Paint and Body Shops - Cars - Car Qoutes - Autos - Auto Loans - Automotive Insurance

he repair and refinishing of the car's body and frame should include repairing, straightening, priming, and painting of the panels as well as the frame (for cars that are body-on-frame and not unibody).

Repair of the car's frame is important since this is the foundation for the entire car. The frame must be inspected for straightness, twisting, alignment, rust damage, and condition of the mounting points for the body, suspension, and other components. Any problems must be repaired, which can be a costly process. For many popular cars, replacement frames can be purchased from parts suppliers specializing in that make of vehicle. This is often a better option than investing money into a severely damaged frame. Depending on the frame construction, mud and water can make their way inside the frame and cause rusting from the inside out, providing additional reason to consider a replacement frame.

If rust is present on a body panel, the panel was damaged by a collision, or other damage is present, there are several options for repair: fix the damaged panel (minor damage), replacement (excessively damaged panels), or cutting out and replacing a portion of the panel (moderate damage - for many makes of vintage car, small partial patch panels are available and designed to be welded into place after the damaged portions are cut out).

Once the panels have been repaired, they should be primed and painted a correct historical color for the vehicle (although this is debatable - the owner might want to have the car painted to look like a particular specialty vehicle such as a police car, or a delivery van painted to look like it would have in grandfather's company colors, etc.)