Today's Car of the Day is a 1974 Volkswagen Beetle, an old and trusted friend for the owner who wanted to help it look young again. We painted the entire vehicle in our economical enamel single stage paint.
A dented door and broken door handle make for a pretty tough driving experience. Having to crawl from the passenger seat to the driver's seat gets old the very first time you have to do it. Almost Everything'sCar of the Day is a 2001 Toyota Avalon. We replaced the damaged door, mirror and door handle and blended new factory paint onto the fender and rear door so that everything matched.
Almost Everything'sCar of the Day is a 2000 Honda Accord Coupe. The owner did a great job fixing damage himself. However he soon found his brand new hood was rusting.
The hood had been primed but not painted. It is a common misconception that primer prevents rust. It is true that primer is essential in the fight. But primer and paint are designed to work together, separately they fail. Primer "bites" into metal and plastic to establish the bond between a surface and paint. Primer is porous, full of microscopic holes. These holes allow the paint to sink in and connect. Paint is not porous and keeps out water and rust.
It is critical to paint a primed part as quickly as possible to prevent rust. Once rust starts, it is like cancer. It is hard to fight and can return and grow again.
Something flew up and hit the hood of this Jetta causing a big dent. Fortunately, it bounced over the windshield and didn't cause more damage. We pulled out the dent and painted the hood with original factory paint.
A little 1997 RAV4 in great running condition (only 300,000 miles so far!) came in the delaminating (peeling) paint and dents in the right rear door and rear bumper and a bunch of dings. The lights in the bumper were broken too. The customer opted for an inexpensive upgrade. She has us paint the faded and splotchy original grey body cladding the same color as the rest of the vehicle. We replaced the door and got an aftermarket (reproduction) bumper and lights and fixed the dents. The paint is our enamel single stage technology with a 1 year warranty.
Every week we get asked what the "Almost" means in Almost Everything Auto Body. This car is a good example." It was a beautiful and well loved by its owners. Sadly, it was too badly damaged to fix. Some of the things we showed the customer were the doors pushed back and down over the rear panels. The frame was crushed like an accordion AND sagging in the middle. Repairs would cost more than the car was worth and probably not get the car back to original condition. The owner plans to put the engine, wheels and any other valuable components, into a donor chassis then bring it back to us to match the original paint job.