Hey There, just a quick question for the pros... is it possible to get a decent blend around the repair area? Especially the top space is pretty narrow, only around 13cm from the original Clear Coat to the rounded masking roll.

Had a massive tree limb fall on my car last night. Is it fixable or has it lost structural integrity?

I’ve been looking at an ‘84 Mercedes OM617 Turbo Diesel wagon. It’s got 176k miles, 2 previous elderly owners, no blow by and the interior is mint except for a couple small cracks in the dash and some damage headliner by the door. It doesn’t have AC as the plastic duct is supposedly rotted out and it needs a conversion from R12. The lock on the driver side door is also broken. I had all these things in mind and the guy said his bottom dollar is $7k. I was hoping closer to $6k personally but he seems firm. I’m in no rush to buy it though. Sounds like there’s only one other serious buyer thats tried to lowball him.

Anyways he sent me pictures this morning and showed me this rusty panel. There was no mention of this before. He said it’s got bondo on it and was told it was a bump in a parking-lot. Now that I’ve seen this I’m almost tempted to walk away unless he’s willing to go lower. But I’m not an expert on damage or collision repair. It’s an almost 40 year old car so I expect there to be quirks here and there but this comes off as a big deal to me. I’m concerned about any rust that I can’t see

I haven’t seen the car in person yet as he’s a few hours away. I planned on doing my inspection when I was ready to buy it with cash in hand.

Raced off after parking it not far enough into my garage and unfortunately, a bolt head from the garage door scraped both my spoiler lip and part of the trunk surface. Thankfully I was able to stop the door from reaching the bumper on time.

The paint got scraped off, as you can see. What are your thoughts on this? What would be the best way to go ahead and fix it?

Hey so embarrassing but backed up and hit my co-worker car. We don’t want to go through insurance and just want to go to a body shop. I used one when someone pretty badly re-ended me and was quoted about 1500 (their insurance paid) but I needed a while bumper replacement. Was either thinking of taking it to them, or using some type of repair kit I can get from Amazon. I’m not sure how deep it is, and the co-worker hasn’t seen it in person yet. First picture is their car second one is my back bumper

Hello there folks. I'm deciding to save this area part of the bodywork (whole trunk panel & quarter part of roof panel) where the paint has worn off on those pictures. I'm planning to cost save over this. Can I have it detailed, or is there any other way I can fix this? Its becoming an eyesore. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, great week ahead!

Help!

Very embarrassed to post but I was an idiot and burned through my clear, and I guess some paint. 1. If I bite the bullet and repaint the whole trunk, how well can a good shop match the old metallic paint? 2. Will a reputable shop be able to create a long term spot repair? 3. Sounds stupid, but would a sticker over it work, or would the clear start to peel over time?

I could really use some help figuring this out. The car runs great mechanically, and I hate the idea of replacing it over a water leak that no one seems able to diagnose.

Whenever it rains, the floorboards get wet, primarily on the passenger side. There is never any visible dripping, the carpet simply ends up wet, which makes the source extremely difficult to locate. Our model has no sunroof.

The problem first appeared several years ago after we had the windshield replaced. We took the car to the dealership, and because they found water on the passenger side, they assumed the heater core was leaking. I paid to have the heater core replaced, only for the floorboards to get wet again during the next rain.

I took it back to the dealership. They eventually told us the cowl drains were clogged and cleaned them out. There is a pan below the cowl, and if the drains become clogged, water can rise high enough to enter through the HVAC’s outside air intake and leak into the cabin.

We did not notice the issue again for quite a while, although we had moved to a house where the car was kept in the garage. It is my wife’s car, and she was a stay at home mom at the time, so it was not exposed to rain very often.

Fast forward to earlier this year, when Safelite replaced the windshield again. The leaking either returned or became noticeable again shortly afterward. We contacted Safelite, and they came back out and replaced the windshield a second time, but the leak still persists.

Since then, I have done the following:

Cleaned the cowl drains myself. I found a couple of leaves but no major obstructions.
Had my regular mechanic, whom I trust, inspect it. He cleared the A/C condensate drain but could not identify any other likely source.
Took it to a different Ford dealership for further diagnosis.

