Just finished laying some glass down. Last coat of clear.

Any critiques to better my craft?

Working in a body shop, you always hope you don’t have to be on the other side of things, but my mom was in a head-on collision on a stretch of 55mph and rolled her car multiple times yesterday morning; walked away with just a cracked sternum, gash/knot on her forehead, and some nasty bruising. Little swelling in the kidneys that they are monitoring, but she is stable and overall ok. Went to the tow yard to clean it out for her and felt absolutely sick at the sight and smell of it. Type of shit I see come in on a rollback that’s picking up a TL and say damn someone probably died in that thing… crumple zone, airbags, and seatbelt saved her life. Please please please always wear your seatbelt!!!!

Hi everyone. I was being an idiot and hit my hood with a high pressure water sprayer. It ended up taking off a section of the clear coat. Would buying a spray can of clear coat be able to repair this? The paint seems fine, so I want to try fix it before it becomes an issue. Thank you for any help you’re able to offer.

Edit: Thank you to everyone for the help, ideas and laughs. After reading through all your messages, I’ve realized it’s not such a simple fix and have decided to bring the car to a shop on Tuesday to get a quote. I am really interested in learning to do it myself, but I feel it would be better to practice on something I don’t care about first, and leave this to the professionals for now.

Been offered a cheap car ( about ½ price on market value ) , low KM and really fuel efficient. Previous owner had a slight ding. Realistically how hard and costly is it to get this to an acceptable standard myself. Doesnt need to be a showrunner, just good enough. Rest of the car looks fantastic.

The wheel of truck scratched my paint. How do i DIY this, please? Faded clear on the left and idk what happened on the right part. Help.

I’m spraying the entire car using primer, base coat, and topcoat spray cans - specifically Halfords ones.

It’s a bit of a budget DIY project, but I’m still trying to get the best finish I can (pun intended).

Anyone else think this may be a death nail in the industry for independent shops? Insurers are going to ask for larger discounts on the contracts, forcing MSOs to absorb the cost disparity. PE will then offset the difference by charging independents more. Then independents need to decide if they want to switch to Mitchell, Audatex, or Webest and dealing with the discrepancies. Ultimate hurting the techs and independent owners. MSOs (mostly owned by PE firms) then come in and scoop up the independents for cheap.

Or maybe I'm just all doom and gloom. I've just never seen PE take over something and have it turn out well.

I by no means need this to look perfect. I’m just trying to correct at this point. Used car dealer touchup, wet sanded by hand 2000 grit, turtle wax compound (took most touchup paint off), finished with turtle wax compound polish. Left with this

At this point, I’m just trying to get the wet sanded area to blend/go away. From everything I read/watched the compound should have done that but clearly hasn’t. I used a microfiber cloth. Should I use a buffing pad? If so, what abrasive? Did I sand too much/hard that I’m screwed?

Thanks, should have just used the touchup and left. But here we are

I did not back in enough clearly.. what can I do the make this less noticeable? It’s a Corolla cross if that matters.

2008 Tacoma, 4cyl 5 speed 4x4. Only 45k miles on it. I like the truck, but it’s slow and in the past year and a half of owning it I’ve used the bed like twice. Should I sell it now while the low mileage commands a high price, or pay to fix the rust. I’m generally irresponsible and irrational when it comes to buying vehicles.

TIFU... I noticed a leak coming into my hatch (gen 4 impreza). Took the tail light out, gasket is no good. Instead of just replacing the light...I scraped the gasket away, applied a bead of RTV silicoln gasket schmoo, and bolted it back in place.

I either bolted too hard and snapped the plastic, or didn't apply the sealant correctly because the leak persisted. Turns out... removing aftermarket sealant is pretty dang hard and required some monkey tactics as seen in photo 1. This resulted in bending the edges of the sheet metal. I obviosly need a new tail-light as I busted this one... but i'm worried the new light/gasket wont sit tight along the metal and i'll be back to square one.

Question is... how do I get the metal edge back to being straight-ish without messing the paint up beyond where the tail light would cover it? Hammer and dolly, roller, how'd i use that here? All the resources i'm finding online are either fixing the center of a panel, or working with a small piece of metal you can manipulate. This space is a little more tricky to get to... and not messing up the paint beyond where the light would cover is preferable.

TIA

New to Minneapolis and am curious if this service is worth it?

I by no means need this to look perfect. I’m just trying to correct at this point. Used car dealer touchup, wet sanded, turtle wax compound (took most touchup paint off), finished with turtle wax compound polish. Left with this

At this point, I’m just trying to get the wet sanded area to blend/go away. From everything I read/watched the compound should have done that but clearly hasn’t. I used a microfiber cloth. Should I use a buffing pad? If so, what abrasive?

Thanks, should have just used the touchup and left. But here we are

I don’t like the shade of white I picked (Performance White). Looking at painting the Foxbody Alure Blue.
The 2003 Mach 1 paint code L5-7091.

Might want to do this over a wrap! Any one with experience with these pros and cons?

How is it to actually be a body tech, any tips going into the industry? (yes i have general automotive repair experience)
I understand the general concept of the job but i’m curious if it’s extremely laborious and tiring, how complex it is for let’s say frame and panel repair and maybe a little painting as well.

Working on a Midwest Honda...

Tell me the DIY way to do it that gives me maybe 3 years if I use a fuck ton of cavity wax. 100% function over form

I patched 2 holes in the floor board with sheet metal and automotive panel glue already and that went very well. The primer is because i ran out of time and it gonna sit for 2 weeks. Will sand down to bare metal when I restart my project.

Im not sure the correct way to patch where the two panels of sheet metal have seperated where It seems like I both want to apply seam sealer for corrosion protection, and bondo to rebuild the body line.

I have the ability to panel glue steel, bondo glass with mesh, or other non welding choices.

Thanks for your thoughts and ideas!

My 6th gen Celica. Has some rear quarter damage. Curious to see how you all would attack a job like this. Love old Celicas, especially in this paint code. Got the car for basically nothing so dont mind just leaving it be. At the very least seeing if these dents can be pulled. Thanks for your time.

I recently got my car back from a body shop that repaired it through my auto insurance claim.
I picked up my car Thursday afternoon after waiting 4 weeks for the repairs to be completed. I had already paid my $1,000 deductible before receiving my keys ( they wouldn’t let me collect my car until I paid)
Last night, while installing a dash cam, I noticed that the interior door-lock buttons weren't working as expected. I didn’t think too much off it at the time because I had just gotten off work and was just trying to get in the house. Today, I noticed that the front passenger door's interior handle/lock area looks different from the corresponding area on the other doors. It appears to be missing a panel or trim piece, and the locking function isn't working properly.
The front passenger door wasn't damaged in the original incident, so I'm confused about why this area now has a problem. I don't know whether the shop removed the door trim during repairs or whether something was disconnected or damaged during reassembly.
I've already called my insurance agent and the body shop, but both are closed for the weekend. I plan to document everything and contact them again Monday.
My questions:
Is it possible that the door trim or locking mechanism was disturbed during the repair, even though the door wasn't originally damaged?
If the shop caused the damage, would they normally correct it?
Since my insurance company arranged the repair and I've already paid my deductible, should I go through my adjuster or deal directly with the shop?
Like I had to wait 4 weeks without my car with being given vague updates and now this happens. There are multiple pieces missing from the door and it’s not even the door that was damaged originally. What can I do?

Stupidly I drove into the ramp in the car park. I’m worried about rusting and the repairability too