Body Shop Surprise

[Riviera63]

I thought some of you might find this interesting. I have my car at the body shop to have some work done to correct some of the flaws resulting from the "All Chrome Off" (aka "No Chrome Off") paint job my car got before I purchased it. One of the areas that I was having done was the passenger side fender. There was paint peeling by the Riviera emblem because they did not sand and prep properly around the emblem. This of course, would not have been a problem had the emblem been removed prior to being painted. Also on top of the fender were some marks that I thought were from me being careless and working without a fender cover and scratching the fender with my belt buckle. My body man informed me that they were not scratches but cracks caused by moisture in the body filler because the fender had been painted before the body filler had properly dried. When he dug deeper he found that my car had suffered some sort of damage and that the front portion of the fender had been removed and a different piece welded in. Not sure why they just did not replace the whole fender. He said that they had done a good job and that this would not pose a problem. The second picture is the inner fender taken through the front turn signal assembly opening. You can't really see too much in the picture but, he said he could tell they did a lap joint weld. Just when you think you know your car inside and out. Always something to keep one on his toes.

 

Bill

[Rivman]

From what I have learned, yes, a lap joint is better than say a butt joint. I would say it isn’t as usable on newer, thinner sheet metal used today, if at all, but on the heavier steel used years ago it works well. Doing it that way the metal is less likely to warp when welding it in place. He might want to treat the underside with something to keep it from corroding too.

 

Is your body man going to be able to blend his touch-ups in, or is it going to require a complete repaint?

[60FlatTop]

That is some really nice stitching. I damaged my right hand fender a little farther back when my scissors lift button got bumped by my Riviera while I was driving over it. I bought a nice replacement fender, but if I could weld like that I would have put a section in.

 

[Riviera63]

7 minutes ago, Rivman said:

From what I have learned, yes, a lap joint is better than say a butt joint. I would say it isn’t as usable on newer, thinner sheet metal used today, if at all, but on the heavier steel used years ago it works well. Doing it that way the metal is less likely to warp when welding it in place. He might want to treat the underside with something to keep it from corroding too.

 

Is your body man going to be able to blend his touch-ups in, or is it going to require a complete repaint?

 

He is going to blend the touch-ups. He told me he has mixed up a good match. I had some other touch-up work done a few years ago by a different body man and he did a nice job of blending. Good idea about the anti-corrosion for the inside of the fender.

 

Bill

[Riviera63]

8 minutes ago, 60FlatTop said:

That is some really nice stitching. I damaged my right hand fender a little farther back when my scissors lift button got bumped by my Riviera while I was driving over it. I bought a nice replacement fender, but if I could weld like that I would have put a section in.

 

 

My body man told me he that they had done a nice job on the repair and that it would not be an issue with the work he was doing. I have a feeling the repair was done previous to the repaint before I bought it. 

 

Bill

[Riviera63]

I went and picked up the car last Wednesday. I was very happy with the results on all of the work that was done. Excellent work, paint match and blending. He said his initial thought on the cause of the problems with the fender paint as being the body filler was wrong. As he dug deeper into the fender he found the cause of the problem was the primer that was used. He said that a brown acrylic primer that was used years ago did not adhere when it was used on bare metal. It eventually would separate and lift causing the paint problems. His paint rep also concurred that this was true. He also redid my passenger door as he noticed the poor taping job from the repaint and the same paint problems beginning there as well. Interestingly, my body man is just a young kid (kid being a relative term because I am old). He can't be more than 30 though. He used to work as a body man for Oshkosh Truck. They make military vehicles and also own Pierce Manufacturing which does fire trucks. He did body work on his own on weekends and then decided he could do this full time and struck out on his own. His shop is in a little town 22 miles south of where I live. Ironically, I used to teach there and had 3 of his cousins as students. Small world. 

 

Bill

[Riviera63]

One of the other things I had him do was repaint the inside of my trunk lid. The first set of pictures shows the inside of my trunk lid shortly after I bought it. I did as much as I could to make it more presentable but, that was cosmetic and did not solve the problems. I thought he did a nice job and even was able to preserve the original trunk sticker.

 

Bill

[60FlatTop]

Stevens Point is 850 miles from me. I would surely consider the trip. There is a lot more value in seeing the results than listening to promises.

 

As for the age, 30 to 40 is just fine. After 40 they tend to have learned their limitations and impose them on you. You don't here young guys says "That's not going to be easy" or That's not going to be cheap". The older they get the more often they say that.

[Riviera63]

2 hours ago, 60FlatTop said:

Stevens Point is 850 miles from me. I would surely consider the trip. There is a lot more value in seeing the results than listening to promises.

 

As for the age, 30 to 40 is just fine. After 40 they tend to have learned their limitations and impose them on you. You don't here young guys says "That's not going to be easy" or That's not going to be cheap". The older they get the more often they say that.

 

Good point. At that age they are still hungry. His response was to anything I asked was "no problem". He was very reasonable in his billing and I could tell he did a few extra little things he may not have needed to do. Because of his good work I am already thinking of some more areas to be tidied up. When I was talking to him when I picked up the car he mentioned how convenient and simple it was to paint the doors when you can just remove the skin. (he also painted the driver's door to correct some big chips) At the end f our conversation he said with a big grin, "I really learned a lot on this one". 

 

Bill