During the operation of the car in it occurs not only the wear of moving parts, but also damage to the body. Often the car gets into adverse weather conditions, hail or aggressive environment can seriously damage the paintwork. Poor road surface destroys the thresholds of the car, branches of the bush cause damage in the form of scratches on the surface of the body. Not to mention accidents that entail serious malfunctions.
Not every driver has at his disposal a CASCO car insurance policy that guarantees the customer the repair of even minor body damage at a certified workshop. Provided, of course, that the situation in which the damage occurred is an insured event. How to act when the car owner does not have this contract? After all, such insurance for an old VAZ can reach half the cost of the vehicle. Yes, and there are restrictions on the year of manufacture, mileage and some other parameters. How to make a body repair with your own hands, without involving specialists? And at the same time to do no worse, or even better, than you would be offered in the garage cooperative self-taught master.
Small body repairs with your own hands are quite simple. Having the necessary tools, higher education is not required. Do-it- yourself body straightening is not such a tricky thing. The main thing is perseverance, accuracy and leisure. DIY body repair can be divided into three main types.
- removal of scratches;
- elimination of dents;
- body straightening with dents having chipped paintwork.
To carry out body repairs, a nylon or wooden mallet, metal linings (preferably with rubber packing), a primer, paint, and a compressor for applying paint will be required. You can rent it, the rest can be bought.
Do-it-yourself body repair is carried out according to the following scheme. The damaged part is removed from the car. If the dent is small and does not have chipped paint, try pressing on the inside with your hands, if a characteristic click follows and it straightens, then we can assume that it’s lucky. Some "experts" at the service station do just that, and pass this ten-minute job for hard work with straightening, primer and an ideal selection of paint. So it’s worth considering that body repair with your own hands is much better, and for the general development it is more useful if, of course, you have something to work out (it is better not to start experimenting with Porsche).
So, let's continue. If the click did not follow after clicking, do not make inhuman efforts. Take the damaged part and lay it on an iron lining with a rubberized surface. On the inside of the dent or deep scratch - several layers of dense fabric or a thin layer of rubber. With light taps of the hammer, we begin body repair with our own hands, performing straightening from the middle of the dent and gradually moving to its edges, evenly tapping the damaged surface with light strokes. Why it is impossible to inflict several strong blows at once and thereby solve the problem? Just because with a strong blow, the paint may crack, burst metal, and a biconvex dent will form. It is better not to rush in this matter, otherwise you will have to replace the damaged part with a new one. Be patient.
The most difficult to carry out body repair can be called removing scratches from the damaged primed surface, as small ones on the paintwork can be removed by polishing with special tools. In such cases, the scratch is leveled by similar tapping. Then it is primed and painted.
Do-it-yourself basic body repair also requires car sills. They are the most vulnerable part of the body when driving on our not very good roads. Repair, of course, is much clearer here, and, in principle, has only two solutions. If the part is removable, then it is simply replaced with a new one. Sometimes repairing car thresholds becomes much more difficult if they are one piece with the body.
Then they are cut out from a common array and a metal structure is welded. It is primed and painted. Minor repairs of dents in the threshold can be made without removal or replacement. Holes are drilled in the damaged surface, and irregularities are leveled using a metal lever. The holes are "clogged" with automotive putty, primed and painted.