These days it’s hard to justify spending big money on major car expenses like resprays. All too often, motorists will just drive their vehicles until they stop working and then buy a cheap replacement.
Of course, that’s not a good approach to car ownership. With so many cars rusting and rotting away, the environmental impact is of tremendous concern. It’s no secret that we now seem to live in a throwaway society. It’s like there is no issue with getting rid of things instead of fixing them!
Are you of the opinion that your car should be maintained and kept for as long as is reasonably possible? If so, getting a respray on your car will improve your car for your future motoring purposes.
Most people will assume that they only need to keep the mechanical side of things in check on their vehicles. But few realize the importance of maintaining the bodywork! Rust is one of the biggest killers of many vehicles. If rust spreads, it can attack vital structural metal. And when that happens, it can be impossible to fix!
As you might already know, car resprays aren’t cheap. They usually start from a few grand upwards! The good news is that you can drive down those respray costs by doing some of the prep work yourself. Intrigued? Keep reading to find out how!
Stripping the Car
The first thing you need to do is strip the car so that it’s just a rolling shell. The idea here is that you are saving on labor costs from the paint shop you use. The Auto Art recommends you leave the steering wheel, road wheels and suspension in place. Of course, you can remove everything else like the motor and interior.
Make sure that you have somewhere safe to keep all the bits you remove from your car. After all the last thing you want to do is discover you’re missing some essential components!
Removing Rust
Next comes the “fun” part (note the sarcasm) – rust removal! Even cars that are just five years ago will suffer some surface corrosion. In general, the older your car is, the more rust you will have to deal with. Especially if you live in an area where it rains a lot.
Get yourself a good quality angle grinder and lots of grinding pads! Have you come across any areas that have too much rust? If so, you will need to cut those sections out and weld some new metal in its place.
Be sure to use metal that is the same gauge (i.e. thickness) as the one on the car. Sometimes you can buy section of molded metal that you just weld into place. That way, you don’t need to spend hours knocking panels into the shape you need.
Filling and Smoothing
The key is to use as little body filler as possible when smoothing out the car. One way to achieve that goal is to knock out any dents as gently as possible. You can buy a stud welder dent puller system to help you with this task.
Make sure you use various grades of sandpaper to achieve a smooth and consistent finish on the areas you do fill. Once you’re done, you can then send your car to the paint shop and enjoy a much lower respray cost!