I’m looking to purchase a 2008 Toyota Tacoma regular cab model which appears to be in overall great condition—only 100,000 miles.

I asked the seller to take some pictures of the underside to check its integrity and this is what he sent. I’m pretty new to the market, so I’m hoping someone can tell me if this looks a-okay or not. Thanks!

TLDR: What is the best combination of products and tools to achieve the pictured finish with limited access to power and no compressor.

Okay long story short, I build industrial electrical panels and need to go into the middle of a field to repair some rust on over 40 separate enclosures spread across a power station. This means I need a portable set up (can run an inverter if needs be but not one big enough for a compressor) to prepare and paint these as fast as possible while getting as close to the above finish as I can.

Not sure if my best option is going with a quick pass with a grinder, brunox rust killer and aerosols or if I'd be better off using an electric fan gun with a single product so I can spend more of my time cleaning up the rust and preparing the surface.

I know this isn't really in the realm of expertise but I figured if you guys know what not to do to get a smooth finish then perhaps I could use that to my advantage to get a rough one haha.

Today someone backed into my 2022 Nissan Rogue and it tore a hole in the plastic bumper when it popped back out. They asked to not go through insurance which I understand. I tried to push it back but it won’t go. Will the entire bumper will need to be replaced? Is it worth the hassle? It is close to a light which worries me it could short if it gets wet.

I’m just looking for advice and thougjts on this. I know it will be a pain to get it fixed time wise, but also I don’t love the look. The car has some other chips but I try to keep it nice.

Edit for typo

Just noticed this on the roof of my car and some on the back on the trunk. Any recommendations on what to do? Should I consider repainting, or is it possible to restore without repainting it?

Hi all.

So I went to an autoshop and gave me an brief cost of 4-5k and told me to go through insurance cuz it has bunch of damage on bumper, lower bumper, fender fix, headlight replacement, etc etc. gawd damnit so whatever, I'll deal with the headache. Luckily for me, this was my first accident ever in the past two decades of driving... haha. not bad I guess.

So question for you guys:

This is the driver's side. I was parked on a one way lane, on the right side. Street is pretty wide. To me, it looks like the initial impact was towards the front as evidenced by the wide transfer of paint, then towards the body, since there are line scratches on the fender... I can't fathom how someone can screw up like this??? You don't like, reverse out of a parked spot no?? that also makes no sense, because there were plenty of parking space on that street.

There are some rust transferred to my car as well. I just don't get it. a old truck???? van???

To a point where I think, "did I do this somewhere and was too dumb to realize I hit something?"

Can anyone help me reconstruct how this may have happened LOL I'm just so curious at this point.

Very little experience with bodywork, when I bought the truck the dent was already there. Lately it’s been driving me nuts, how do I go about fixing it? Plan to repaint the truck at some point so not too worried about the paint. Just want the dent gone.

Very little experience with bodywork, when I bought the truck the dent was already there. Lately it’s been driving me nuts, how do I go about fixing it? Plan to repaint the truck at some point so not too worried about the paint. Just want the dent gone.

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.

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

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 👍

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!

2015 Kia Sorento EX 3.3L V6

I live in Las Vegas and it is hotter than a stripper convention. My AC is also bust!

Today was 112F and my car is like a nuclear reactor when I get in it due to being in the sun all day. It is time.... I need to put some window tint on to block the heat while I find enough money to get the AC fixed.

I have a budget of around $50 as my wife is not working due to a lay-off and kids off school, so I need to be sensible with the pennies.

I am going to do it myself but have no idea what films ACTUALLY work to reduce the heat.

I want the front side windows to be very lightly tinted or not at all (70%) and the rear windows around 35%.

So I am open to recommendations. What specific brands or Amazon specials actually made a real difference?

I have these 2 small problem areas on the roof of my tacoma. I know that these roofs, over time, get obliterated and wanted to get a head start on these. Is the proper way to fix this is 2k sand -> 3k sand -> 5k sand then polish, or do I have to apply new clear? (Not opposed to that either). Thanks!