Forensic Autobody 101 Options

[rick 918-S]

For those that have only done limited body work or none for that matter. This is the kind of stuff you may uncover during your attempt at repairs. Here are a couple photos of the trunk lid for Sandy's Ravenna car. The trunk lid was replaced at some point with a factory white one. I assume during the process to replace the lid the shop did some body work to the used part. You will notice there is a patch of white paint left on the lid. That is where my first suggestion comes in. If I have to strip that much paint off a flat panel or any panel for that matter I strip the whole the panel. during the course of the repair should you get some filler up over the edge of the factory paint or any paint for that matter it will cause bridging. With the best of high builds you may even get a solvent line or shrink down after the paint is applied. You can wet sand and buff it out and it often reappears down the road.





The second thing you will notice is where the factory paint is still on the panel there is no surface rust. I stripped the panel but I should have taken a photo first. The paint was full of popped bubbles. After stripping off the paint it was clear to see that the panel was left wet and moisture was trapped under the paint. this caused the top coat to eventually fail.



So the only way to repair this is to strip off all the body work, finish stripping the factory paint and clean up the rust caused by an improper repair.

BTW: 90% of the filler was not needed.