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Customer argued his quarter panel patch was good enough and I showed him why it wasn't
Had a guy come in last Tuesday with a 98 Civic he tried to fix himself. He used a piece of sheet metal from Home Depot and riveted it over the rust hole on the rear quarter. I told him that's gonna bubble in 6 months and he got defensive saying it's fine for a beater. I took him to the back and showed him my rotisserie setup with a 2002 Corolla I was doing proper patch panels on. He watched me weld in a 14 gauge panel and grind it smooth, then he asked how much I'd charge to undo his mess. I quoted him $400 just for the metal work and he just nodded.
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finley_gonzalez496d ago
Just sand it down and hit it with some rust converter first...
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matthewdixon6d ago
Honestly the thing nobody talks about is moisture trapped under the paint even after you do all that grinding and converting. I'm in the Pacific Northwest where everything's damp and I've seen guys do perfect prep work only to have rust bloom under the primer because they didn't let the metal dry out for a full 24 hours in a heated garage. If you're working in humid weather you gotta run a dehumidifier or use a heat gun on every panel gap before you lay down the converter.
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mia7006d ago
Oh man, I gotta jump in here real quick! Rust converter is great for surface rust but if there's any flaking or bubbling, you need to grind that out way more first. I made that mistake on an old truck bed and the rust came back through the paint in like 6 months. You gotta get down to bare metal where it's pitted, then hit it with the converter, then prime it same day. Otherwise that converter is just sitting on top of more rust waiting to eat through.
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