Haynes Car Bodywork Repair Manual: The Complete, Illustrated Step-by-Step Guide [3 ed.] 1859606571, 9781859606575

Citation preview

Lindsay Porter

AC PL ITEM DISCARDED

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation

https://archive.org/details/carbodyworkrepaiOOOOport

Haynes

Car Bodywork Repair manual The complete, illustrated step-by-step guide 3rd Edition

Lindsay Porter

First published by G. T. Foulis & Co in 1985 Reprinted 1985, 1986, 1987 (thrice), 1989 (twice) and 1990 Second edition 1991 Reprinted 1991, 1993, 1996 (twice) and 1997 Third edition published by Haynes Publishing in 2000 Reprinted 2001, 2002 (twice), 2003, 2006 and 2007 © Lindsay Porter 2000 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission of the publisher. British Library cataloguing-in-publication data: A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 85960 657 5 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 99-98064 Published by Haynes Publishing, Sparkford, Yeovil, Somerset BA22 7JJ, UK Tel. 01963 442030 Fax 01963 440001 Int. tel. +44 1963 442030 Fax +44 1963 440001 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.haynes.co.uk Haynes North America Inc, 861 Lawrence Drive, Newbury Park, California 91320, USA Printed in the USA Jurisdictions which have strict emission control laws may consider any modifications to a vehicle to be an infringement of those laws. You are advised to check with the appropriate body or authority whether your proposed modification complies fully with the law. The author and publishers accept no liability in this regard. While every effort is taken to ensure the accuracy of the information given in this book, no liability can be accepted by the author or publishers for any loss, damage or injury caused by errors in, or omissions from the information given.

I'd like to dedicate this book to my wife, Shan. Most of the jobs covered here were carried out in our workshop, next to our house, and since the book has taken several years to prepare, she has put up with a lot! She also checked and typed the manuscript and took many of the photographs, and so there's a lot of her in here.

Contents Body language .5 Tools and equipment .8 Safety sense .16 1 Welding and cutting Brazing .20 Types of welding: .20 Arc .20 Carbon-arc .21 Oxy-acetylene .21 MIG .21 TIG .21 Selecting your welding gear .22 Welding concepts and principles: .22 Compatibility .22 Distortion .23 Impurities .23 Welded joint types .24 Welding techniques.24 Arc - including overhead welding .24 Carbon-arc brazing .28 Oxy-acetylene - including rod and wire thickness chart, and shutting-down procedure .29 Oxy-acetylene cutting .35 Hints on welding stainless steel .37 Hints on brazing aluminium alloys.37 Oxy-acetylene brazing .38 Heat-shrinking a panel .38 TIG welding .40 MIG welding .40 MIG-welding in awkward places .45 MIG-spot welding .45 2 Panel beating Introduction .48 Metalworking techniques .49 Mallets .50 Application of beater and dolly .50 Spoons and their applications .50 Panel finishing .51 Annealing .52 3 Getting rid of rust How corrosion occurs .53 Fighting back .53 Part I - Rustproofing - wax injection and treatment .53 Part II - Paint and rust stripping .59 Part III - Rustproofing surfaces .64

4 Painting Gun lore - types of spray gun .66 Choose your weapon .67 Cleanliness comes last! .68 Principal parts of the spray gun .70 Putting on the paint .70 Paint - the constituents .71 Vehicle manufacturer's paint types .71 Refinish paint types .72 Clear-over-base finish .73 Undercoats .73 Pre-spray garage preparation .74 Preparing to spray - including test for paint type .75 Flatting (or sanding) .76 How to flat .76 Masking off .77 Preparing to paint - summary .77 Spraying the primer .77 Spraying the colour coat .78 Start spraying! .78 Bits in the gloss coat? - don't panic! .81 Painting pointers - handy hints .82 Spray gun trouble shooting .83 Paint faults 84. Paint stripping .91 Compressors - choices and use .92 Respraying a rear wing: 2-pack paint, low-bake oven usage .93-101 Colour section -.between 96 and 97 Total respray Typical paint faults Flame conditions for oxy-acetylene welding Spraying with aerosols .101 'Mobile'paint repairs .104 5 Bodywork repairs: Part I Is it worth repairing? - assessing accident damage .105 Body fittings .108 Removing stubborn fixings .112 Light crash repair - front end damage.114 Bonnet/front damage repair .120 Front wing damage repair .121 Adjustments - tips in fitting panels and doors .124 Repairing alloy wheel damage .126

Small dent repair.127 'Mobile'dent repairers .130 Agreed value insurance .131 Part II Using body filler .132 Using body solder .133 Replacing a sill/body rocker .137 Removing and fitting a classic car's welded-on wing .142 Renewing a door skin .147 Old-timer body repairs .152 Second-hand parts .158 Blast cleaning .163 Chassis and sub-frame repair .163 Bolt-on front wing replacement .172 Repairing panels with adhesive .175 Part III - Repairing plastics Repairing a cracked bumper .178 'Mobile' plastic bumper scuff repairs .180 Painting plastic .181 Welding plastics .182

