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Auto Body Panel Replacement DVD
Paintucation series with Kevin Tetz
With this auto body panel replacement dvd you won't miss out on anything you need to know to do your first auto body panel replacement. Kevin Tetz includes thorough coverage of tools, techniques, and materials used in this auto body panel replacement video.
This is a 2 DVD set available at Smartflix covering both full and partial auto body panel replacement using MIG welding as well as structural adhesive. Kevin Tetz covers full quarter replacement, leading and body solder techniques, door skin replacement, and partial quarter panels in this auto body panel replacement dvd.
A bit about SmartFlix
Just in case you found this page without seeing the page about SmartFlix first, I'll fill you in on Smartflix. I stumbled across Smartflix in Dec of 09 while looking for something else. SmartFlix operates similar to Netflix but specializes in How-to DVD rentals. You choose a DVD online and pay for it. They snail mail it to you with prepaid return postage and you just return it within a week of the day you receive it.
Depending on the DVD you can rent for about a 1/3 the cost of buying it.
What's on auto body panel replacement DVD 1
- Introduction
- Right Quarter Panel Inner Structure
- Welding
- Rear Body Panel (Taillight Section)
What's on auto body panel replacement DVD 2
- Left Quarter Panel Outer Patch
- Right Quarter Panel Outer Patch
- Door Skin
- Full Quarter Panel replacement
DVD 1
Introduction
The subject of this auto body panel replacement video is a 1970 Mustang Mach one. He gives you a once over on the car and you quickly realize you've seen worse. Especially if you live on the east coast. Me not being a Mustang guy, I'm not familiar enough with the body lines or styles to catch some of the things he points out. None the less, he explains how he knows this car has had some shoddy body work done over the years.
During the inspection he covers how to know when to do a full body panel replacement, and when a partial body panel replacement is a better choice.
Right Quarter Panel Inner Structure
You have to remove the outer skin of the quarter panel in order to get to the inner structure but you can't just hack it off. He covers some important steps to get to the quater panel inner structure.
Kevin Tetz goes over the list of tools you'd want or need to do a body panel replacement. He has a good collection of abrasive or stripping wheels and describes which part of the job each is suited for. I've never seen some of them.
He shows you how to evaluate the existing quarter panel. Of course since he's actually doing a panel replacement he gets to work at stripping off the old Bondo to getting down to metal.
Even though he has a full quarter panel skin he could use, he explains why he is only going to use a part of it. I know, ..it seems like sacrilege but he has a good point and shows you why. He does a nice job of cutting the needed part off the full quarter panel skin.
Once the damage is identified he covers a few important panel prefitting techniques before removing any old metal from the quarter panel.
The job involves exposing the factory spotwelds, cutting off the section of body panel, how to remove the factory spot welds, and the use of a panel separator knife.
Using some hammer and dolly work he shows you how to correct the contours of the previously spot welded edges that may have been bent when separating the spot welded seams.
He shows you how to prepare the new metal for fit and clean it up to ensure a good welded seam. He's got some time and labor saving tools for this part of the job too.
Welding sheet metal
Most of the Right Quarter Panel Inner Structure segment covers removing the old metal and preparing the new metal for welding it in place. This auto body panel replacement video segment is all about the welding itself.
Kevin Tetz does a great job of outlining what's important here. He covers welding safety and basics first. It's not a welding course, but is a good primer for the job at hand.
He demonstrates how to make adjustments to your MIG welder that are suitable for the metal you're welding and what can happen if you weld a body panel in place with a poor ground. Kevin even does a few demonstration welds to show you what a good weld should look like. An excellent reference for a beginner.
Even though the topic is a better fit for the previous auto body panel replacement video segment, he shows you how to get a perfect fit along the panel edges so you can get a perfect butt weld seam. This is something that scares a lot of people from doing butt welds on autobody seams, and he makes it look easy.
