Settings and technique that work on a real repair. No ivory-tower theory.
A vehicle that spends three days in the bodyshop, doors open, ignition on for diagnostics, lights on for checks, often ends up with a flat battery and sometimes ECUs full of fault codes. The charger-starter is one of the tools that prevent these nasty surprises, provided it's used properly.
Even in a clean booth, there's always a dirt nib, a small run or a patch where the clear hasn't flowed out quite right. Polishing lets you deliver a flawless job — as long as you don't burn through the clear or leave holograms.
Replacing a sill, a rear wing or a rear quarter panel inevitably means welding. On 0.7 or 0.8 mm sheet, the margin for error is small: too hot and you blow holes and distort the panel; too cold and the weld won't hold. Here are the settings and techniques that make the difference.
Good masking goes unnoticed. Bad masking shows straight away: a line of clear on a rubber seal, a paint line that bleeds, adhesive left on a chrome trim. Choosing the right product for each area saves time when demasking and on rework.
A wheel nut welded on by rust, an exhaust bolt that won't budge, a bonded badge you don't want to scratch. An induction heater sorts out these situations without a torch, without a flame and without burning what's around it. You still need to know what it does well, and what it doesn't.
You can have the best clear coat on the market, but if the sanding underneath isn't done right, it will show. Choosing the grit, and the order you work through them, decides the final quality as much as the paint itself.
Used properly, an infrared lamp can dry filler in a few minutes and get a smart repair out the door the same day. Badly set up, it blisters a primer or burns a plastic part. It all comes down to understanding the principle and a few simple settings.
Everyone knows how to put filler on. Far fewer know how to put it on so they only have to sand it once. Between poorly prepared metal, hardener added by guesswork and a coat that's too thick, filler can cost you an hour per repair.
We've all known the workshop where everything is grey, nostrils included. Dust-free sanding isn't a luxury for big bodyshops: it's a question of health, paint quality and, in the end, money. Here's how to approach it and choose your equipment.
High-build primer is the link between the repair and the paint. It's what fills the sanding scratches from the body filler, isolates the substrate and gives the basecoat an even surface. Applied and sanded properly, you never see it. Get it wrong and it shows through the clear for years.
A pushed-in sill or a door folded by a post can't be put right with a hammer alone. You need to pull, with the right force, in the right direction, without damaging anything else. That's the job of pulling posts and pulling systems, provided they're used methodically.
Thinner isn't just there to make the product runnier. It controls how the clear or primer spreads, flows out and cures. Chosen and measured properly, it prevents half of all finish defects.
Bonnets, doors, wings, tailgates: aluminium is everywhere on recent vehicles. It can be pulled, but not like steel. It needs a dedicated machine, separate tools and a little more patience. Here's how it's done.
Hardener is the product you buy without a second thought and the first thing you blame when a clear stays soft. Yet most problems come down to how it's measured, stored and chosen. Here's a quick run-through of what you need to know.
The spotter is often the first machine you buy when setting up a bodyshop, and the one you use every day. Between 3,800 A and 7,500 A models, two-knob controls and screens full of programmes, it's easy to hesitate. Here are the criteria that really matter in day-to-day use.
A well-laid UHS clear means a panel that comes out of the booth with good flow and gloss, and never comes back to the shop. Get it wrong and it runs, it boils or it stays soft for three days. Here's how we go about it day to day to get it right.