Yes you can. Rattle-can

[cygnusx1]

  I had nothing to lose by trying to fix my door dent.  I had met a guy at the car show on Sunday, that did his own bodywork with off the shelf stuff, and it looked great.  He gave me a write up on how to do it.  It inspired me to try my hand at it. I hammered out the dent as flat as I could, used body filler, 80grit, body glaze, 220grit, primer, spot glaze, 320grit wet, primer, 320grit, primer, matched rattle can paint, several coats of clear rattle can.  I am going to let it cure for a couple of days and then either wetsand it with 1000 or 1500 and then compound it.  I am very happy with my first venture into dent repair and paint.  The local bodyshop quoted me $1300 to fix the door and a small ding in the rear quarter.  I did the door for about $50.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AFTER HAMMER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AFTER FIX

 

Edited May 4, 2010 by cygnusx1

[Ricky Ricer]

Looks good!

[JMortensen]

Looks good to me!

[cygnusx1]

It's not mirror straight because I should have used longer sanding blocks.  It's still way better than a dent. Thanks for the beers!  I think I'll pop one open with dinner.

[JMortensen]

Forgot to ask: where do you get color matched spray paint?

[GOTHALOSISM]

The nissan stealerships should have most colors if stock.

[rturbo 930]

Wow Dave, not too shabby! That looks pretty good!

Edited May 4, 2010 by rturbo 930

[cygnusx1]

 The car was painted a single stage urethane back in 87 after a hailstorm. It was stripped to bare metal and the front panels were all replaced.  It sat in a garage that was sunlit all these years.  So the paint was oxidized and a little faded in spots.  The repair is a shade darker than the rest of the car but I don't mind.  It's not a trailer queen.  The touch up paint came from http://www.automotivetouchup.com/  It's a base coat clear coat system.  I just bought the base color in a rattle can.  It happens to be a Ford 2H Medium Cabernet from the 87 Mustangs.  For the primer and the clear coat, I used Dupli-color products.  The fillers were 3M.

 

 

 

 

http://www.automotiv.../paint-code.htm

 

 

 

 

Mark, (moritz55) from over at ClassicZcars also gave me lots of pointers.  Check out this cool spray gun he told me about. CO2 powered and reusable.  If I hadn't already had the aerosol cans, I would have used these.

 

http://www.tcpglobal...pot/preval.aspx

Edited May 5, 2010 by cygnusx1

[psdenno]

 

Mark, (moritz55) from over at ClassicZcars also gave me lots of pointers.  Check out this cool spray gun he told me about. CO2 powered and reusable.  If I hadn't already had the aerosol cans, I would have used these.

 

http://www.tcpglobal...pot/preval.aspx

 

The portable spray kits are great and available at most Big Box hardware stores like Lowes or Home Depot. I used one with a repair on my Z years ago when I still had the little can of touch up paint that came with all new 240 Zs in the early '70s. When did they quit giving that can of paint with new cars?

Dennis

[cygnusx1]

As good as the bodywork and paint turned out...I was disappointed when I saw that the colors were off.  The basecoat turned out too dark and the clear coat made it even darker.  When I had it in the sun it was too much of a difference to leave, after all that straightening I did.  I just couldn't leave it.  So today, I stripped it all back to the original layer of paint, and redid the glaze/sand/prime about five times to get the surface dead nuts.  It's perfect in primer right now.  I had a body supply store mix me up some paint that SHOULD match, and I bought one of the Preval cartridge guns.  Tomorrow, I'll do my final sanding on the primer and shoot the base coat again.  I hope it's a closer match this time.  Damn that's a lot of work.  I have a major respect for you guys that do your own bodywork and paint!  Wow.      I also bought a rattle can of 3M Clear from the supply shop.  He said it should lay down nicely.  We will see.  I was happy with the Dupli Color clear so the 3M should be fine too.

Edited May 7, 2010 by cygnusx1

[zxtoy]

I hope my first attempt at bodywork this summer comes out as good as yours. It looks great!

[icapture]

Looks great man. Love hearing about guys doing their own body work. And not too shabby for $50. Good work!

[cygnusx1]

 OK Double my $50 because since the color didn't quite match, I did it ALL over again.  Whew!  Here are pics that I took.  I just finished compounding.  I can't work tomorrow because it's Mother's Day, so I burned some midnight oil getting it done tonight.

 

Primer Again!

 

 

Painted, Clear coated, and 1000 grit wet sanded.

 

 

Compounded

 

 

 

 

 

The paint is different than the original paint in color and type but from 10 feet away you can't tell.  Here is a closeup of the flaw in paint type. Notice the "color grain" in the door and not on the original fender paint.

 

 

The color grain was caused by me spraying a light red and a darker red onto the door, layering them to get the correct overall color.  I wish I would have had the facility to mix my own paint instead of layering two colors to get the closest match.

 

After wetsanding the clear, you can wet the paint to see what the final buffed door will look like.

 

Edited May 9, 2010 by cygnusx1

[cygnusx1]

Orange peel in the rattle can clear coat?

 

 

 

 

1000 grit wet block sand,  medium buffing compound, and about an hour of labor, you get this!

 

 

 

Edited May 10, 2010 by cygnusx1

[T-Bone028]

Looks REALLY good! So you're in about $150? Thats a pretty good $150 repair if you ask me!

[T-Bone028]

Looks REALLY good! So you're in about $150? Thats a pretty good $150 repair if you ask me!

[z-ya]

Looks great for what you have into it!

 

To get the color perfect you really need to blend onto adjacent panels. I had some color mixed up for my silver car, and it was close, but not perfect. Even different production runs of the same exact color code can be different. That is why when you buy paint to do an entire car, buy a gallon plus one quart and mix them together before starting to paint. Then you know they are the same color, and you will have extra if you need it.

 

I just re-did the hood on my latest project because I didn't get enough color on the hood. In the sunlight you couldn't tell (blinded), but in the shade you could (I could) see a difference. I had some extra color, so I wet sanded, then put one more coat of color, and then two coats of clear.

 

 

 

I used PPG Omni clear on the hood as I ran out of what I use on the rest of the car (Restoration Shop). Either I'm getting better at spraying, or the PPG Omni is a much better product. I think it was $30 for a quart including the hardener. Don't skimp on the clear, it really makes all the difference. No buffing, wet sanding on the above photos. Yes, there is a little Orange peel, but this is a driver, not a show car.

Edited May 10, 2010 by z-ya