I am going to be doing all the bodywork on my 83 Trans Am to prepare it for paint in September. I have NEVER done any kind of body work on a car unless you consider sanding down some rust spots and spray painting the spots to be body work. I have 0 experience.

I would consider myself a perfectionist, so when I do something I will do it over and over until I get it right. Well on a car that could get expensive fast, so I am looking for the BEST book to guide me through the work. If any of you have any experience with these books please comment. I'm not concerned with the painting cause I probably wont be doing that, but I cant afford to have the body work done and the paint, so I gotta do the bodywork myself.

 

Honestly...I haven't read any body work books in awhile. But, when I did...they were WAAAY outdated. Some of todays products work so much differenty compared to the old products alot of people were used to. For instance: Body Filler. With the new products, you don't have to sand all the way down to bare metal to fill a dent. ICAR actually says to rough up the paint with 80 and apply the body filler directly on top, that way, your not cutting though the "E" coat...which may cause rust in the future. Todays products stick so much better...and can applied even a little thicker...without have any cracking problems. Your best bet would be to read a book...then ask some autobody techs what products are used today, how they are applied, and how they can be used. Feel free to ask me anything.

 

thanks for advice.

I have heard that I should use polyester filler instead of bondo due to its resistance to cracking. However when I go to the stores all I see is regular cans of bondo. I dont know of any body supply houses around here(there may be some that I dont know about), so for normal rust spots that arent all the way through, would the normal bondo be ok. Also if I'm working with a panel(door skin) that has already been bondo'd and the paint has peeled and the bondo is showing, can I sand down that bad area and clean the old bondo good, put new bondo over old and get good results? Or will I have to strip it down all the way?

Also I believe I have a rust hole underneath my t-top weather stripping right in the middle at the front, so what should I use to fill this in considering that it will be constantly exposed to water?

My doors have a lot of rust on inside around the weld seam of the inner and outer skins. Would it be ok to strip this area completely down, and coat with POR15 even if the welds are stripped away in the process? Will the POR15 hold the door together sufficiently?

 

ok best bet is go to www.autobodystore.com and they will have all you need.
they have excellent forums and the gang there are shop owners and people with no experience at all looking to do their own cars ...great place....

 

Well ive gone from no experience to having some experience. between working on my own car and helping others, reading on the internet. IMO books are pointless youll pay for them then read the exact same thing on the internet just with a few spelling errors.

I think the best way to learn is just go out and do it. I completely had no clue how to spread bondo.. started with a small dent and figured it out after doing it. Messign up. redoing. Then getting it write. One can of bondo is like 8 bucks. It didnt put me in the poor house wasting like an 8th of the can.


I think if you just get otu and practice it will just kind of pop in your head how to do it. Then just refrence bac to the web. Google everything, youll get results.

For me though the hardest thing is time management. thats what i struggle with.

 

 

welllllll carcraft has been doing a lot of stuff about doing paint and bodywork/restoration on a budget. which means doing everything yourself. in the august issue they talk about the differences of paint, in like 2 months ago they sprayed their first car, and about 3-4 months ago they talked about removing dents and doing mild restoration things. so i would check out their website and order some back issues. it's really cheap and after you buy the back issues invest about 12 bucks for a subscription and keep getting educated by guys who like doing things themselves and cheaply. plus you get to look at other cool cars.