BigJeff

Ok, I'm a fairly new "car guy", in that I wasn't really all that into cars until about a year ago. My first hands on experience (other than oil changes and such) with actually taking stuff apart and replacing stuff and all that is with my RX-7 which I got a few months ago. So far I've done the rat's nest removal and a new exhaust (exhaust is flippin sweet now). Having some carb issues but I'm confident I'll be able to work that out on my own.

So my next forray into the unknown is body work. I've got 1 large dent in the rear driver's fender right next to the bumper, it's rusting but not nearly rusted through. I've also got a smaller dent in one of the fenders, and a couple tiny dents mostly in the fenders.

What's the best way to pull those dents and straighten out the body a bit? I'm a little leery of drilling holes in the body to use one of those dent pullers, but if that's what I've got to do I'll have to do it. I'm guessing those vacuum cups aren't that great, I couldn't see trying to pull a big dent with one anyway.

Also, it seems like my fenders are way too close to my doors, occasionally they'll catch the door as I open it and of course if I'm not paying attention it tweaks the fender and/or door. I've tried pushing the fenders back, which works for a while but they end up just slipping back and tweaking again. Is there a good way of getting that to stop or do I need new fenders or something?

Lastly, what do you guys think about using those cans of auto-spray paint that you can get at someplace like Schucks for a temp paint job until I'm ready to get the real deal? Do they look decent? Right now it looks like someone did a spray paint job with a different shade of brown than my car, so I'd like something that I could kinda even things out with and at least make it look a little nicer.

I'm planning on doing the interior before I go hardcore on the exterior, I'm just tired of looking at my beautiful car all dented up.

Thanks in advance for your help.

boyee

iTrader: (3)

i know for a fact that if you paint the car right with paint in a can, it will turn out decent because my friend painted a fender and a hood with just automotive spray paint and its barely noticable from stock.

also put some pics up of your car! and welcome to the forums!

DriftFB

Welcome, glad you are doing the work themselves and not just sending it out to shops. I've seen some nice paint from just spray cans, but if you rush it or don't get it right I may look weird. I say go for it and post the results.

trochoid

iTrader: (6)

For the doors catching the fender, check the door gap at the back with the rear quarter, If it is right, then the front fender needs shifted. Look dowm the side of the body, does the backside of the fender stick out? If it does, the is a bolt in the miidle of the rear of the fender. It is hidden behind the spash guard.

Once the plane down the side of the body is lined up, if the door and fender gap is still too tight, the fender will need to be loosened and shifted forwad. Do this after you are sure the door is lined properly, top, bottom and rear, and hinges are not worn, allowing the door to sag.

Post pics of the rest of the damage. There are other ways to pull out the rear quarter besides drilling holes and using a slide hammer, but that equipment gets very pricey.

BigJeff

I'll try to get some pics up this weekend, the gap between the doors and the rear quarter is I'd say about 1/4 inch or so, and it's the same on both sides. In the front there is very little space, and I know for a fact that the bolt in the middle of front driver's fender is broken off. The wheel well area of the front fenders are both a little misshapen, like someone tried to bend them back into shape or something. It's pretty obvious looking along the car into the wheel well.

The drivers side door is sagging a bit, but the passenger side isn't that I can recall (drivers side is the one I open all the time, obviously). The bumpers are both a little chewn up, I'm gonna try to find some replacements from the junkyard soon.

I'm glad to hear the auto spray paint method turns up decent results, I know it won't be spectacular until I get a high quality paint job but if it'll come even a little close to stock it will look better than it does now. I'm even looking into doing that part myself, I know it can be done but that would probably be pushing my abilities to the max, hehe.

boyee

iTrader: (3)

no doubt it was an accident.

my passenger door needs to be opened by pulling hard.. it wont unlatch just by lifting up the door handle. and when the door opens and closes, it makes a metal to metal rubbing sound not like a scratching high pitch sound but just contact sound

edit: up there i meant the car has been in an accident. so has mine and it had structural damage which has been repaired but my pass. door sits a little higher i believe.

