X350 small dent repair proceedure

[J44EAG]

Parking rash sustained to the nearside rear quarter panel with a small depressed dink evident. Quoted £400 to fix locally...no way! As usual, I`ll do it myself.

The depression was impossible to access from the rear of the car. As metal gets dented, the surrounding material rises. A block of hardwood and a lump hammer managed to lower the raised area to near original levels. Good but not perfect. Images of work in progress below.

A dob of body filler upon abraded paint was next. Faired as well as I could get it into the panel profile, all abrasion scratches were removed with P600, then P1200 wet & dry paper. A G3 buff followed, then a wash and panel wipe with spirit. Three coats of primer, then more 1200 flatting. Over-spray removed and another buffing session. Another water wash, spirit wipe and the spray colour coat. That was lightly flatted to remove dust edges and smooth out the spray orange peel. Buffed again, washed and polished, the job was done.

A 95% good repair which certainly looks a lot better than the dent. Cost were a can of Halfords/Holts paint, some primer, filler, production paper and some G3. Total cost is about £25 with loads of paint and materials left in stock to deal with the next shopping trolley attack.

Panel repair work doesn`t need to be expensive or difficult.

Mike

[lowebird]

That looks like a really good job and from your photos, the previous dent has completely gone, well done Sir !!

[oldtimer]

Good job Mike, well done.
You make it sound too easy !

[J44EAG]

It is all just a matter of extreme cleanliness, methodology and proceedure. If you copy what I did for the dent or indeed just a scratch, then you can`t go far wrong. The important thing is to panel wipe after each proceedure, spray in light coats with at least 15 minutes between coats and gradually build up four or five layers of paint...then walk away and let harden up.

Forget spraying in temps of less that 15 degrees, pick a fairly wind and rain free day and take your time. The finish is achieved by flatting off over spray and the new paint with P1200 W&D, then P1500, then P2000 for a really good swirl free job. Use coarse cut rubbing compound, then G3 and work down to a superfine grade. Keep changing the part of the rag as you polish and buff up with a fresh cloth. Any smears mean the mutton cloth needs to have a fresh and clean wad presented to the paint.The old T-Cut is very effective at bringing up the final lustra but do ensure you panel wipe angain after use of the product as it has amonia in it and every trace must be removed. Panel wiped again to remove slurry and then clear gloss coated before repeating the paint flatting as above, you can get the same effect as a true professional. I perhaps have a slight advantage as I was a panel basher and painter in my late teens.

Whilst at my parents place recently, I also flatted out and repainted a scatch on the front of the N/S front wing just aft of the dipped headlight. The Halfords supplied Holts specially mixed aerosol paint matches and blends into the original paint very nicely. I`d describe their paint brews as a masterpiece of chemical mixing. It`s beutiful stuff to work with. It dries fast, hardens in about twelve hours in Summer conditions and flats and polishes to perfection. My new paint finish blends into the factory paint and is almost undetectable as a repair. Black is a very forgiving colour!

Mike