It doesn't appear that anything was sanded. Edges of the hood, cowl, fenders and the door jamb paint is peeling off the original (ugly beige) color sheets, revealing still shiny original paint. Several large dents, like the one under the tailgate, had at least 3/4" of filler, again over the still shiny original paint, with no attempt made to straighten the panel first.

The right rear fender is the exception to this, which had been hit fairly hard. It looks like someone took it off, laid it on the ground and bashed the dent out with a ball peen hammer until it was sort of the right shape, then slathered an inch of 'glass reinforced filler, and then bondo. This panel looked OK, and is the one panel that the paint was shiny on, but I worked all day shrinking it, repairing tears under the filler, and places it had been pounded so thin and stretched that it tore. All the original paint was stripped off this, but it's the only panel so far where any original paint was removed.

It's baffling to me that someone went to the amount of work disassembling they to paint the car, and do such a terrible job of it. I planned on stripping it anyway, so it's not a surprise, but it makes me shake my head and wonder what whoever did the work was thinking.

 

Maybe one guy took it apart with best intentions, gave up and someone else slapped it back together.

 

Bad Chad maybe did it. LOL

 

I've found all kinds of stuff over the years. A friends 50 Ford had some kind o heavy tape over the rust with a thin coat of bondo and lots of paint. Only found it after a side swipe........some people......

 

That's what it looks like. It is amazingly bad. I can't imagine paying anyone for that kind of work, but I have friends here who've had error stories from "bodyshops" that are just as bad. At least nobody lost any parts from this one!

 

I have stripped cars with the peeled pain problem, including some of my own work. It seems to me that most times it seems the paint underneath was not sanded in a lot of cases. In the couple of my own jobs that I had to redo it also seemed that I had not sanded the car. The paint underneath seemed smooth and glossy. I know I sanded the car! I assumed there was some kind of reaction between the two paints that caused this.

 

When I worked in the bodyshop our supplier gave us a roll of paper to try. It was supposed to be 400 grit I think.
We tried it on a customers new truck that was a colour change for his business.
I sanded that whole truck with the new paper, except the jams where I used a scotch pad.

A month later the truck was back, most of the paint had blown off on the highway. We stripped the rest with compressed air.
The paint in the jams was fine and stuck like it’s supposed to.
I blame the sand paper, but the boss blamed me.


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Many years ago I heard a restorer, who was into Model A's if I'm not mistaken, talking about a car that he had plans to take to an auction. He was saying that he thought the car would sell better and bring more money if it was "such and such" a color. Then he added, "besides, paint can hide a lot!" I've never forgotten that and it's always made me a bit skeptical of what might be hiding under a shiny paint job.

Lynn

 

I shy away from freshly painted cars. I can admit to pulling off some BS repairs. Cars that just werent worth much, I didnt really care about- knew I was selling, didnt have the right materials and needed to get it done due to shop availability.

You're on track, go back to bare metal and uncover the sins of previous owners. Sucks though.

 

There is truth in sandblasting. Until a car is stripped, you're just guessing as to what it looks like underneath. Sorry for the horror show you're having to deal with.

 

Did the car appear presentable ? Did the car sell ? That's likely all the PO was thinking of..OMG , a less than honest , forthcoming owner , seller who'd a thunk it ?

 

The only way to know is to ask the person who did the work. That may have been the limit of their skills???? There's a ton of cars out there just like yours. Don't forget the level of expectations has rising dramatically with the advent of the internet and youtube.

 

I had a Lincoln years ago with one in the back doors dented in looked like someone’s fat ass fell into the door, no crease or anything just a dip or bow in the door panel.
It was filled with about 10lbs of bondo.
When I painted the car I took it all out
Removed the inner door panel and with my hand popped the dent out.
Not sure why or how slathering all that bondo on made any scenes but that how I found it.

and most non car guys can’t seee past a shiner paint job, most body shops run on flat rate or piece work so corners get cut and stuff doesn’t get finished as it should in light of the mighty dollar.
Doesn’t look horrible and all can be fixed with enough time and beer.


I’ve done a lot of sheet metal and self rapper repairs
Mono foam in rockers , duct tape and rocket guard etc on my winter beaters, but a shitty job on a car with a life expectancy of 3-6 months is one thing on a car you care about it’s just not acceptable.

and from what your showing us doing it correctly would not of added any more time to the job

 

Been there before! I once worked on a friends 63 T Bird that had aluminum angle iron screwed on and covered in mud to make the wheel well arch. Also had about 3/4" of mud on the right front door and fender. I told my friend that whoever did it was not a body man, he was a sculptor!