6 Repairs on a shoestring Bodywork repair and improvements from a can: .188 Paint breakdown - sound metal .190 Rusty rear wing .190 Pulling out a dent I .191 Pulling out a dent II .193 Cutting out corrosion .194 Painting the patches .196 Finishing touches .198 Home spraying with aerosol .200 Using special paints .203 Home spraying with a compressor .203 Safety .203 Tools required .204, 206

7 Glass-fibre bodywork Repairing GRP body damage .207 Copying a GRP panel .215 Fitting GRP panels in place of steel .219 Fitting glass-fibre rear wings / flared wheel arches.222 Glossary .224 8 Doors, interiors and soft-tops Stripping out door gear - removing trim, door latch gear, window winder gear, window glass, model-by-model . . .225 'Mobile' windscreen replacement: .240 Windscreen held by rubbers.240 Sports car windscreen .244 Glass 'bullseye' damage .248 Plastic instrument panel repairs .249 Plastic dashtop repair .249 Plastic door capping repair .249 'Mobile' velour seat burn repair .251 Fitting a soft-top .252 9 Accessories and improvements Fitting simple accessories: .258 Mirrors .258 Aerial (antenna) .259 Front auxiliary lamps .260 New number/licence plates .261 Mud flaps .261 Soundproofing .263 Sports car roll-over bar .264 Fitting a tow bar .264 Fitting and maintaining a sunroof .266 Fitting side windows to a van .269 Polishing faded paint .270 Pinstriping and decals .272 Steel wheel appeal .275 Interior trim - renovation and repair .276 Specialists and Suppliers .280

Body language Cars old and new have some strange names for their body parts. Some of them date back to the days of horsedrawn coaches but other names seem obscure just to make life difficult. To add to the problems, many British terms are not the same as those in the USA so this section will start off with a glossary. British Aerial Alternator Battery Bodywork Bonnet Boot Bulkhead Cellulose (paint) Chassis Dynamo Earth Engine bay

American Antenna Generator (AC) Energizer Sheet metal Hood Trunk Firewall Enamel Frame Generator (DC) Ground Motor compartment Filler Bond Parking brake Handbrake Hood Soft top Indicator Turn signal Locks Latches Number plate License plate Paraffin Kerosene Gas tank Petrol tank Driveshaft Propeller shaft Quarter window Quarter light Sedan Saloon Frozen Seized Locking pliers Self-grip wrench Parking light Sidelight Rocker panel Sill Wrench Spanner Glazing putty Stopper Liftgate Tailgate Unitary/monocoque Unitized body

Van Wheel arch White spirit Windscreen

Panel wagon/van Wheelhouse Stoddard solvent Windshield

In the old days, a car's bodywork and its frame or chassis were two separate units. The chassis provided the car with its basic strength while the bodywork, which bolted to it, contributed little. Almost all cars are now built along 'unitary' or 'monocoque' lines, where the chassis has become part of the floorpan of the car, the surrounding panels being welded or bolted to the base structure and contributing greatly to its overall strength. Modern construction techniques take advantage of high-stress steels and the chassis has often disappeared altogether, the shape of the whole car making up its strength. A very small number of cars have been built with glass-fibre bodywork or GRP -

BODY EVOLUTION

see the chapter on working with GRP and others (but a small number) have aluminium bodywork. Some body panels, such as Land Rover Freelander wings, most cars' bumpers and some bonnets, are made of plastic. Aluminium is difficult to work with but is covered briefly in the chapter on 'Welding'. A very small number of cars, mainly pre-1940, were fitted with fabric bodies but work on this type of body is of course, beyond the scope of this book.

▼

Figure BL1. This is a very typical completely conventional 'Three Box' saloon, with a central passenger compartment with four doors, an engine bay area at the front and a luggage bay area at the rear. Outer panels are bolted or welded on, depending on their position, and add to the strength of the floorpan. (Courtesy FIAT Auto UK)

5

THE CAR BODYWORK REPAIR MANUAL ■4

Figure BL2. These external panels form the front-end outer sub-assembly and are the sorts of panels which the skilled DIY-er could consider replacing. Note from sections A-A and B-B that every panel Is joined to another by an overlap. These laps would have been spot-welded together during assembly but it is not always possible for the home repairer to gain access to duplicate these spot welds. Use the alternative welding techniques outlined in this manual. (Courtesy Austin-Rover)

4 Figure BL3. 'Hatchback’ styling makes maximum use of passenger space. Two door construction adds greatly to the shell's stiffness. (Courtesy Austin-Rover)

•4 Figure BL4. This time there is virtually no trace of the old chassis rails. Two Important components missing from this drawing are the front subframe, which carries almost all of the front-end mechanical components and also the rear subframe. Similar, basic floorpan/bulkhead structures are used by manufacturers to produce several apparently different models of car. An example is the VW Golf, 'New' Beetle, Audi A4 and Skoda Felicia, all based on the same floorpan structure. (Courtesy Austin-Rover)

