Auto Body Repair for Less
When you take your car to an auto shop to repair rust spots, it will cost anywhere from $500 to a grand or two for the work. Many of us have this idea that you cannot do auto body repair work at home by yourself, but with a little elbow grease, you can! If you use the right tools on your car, and take your time to do it well, no one will ever know there was rust on your car. If you do it yourself and pay for a tenth of the cost, you will find yourself saving hundreds of dollars repairing rust.
To get started, you need to assess the amount of work needed. First, examine the entire exterior to determine the amount of rust and the deepness of scratches and holes. If scratch is only in the clear coat and paint, but did not affect the body of the car, these are very simple to fix. For less than $75 and a few hours of your time, you can remove these scratches and rust very easily,with no experience needed. Here’s how.
First before we get started here is a list of the products you will need to gather to complete this project. You should be able to get all the items you need for this affordable car project for less that $75.
You’ll need:
Assorted Sandpaper (Dry or Wet)
Sandpaper is a required item for this project. You want to use finer grades for sanding the clear coat and the paint, and a more abrasive grits for sanding primer and filler compound. Note that sandpaper is designated as for wood or for metal. Make sure you get sandpaper for use on metal.
The price for assorted sandpaper is $6.99 on Amazon, which is very affordable.
Primer
An aerosol acrylic lacquer is used on metal, plastic and filler compound. The price for primer is $10.88 on Amazon.
Touch-Up Paint
A custom aerosol spray is used to match the paint of your car. The price is usually under $15. You need to find the car’s paint code. Usually, it’s on a decal in the door jamb, trunk or glove box. But sometime it’s difficult to decipher, because the label is filled with lots of numbers and it’s very hard to figure out which one is the color code. If you are confused about it, go to the Internet, and search for your car model number, color and year made, and you will find a list of color codes available for your car. Now you just need to compare them to your car to find the correct color, and buy it at your local parts store (or online).
Touch up paint cost $13.92 on Amazon.
Clear Coat
Also available in a custom aerosol spray can, this clear coat cost $7.70 on Amazon.
Rust Remover
Widely available, it is a chemical compound that dissolves oxidation, leaving the bare metal behind. At an affordable price rust remover can be purchased on amazon for $8.16.
Rubbing Compound
This paste is used for buffing out smaller scratches from your paint’s finish. It will leave behind a smooth finish to your paint with only hand buffing, so there’s no need to use a power buffer. For only $2.97 on Amazon this rubbing compound can be yours.
Bondo or another Filler Compound
Smaller containers are between ten and twenty dollars. You’ll have to judge how much filler you will need, based on how much of the body has been lost to rust. It comes in a powder form and, mixed with water, it becomes a thick paste that can be applied to pre-sanded holes to replace the missing metal. After drying, it is very easily sanded and shaped to mimic the original contours of the car body.
Bondo can be purchased on Amazon for $7.84
The grand total for these 7 items are $58.46. That’s pretty affordable if you ask me. Now all you need to do is invest a little of your time into your car repair project and save yourself hundreds in labor cost at a repair shop.
Now we’ll cover the steps that you need to follow to make your paint job like new again.
1.Remove Rust and Fill Holes
You can follow these steps for one area at a time, or for your entire vehicle at the same time. For cars with more rust, it is best to repair one area at a time, then prime and paint at the same time.
Apply rust remover to all rust on the body of your car. Remember that your safety is the most important thing. Whenever you work with dangerous chemicals, use gloves and protective eyeware. Leave the rust remover on for ten minutes and then wash the area with water.
Next use dish soup or hot water to remove the dirt around the rust spot. Grease and oils cannot be removed with water, so use a degreaser or other solvent for this purpose.
Wait until the surface is completely dry before continuing. Then fill any holes with the filling compound and sand to shape.
2.Covering and Sanding
When the metal is dry, cover the area with masking or painter’s tape and old newspapers so that the primer spray cannot affect the other parts of your vehicle. A plastic tarp will work even better than newspapers.
After covering the area, sand the rust spots. You can use wet sand or dry sand, it’s up to you. But in my opinion wet sand is best because it works faster. When you have finished sanding, the area will be smooth and any scratches will be gone.
When sanding is complete, use a solvent to clean the area. Now wait again until the area is dry.
3.Primer
A primer is available in four colors: white, black, red and gray, so you can buy a primer that is close to the color of your vehicle. That way, you won’t need to apply as many coats to match the original color of vehicle.The main advantage of a primer is that paint sticks to it better, compared to metal or plastic. You need to apply three coats and wait 10 minutes between coats.
4.Sand the Primer
Wait at least 30 minutes so that the primer is completely dry and lightly sand the primed areas using a fine grade sandpaper. The purpose of sanding in this stage is to make the surface smoother after priming.
After sanding, clean and let the area dry.
5.Apply the Paint
The purpose of a clear coat is to protect your paint job from scratches. Paint is very weak, but when you apply clear coat, it will make the paint stronger. This clear coat also gives an even shine to the area and makes the scratched area smoother and less noticeable. You need to apply three or four coats on each repair area and like the coats of paint, wait ten minutes between each coat.
6.Apply Clear Coat
Now it’s time to paint your repairs. The first coat is known as the base coat. Your spray gun should be 5-10 inches away from the repair. Apply three coats and wait at least 10 minutes between each coat.
7.Buffing
The last, essential step is buffing the clear coat. This is so we can remove any defects in the clear coat. Some people think that rubbing compound and polish are same, but this is incorrect. Rubbing compound is sharper compared to polish. Polishing the entire car to give it a high gloss shine, and your repaired areas should be indistinguishable from the original paint job.
Conclusion
In 7 steps you can repair a rust spot and scratches on your vehicle. Auto Body Repair is a very easy and affordable car project. Forget wasting your money at an auto shop, you can do it yourself following this step by step guide for less than $75.