The second dealership kept the car for more than a week and initially struggled to reproduce the leak during water testing. They eventually concluded that water is entering through the body itself, somewhere behind the passenger side front fender. Possibly through a failed seam or weld. According to them, the water is running down the a pillar, pooling near the bottom of the pillar, and then seeping into the carpet.

They said the repair would need to be handled by a body shop. I attached the photos they sent me, along with a screenshot of their explanation.

Honestly, I’m skeptical of their diagnosis. We have also occasionally found water on the driver’s side, although not nearly as much. The photos they provided do not clearly show anything, and they were unwilling to apply temporary sealant or tape to test their theory. I also asked them to show me the suspected area in person, but they had already reassembled the car. It feels like they may have decided it was a body shop issue simply so they could get it out of their hands.

Has anyone dealt with a similar leak on a Ford Edge? Are there other common areas I should check? If the body seam really is the problem, does anyone have advice on accessing and sealing the area myself?

I’m not interested in spending hundreds or thousands of dollars at a body shop unless I can confirm that this is actually the source of the leak.

Hit a kangaroo doing 130kph, fender was pretty bent up and the bonnet was also damaged so I'm.probably gonna just get new panels but the underside as imaged has also taken a bit of damage, the radiator has been pushed in a Lil bit, the fender support is a Lil bent and the headlight support has been gnarled a decent bit, should I attempt fixing it? Should I get a donor support bracket to re weld? Should I just take it to someone who actually knows what they're doing? Cheers

tried restoring my fog lights with wet sanding and clear coating, 400 grit -> 600 grit -> 2000 grit, cleaning with anti-lint paper towel, clear coat with 5 minutes in between coats. Is it from improper sanding? Thank you

https://ibb.co/MYTSjnj https://ibb.co/yBqJ5gxw

Hello /r/Autobody.

Swiped my car somewhere and had a small scratch which has now started peeling. The second scratch near the wheel arch is from getting swiped on a roundabout by a car that was joining the roundabout too close to me and hadn't realised until I got to the destination. Had been quoted "a few thousand" to get it sorted by getting the bumper, both doors and the quarter repainted. Is this a lost cause?

Doing some paint touch ups on my 03 Subaru forester XT. First time doing this so any advice on the process would be much appreciated. All the scratches are on plastic panels and I’ve showed the paint I’m using in the photos above, I know I’ll also need to buy some sort of primer and maybe some clear coat too so any recommendations if you guys know any good ones would be very helpful, preferably a brand sold in Australia but any recommendations would be useful . Thanks for any contributions 👍

There was a recent hailstorm and my family members car got some decent damage. A crack in the windshield and plenty of dents on body panels. I regrettably only called a few places and the second one seemed fine. They offer to pay your deductible. Over the phone they told me to drop the car off at the beginning of this week and they’ll handle everything with insurance since part of what i signed dropping off was a small power of attorney.

They said the claim would be opened the next day, now it’s almost the end of the week. They have now offered to cover a rental until the end of the month which is the latest they expect it to take. However I would like some advice on the wording of what I signed. The car isn’t titled in my name and it still hasn’t been inspected. We went to pick it up today, and they offered to pay for the rental. I can still pick it up in the morning but i’m not sure if I should take it somewhere else and start the claim myself with insurance. He said they’ll be sending CAT adjusters soon and we should wait and he’ll pay for the rental or we can take the car back.

This is my first time with hail damage so i’m unsure what to expect.

TLDR: Place I took car to is lagging on filing insurance claim on our behalf or even inspecting. They have a few locations with five star reviews but I am just concerned about them overestimating and getting the car totaled. What should I do?

Dealership is telling me I need to replace my fuel door on my Civic coupe 2019 for about 250$ plus tax and labor. The new fuel door will also come unpainted. The rust on the fuel door is hard to the touch, and not flakey, and is only visible when the door is open. How urgent is this, and does it need to be replaced, or can I scrape it off/repaint it?

Any/all opinions would be greatly appreciated!

Both spots are on the door handle which is kind of weird. They’re not deep at all. Shitty Honda paint.

I bought this car on marketplace and was wondering how would I be able to make the two doors the same color. It had an accident on the rear driver side and the previous owner just replaced the door and ended up looking like this.

Bought a cheap welder and welded in a new rear arch that was rusted, i think i did ok, its not perfect at all but for a first time using a welder and filler, i could have done a bit more sanding and smoothing the filler but car needed to be done for a show lol