greeddennis

Hey Jeff welcome to the forum, and sounds like your getting into the kind of work i've been slowly introduced into this past month. I also have an RX-7 with one big *** dent right behind the driver door it was about 1 foot long and had a deep long crease from about 4-6 inches from the bottom of the 1/4 panel running till about as high as the top of the wheel well.
Dad and I "mostly him because hes done this work before when he was younger" tried pushing or prying the dent out by means of finding holes from the inside out, and that worked a bit, until we rand out of holes to use and the fact that the dent ran across the indent that the body originally had so it was that much harder to get that out. So we opted using a slide hammer and screw to pull the rest of it out. And so it worked, there was about 8-10 holes poked to pull it out so there was the least bondo needed. And now it looks great, need a little more bondo i found out last night there was a little low spot left and then it'll be good to go after a glaze and light sanding.

I know im probably thread jacking by telling that story, but it gets the point across that you can do it that way and its relativitly easy and quick to do (if you know what your doing and if not, it isnt too hard to learn how to use the stuff, I've been watching and learning every step of the way.)

Another way he said you can use is a bottle jack or something of the sort and if you can find holes in the body that you can stuff the shaft of it against the bend or crease, then all you have to do is find a good solid spot somewhere in the car for the jack to push against, use boards to get different lengths... and the such. By the sounds of it that bigger dent is way back so, maybe you could take the speaker out and use that hole, or by the gas filler hose theres another hole there you might be able to get something through that one.

Oh yeah, if you plan on getting this car painted and want it to last long I suggest if you see that there is just a little bit of rust around the support plates, where the upper "control arm?" goes to from the rear axel, and the "rock gaurd?" (correct me if im wrong with the quoted terminology) in the rear wheel wells, well drill those welds out and you'll find rust, rust and more rust, I found that **** out and it didn't look like there was barely any at all by looking at the tiny bit of rust on the outside.

I'm going to make my own thread here sometime with pictures of the progress of my car, but till then i guess people just have to visualize.

Have fun and good luck with your project.

Mr.Snakey

a question about the cans of paint, do you only have to apply it on already painted surfaces, or can it be applyed on sanded down surfaces, and i was wondering whats the best method of sanding down and body filling a rx7

greeddennis

You can use a hand drill and buy a 5" or 7" diameter sanding disc I bought one at princess auto for $3 and a bag of sanding discs for $6, 50/60 grit. Then when you get a big enough area sanded down to the metal, dust it off and you can start applying filler, depending on how much you have to fill will determine how much filler to make up, but if its a huge *** dent or area to fill, then i suggest making about 1/2 cup or so of filler and then apply that, becuase it hardens up pretty fast, and the next thing you know is the stuff you had on the putty knife is hard or too thick to use and then thats just wasting it. Before it gets too hard on the body, you can also get yourself a rasp "cheese grater looking like thing" cut down the high spots, or you can use the drill and sander and that works great also, just takes a bit longer becuse the bondo is so hard another note, you wont be able to use the drill all the time, get a sanding block and some sandpaper for that and when you get it close use that to get it to perfection. Keep doing that process until you have acomplished what you think is a good clean smooth finish (use straight edges to make sure things are flat. and make templates if you can that you can set against the work your doing.)
Then use a spot/glaze putty to fill in all the sanding scratches, and use 220 grit, im useing 180 grit and its working fine to sand that down, after your done sanding you should see a bunch of "red lines, thats the color of stuff i was using but whatever the color is thats what u'll see" from where the scratches used to be and then give it a good feel after your done see if theres any small low or high spots that you might of missed and get at them while your at this stage or better yet on the body filler stage. Then prime it is the next step I believe.

If anyone wants to add something in there, or has a better way of doing it, by means tell the guy, again im just stating how we've been going about stuff and its working good so far.

Mr.Snakey

wow, great advice dude, i think ill print that off, so i can go by it, ill gather all the supplys over the winter, caz im already into other jobs on my car, and im on a low budjet haha and ill save tons by doing it myself, the only body filling i will be doin is on very small dents, and small rusted through areas, thanks alot for the advice man