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hey guys,
I recently purchased a 1999 silver nb8 that's been pretty banged up by the hail storm.
i was thinking of trying to fix it myself and trying to do it on the bonnet first before i try the rest of the car (i have 0 experience).
i'll grind the paint off, then fill the holes with the body filler, sand it, prime it, sand it, then spraypaint it.
before i start, i was just wondering if anyone with experience has any tips?
cheers,
Denis

Pit stop book shop have some books about body repair, might be worth looking there.

for an untrained person results are likely to be bad. Bonnet is aluminium and notoriously difficult to work with. You need the right equipment and knowledge of the products and the technique. A poorly repaired car will always look awful and anyone with half an eye picks the faults. Storm damaged cars were cheap for a good reason.
There is heaps of info on body repairs- libraries / reference books abound. There are no shortcuts to getting it right. Someone has to explain what guide coats are and stop putty and spray putty etc etc. If you really want to do it you have to invest time some dollars for equipment and a little talent is handy.

dwipuda wrote:hey guys,
I recently purchased a 1999 silver nb8 that's been pretty banged up by the hail storm.
i was thinking of trying to fix it myself and trying to do it on the bonnet first before i try the rest of the car (i have 0 experience).
i'll grind the paint off, then fill the holes with the body filler, sand it, prime it, sand it, then spraypaint it.
before i start, i was just wondering if anyone with experience has any tips?
cheers,
Denis

Denis,
Don't wanna rain on your party but,
1/ These days you DO NOT grind off the paint to repair using body filler (bog)
2/ I know of probably 2 panel beaters who can actually work aluminium panels properly, both are specialist restorers charge $250 per hour Aston Martin & Roller repairers
3/ If it ain't done right and believe me it is hard to do properly, it will look like sh&t,as Mr M said.
4/ If you still wanna try, go and pick up all the books etc, but grab some damaged panels from a scrap bin and practice, practice & practice then get someone else to do it
5/ You say its been banged up a fair bit, if this is so the metal will need "shrinking" and that is only for experienced beater with the gear.

Just a bit of advise from someone who has the training and has been there and done it. Go and buy a bonnet, and get a quote from a dint doctor with YOU removing all the trim panels and ask a few panel beaters for references. You can buy the tools for paintless repairs but they are expensive and all the good one are usually made by the tradie using them.
It can be done but stay from bog for anything more than .25 of a mil. and be patient.

Terry

i see, thx for all the quick response guys,
really appreciate it.
seems i massively underestimated the difficulty of the work, i think i'm better off waiting for parts to pop up from wrecked cars.

Denis.

Denis,

I am in the middle of the same process. Unless the damage to the bonnet is minimal, dont even bother trying to fix it. I got one of the paintless dent removal guys in the fix the rest of it (at least the panels they can access from behind). Cost $100 bucks a panel, but was worth every cent. All thats left is the paint now. All up it should cost me around $2500, including the panels. I needed. Get one of the dent guys to have a look first, as it is surprising what they can fix. I probablt didnt need to but new guards, but I did.

Russell

Also having gone through the exercise, it will be better and easier to get another bonnet that is in good nick.

Hi,
No need to go through all the books and waste your time.
I am posting here an article which guides completely about body repair issues.
editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=434597 -
Thanks

I will stick with a professionals insights and reading books and articles is not a waste of time. There is no short cut.

Well painless dent removal may be an option... But this will still be expensive. An uncle of mine had his hail damaged Cressida repaired in this way, it was pretty bad, cost $1500 and the result was pretty good (got all but 2-3 of the dents out and those left were almost invisible).