 

I think this happens a lot....

 

Probably a case of not knowing what real prep work was coupled with lack of skill.

lots of failures of all kinds are due to 'not knowing what one doesn't know', and barging right ahead.

 

Yup. There’s never time to do it right, but always time to do it over. [emoji23]


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The following was in my '51 Ford Custom. Made me wonder why as when I picked up the car the previous owner had a Mig welder and the front fender hadnew metal welded in and done correctly.
In further conversations with his son. His dad was working on the car when he passed and he probably had not got to it yet and there was no sign of that material anywhere. so the previous owner had done it before selling it to his dad. Makes you wonder how many previous owners had it been through.

 

Back in the day and I guess still today a lot of work was done like that or worse. Don't complain too much because work like that kept cars on the road instead of the bone yard. In my years every old car I have owned has had various amounts of bonds on it.

 

They probably got what they paid for lmao..... FAST, PERFECT, AND CHEAP. you get 2. If it's fast and perfect you want? Ain't cheap. If you want cheap and fast? Ain't perfect. Get it?

 

At least that fender is removable to work on
[emoji16][emoji41]

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I got lucky? with my ‘32 Dodge PU, whoever did the “body work” on it, didn’t knock out one dent, just filled over everything with filler.
After going after the cab with a wire wheel on my grinder, it looked like the aftermath of a fire in my garage with all the bondo dust!

 

I dealt with way to many cars like this when I was running my shop. And yet I have read way to many posts on here about body and paint where everyone says "Demand a Fixed Price , A Contracted Deadline and Don't Pay A Cent Till Its Done!!!". Would anyone of you want to give a firm price and garruntee a completion date and wait for payment till it was finished on a project and then fined stuff like this lol ? And by the way they always want to nitpick the final product and haggle down the price! Closed shop in 2007 and you could not pay me enough to touch any ones car again. This is still going to be a cool car when its done, It is just to bad that some people think slapping something together to make a buck is more important than quality and honesty. Larry

 

That's a lot of car B. The body guy might have started on the other said and by the time he got that quarter he was spent...or a couple bowls in.

 

You should have seen some of the stuff I did to cars when I was younger.

Then, you should have seen what I did to them to try to "fix" it after I grew older.

Now I know better, but the mess has already been screwed up twice before. Should it get "fixed" again, I'm well past the point of actually caring if it ever gets "fixed right"! At this point, it only needs to last a few more years for me.

The next guy can cry about all the bad stuff I've done, but the hard cold fact is, its still here because I "fixed it" when I was younger. Had it not been for that 1st fix all those years ago, it would not be here today.

To apply all the skills you have learned over the years to some guy that may never have 1/4 of your skills, who's real goal was just keep an old heap on the road, is self proclaiming while putting down someone else. Its the very thing that makes a lot of young guys leave the hobby. "I'll never be as good as he is, so why try?"

Show them how to fix it right instead of blasting them for trying. Gene

 

I'm sure glad all you guys do exscellent bodywork.

 

50 years ago a friend worked at a body filler manufacturing company. He had keys to the place and every weekend we sculpted a few rusted out cars out of as much plastic goop that gravity could support until it hardened. Guess I had no right to complain a few years ago when I found a Michigan license plate buried beneath the surface on my A coupe.

 

There are very few metal men. Most today are plastic surgeons.
Rusty Heaps just gave me some lead to work with so I can learn how to use it instead of bondo.
Just want to learn something new. Probably go to the junkyard and get me an old fender to practice on. Yes, I know wear a respirator while working with it.

 

most of the "bodywork bitching" I do is because of my work!

 

we wont do any restoration paint without stripping it bare period , terms like its primed and ready will get you sent elsewhere ,, its never ever works out to paint a car it takes 2-3k in sprayable materials anything less is not worth the work . why take the risk .. it will just come back with a dissatisfied customer "hey my paint has bubbles here and there" bad metal work, rust repairs ,surface rust , chemical incompatibilities leads to delamination , shoot even a single fingerprint on bare steel in a few years will pop thru ,,,, ya wanna paint it strip it ,inspect it and redo all existing bodywork, there are some real golden thomahawk award winning mud slingers in the autobody industry so much stuff gets swept under the carpet . fiberglass does not stick to steel period ..i have found poprivets ,cardboard,chicken wire,screen door screen,tin foil,funny foam ,wood,drywall mud ,construction adhesive , IT IS NOT WORTH THE RISK ! STRIP IT BEFORE YOU DIP IT!!!
fabricator john
miss you dad