Automotive Bodywork and Rust Repair

By Matt Joseph

Book Overview

There comes a time when just about every car on the road will need some form of rust or body repair. Quite often, if the car is a daily driver for running errands, repairs are never made, and the car eventually ends up in junkyard heaven. For our beloved collector cars, hot rods, and muscle cars, dents, dings, and rust are not an option, and neither is the scrap heap. And for just about any restoration project, the bodywork is by far the most expensive part of the process.

In Automotive Bodywork and Rust Repair, veteran restorer Matt Joseph shows you the ins and out of tackling both simple and difficult rust and metalwork projects. This book teaches you how to select the proper tools for the job, common-sense approaches to the task ahead of you, preparing and cleaning sheet metal, section fabrications and repair patches, welding options such as gas and electric, forming, fitting and smoothing, cutting metal, final metal finishing including filling and sanding, the secrets of lead filling, making panels fit properly, and more. Also included is a comprehensive resource guide.

Whether you decide you want to tackle a full restoration project, or just want to save money by doing minor repairs yourself, Automotive Bodywork and Rust Repair is the book to get you through it.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932494979
• ISBN13: 9781932494976
• Release Date: October 2009
• Publisher: Sa Design
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.5" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

Avoid at all Costs!

I knew this book was questionable as soon as I read the first sentence: "As the author, one of the greatest rewards for writing this book has been all I have learned while doing it." Oh no. The author is NOT a subject matter expert!! He's a writer of automotive topics. Shame on the publisher for not finding an expert, and using Joseph as an editor. There's simply too much wrong information. Take the first case study about minor dent removal. First, the dent is on a high crown panel. Haven't really seen those since 1968. Not very useful unless you're working on sports cars. The instructions for taking out this simple dent are, at best, confused. The topic on working auto body lead is WRONG. No mention of the mandatory neutralizing wash after tinning and prior to the application of lead. The process is: clean, tin, wipe, NEUTRALIZE, solder, file, metal prep. That's from Kent White, a subject matter expert. Then they sand the lead! Again, from Kent White: "DO NOT sand any leadwork with aluminum oxide abrasives as it causes intergranular corrosion. Now you know why "Cadzilla" had paint failures." The only other book that I am familiar with in this SA Design Workbench series is about rebuilding Buick motors. When that book came out, the Buick community rose up in outrage, as it contains so much wrong, and harmful, information. Plus, no one had ever heard of the book's author, and we're a tight nit community of Buick drag racers and, yes, Buick engine builders. So who am I? I graduated from Front Range Community College, Dept. of Auto Body, in 1986. There I studied the Fairmount method under dust bowl body men. I never worked professionally, but have been restoring cars ever since. I use very little lead and no plastic filler. I really regret never having the opportunity to work under experienced body men. That's why I try to find good references where I can expand my knowledge. This is not that.