6

BODY LANGUAGE

►

Figure BL5. Even with the addition of subframes, the floor pan in Figure BL4 looks barely rigid enough and indeed it takes the addition of these completelooking body sides to give the shell much of its strength. Repair panels are available from the manufacturers and from specialist panel makers to repair parts of these assemblies; it is not necessary to go out and buy the whole thing! (Courtesy Austin-Rover)

►

Figure BL6. This shows how the strength of a whole modern car is crucially dependent upon the bits and pieces it is made from, especially in highstress areas such as seat-belt mounting points. When repairing panels like this, it is important that all the minor components are refitted correctly. MIG welding is preferable to oxy-acetylene because many of the panels are of highgrade steel which is weakened by the application of too much heat. (Courtesy Austin-Rover)

7

Tools and equipment This section shows some of the tools and equipment that the author has used while working on the many projects that have gone towards making up this book. COLLECTING THE SET You will never have a complete set of tools; there will always be something else that you need! But over the years, if you buy equipment a little at a time, as you need it, you will accumulate a surprisingly large range of items. I still use some of the same tools that were bought for me as Christmas and birthday presents when I was a teenager and, now that I'm middle-aged, I give the same advice that I was given then always buy the best tools you can afford. Actually, having said that, times have changed and it certainly pays to shop around. Tools that you won't need to use regularly, such as an impact screwdriver or a rubbing block for use with abrasive paper can be picked up for a song and will usually have been made in China. In general, British, German and American hand tools are better made and last longer than Far-Eastern tools, although most power tools seem to be built there: just look for a reputable maker. When it comes to large and expensive items, such as a compressor or welder, it again pays to stick to a known maker rather than to take a chance with an apparently cheap tool whose manufacturer you may never have heard of.

8

►

T&E1. Although this book is about bodywork, there is often a need to remove mechanical items to enable you to get at the part to be repaired. In the worst cases, you may have to take an engine out, which is where this Clarke engine hoist comes into its own.

►

T&E2. The Clarke Strong-Arm engine hoist has the advantage of being able to be folded into a really small space for storage.

TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT ► T&E3.

For the serious home restorer or home repairer (and you have to be serious to go this far!) the Autec Car Lift from Holden Vintage & Classic brings professional standards of access to the home workshop. If you have ever tried welding under the car's floor while lying on your back on the ground, and you've got a lot of repair or restoration work to do, you’ll think this was made in heaven, rather than in an engineering workshop!

►

T&E4. Where access beneath the car needs to be totally unimpeded, or for extra support when fitting and aligning sills or floorpans, Holden can also supply these extra-tall but very stable support stands, capable of supporting the whole vehicle off the ground while you wheel the Autec Car Lift out of the way.

A

T&E7. The least expensive, but the least versatile type of welding set is an arc welder. It's not really suitable for light-weight bodywork repairs but you could probably use one for welding the chassis on something quite heavy duty, such as a Jeep or Land Rover.

± T&E5. For serious bodywork repairs, you won't be able to get far without the use of a welder of some sort. The type of welding that gives you the best guality while being the easiest to learn how to use (always provided that you carry out preparation immaculately) is a MIG welder. Among their vast range of workshop tools, Clarke offer many different sizes of MIG welder, most of which will handle almost any car bodywork repairs that you are likely to encounter.

A,

T&E6. The most versatile type of welder - although it does have certain drawbacks which are described in Chapter 1, Welding and cutting - is an oxy-acetylene gas welding set. This is the BOC Portapack set which is capable of carrying out the smallest welding or brazing job as well as quite heavy-duty cutting through thick steel. They are available through commercial welding centres and are compact enough to be stored by the enthusiastic home mechanic.

▼ T&E8. The cleanest, neatest welds of all can be carried out by a spot welder, and if you are serious about carrying out lots of car bodywork repairs, you ought to think about obtaining one. Manufacturers such as Clarke also offer a range of extension arms which enable you to get round all sorts of obstructions.

9

THE CAR BODYWORK REPAIR MANUAL

A T&E9. Why, you might ask, is this 3M glue gun and two-pack epoxy resin kit shown next to the welding section? The reason is quite simple. For certain repairs, it is possible to use adhesive instead of welding and, if you doubt that it would be strong enough, remember that the entire structure of the Jaguar XJ220 Supercar, capable of 220mph, was fixed together almost exclusively with such adhesives. And we haven't heard of any falling apart yet! (See later in this manual for more details on adhesives.)

^ T&E 11. This is another SykesPickavant tool, one that is invaluable if you have to cut out and replace sections of rusty steel. It pulls the edge of the sheet along between two rollers which form a shoulder on the edge of the steel. This allows you to join two flat pieces of metal with all the smoothness of a butt joint but with the strength and ease of a welded lap-joint. Wonderful!

A

A

T&E 10. Before welding steel, you will have to cut it. If you have a lot of cutting out to do, these Sykes-Pickavant cutting tools will slice through steel like nobody's business and can also cut gentle curves. For smaller amounts of cutting, regular tin snips are fine.

T&E 12. Most home mechanics will find this a little out of their price bracket but the Sykes-Pickavant folder is the best way by far to create perfectly formed bends in sheet steel. Bear in mind that you can buy ready-folded strips of steel from most bodywork parts suppliers.