Metal warp is something else that keeps many DIYers from taking on such a job. He makes it look easy and explains what he's doing as he steps through it.
By the time he's done with this auto body panel replacement dvd segment, the quarter panel inner structure looks really good.
Rear taillight body panel
This was an unexpect bonus. I was assuming we were going to review only quarter panels but Kevin Tetz removes The tail end of this 1970 Mustang like it's old hat.
Replacing the tail section is a combination of putting reproduction body sheetmetal and some custom made sheet metal parts in place. He uses some tools that might not be practical for the average guy, but they don't look like expensive tools so they might be worth it for the serious autobody sheet metal craftsman.
The custom sheet metal work is needed to take care of some rust that was hidden from view before removing the taillight panel section.
He burns thru the body panel when welding a backing support bracket. Of course Kevin Tetz is an expert but he still makes mistakes and then shows you how to take care of it. Even though it's hard to see the close detail without a welding lense on the camera, he still shows you how to fix 'burn through" on a new body panel.
DVD 2
Left Quarter Panel Outer Patch
This body panel replacement dvd section is much the same as the right quarter panel inner structure except that he picks up where he left off with the inner structure and completes the job including the outer patch.
This time he uses structural adhesive instead of welding. Structural adhesive is the way to go if you don't have a welder. Kevin Tetz knows how to do the body panel replacement job either way.
There are pro's and con's to using structural adhesive compared to welding and he covers those well.
Right Quarter Panel Outer Patch
This auto body panel replacement video segment contains the finishing touches to the first video segment where he does the right quarter panel inner structure.
This is a job that would really scare a lot of people cause it involves welding on outer body panel sheet metal. Kevin Tetz explains how to avoid warping sheet metal due to welding and then demonstrates how it's done.
He pulls it off with what looks like ease.
I've done jobs like this in the past, with no-one teaching me how it's done, and it wasn't pretty. Now that I have a MIG welder I'm gonna get some practice in before doing the real thing. I have some old fenders and stuff in the back yard that I can afford to toss if I mess them up.
I might just cut one in half and weld it back together now.
Door Skin Replacement
Kevin Tetz brings in an expert to demonstrate how to replace door skin on this same 1970 Mustang Mach One.
They cover the details from door removal to re-installing the door after replacing the door skin.
There are a lot of different ways to do a door skin removal. They show you the best way to remove the old door skin without doing any damage to the door frame.
There are also a lot ways to fold the door skin lip over the door frame too. The technique used to do this one is as old as they get. You might be surprised. I was.
Once the door skin replacement is on, you can see that it's not perfect. The edges have a bit of minor waves in them and they show you how to level them.
The only complaint I have is how they used a regular round headed body hammer to make adjustments to the top edge of the door where it meets the fender. This seems a bit barbaric. It would have made more sense to use something more curved like a ball peen hammer or even a curved side or edge of a dolly that wouldn't leave all those marks in the metal.
Full Quarter Panel replacement
The subject of this auto body panel replacement video section is a 64 Mustang that really doesn't need a new drivers side quarter panel. Kevin creates a reason to replace it.
There's a lot of alignment work that goes into replacing this quarter panel as well as a body solder job. Now there's something interesting. He demonstrates how to do the body solder job using a new lead free body solder.
The alignment work makes you realize that even though a reproduction body panel looks like an exact fit, it's really not. No 2 cars age or distort the same over a life of 45 years so the same new panel may not fit every car exactly. That's no problem for Kevin Tetz.
One very useful technique Kevin Tetz shows you is how and where to do relief cuts in the new quarter panel to take car of alignment problems.
My overall impression
No one can deny that Kevin Tetz is an articulate professional. He has loads of experience and does a great job of demonstrating while explaining what he's doing in a way that's easy to grasp.
I'd probably buy this DVD in the future. It has a lot of useful tips that would be good for my classic car restoration library. I like to own most of my how-to information, but for now it was well worth the Smartflix rental.