Dings, dents, gouges, and defects. [Archive] - ForumsHQ

[Shaddow]

My Dad has a early 90's Corsica, on the passenger door there is a deep gouge, down to what I figure is the base coat (hasn't started to rust yet) but it's deep. I dont want to have to redo the entire door, can I just sand it down to bare metal, tape the area off, primer and paint it.



How many coats should I put on? Can I use the touch up spray cans? I dont need it to be perfect, cause we're gonna sell it PDQ.



Also some little SOB tried to use a screw to get into the passenger side door, it looks deep, but not deep enough to fubar the tumblers. How hard is it to remove the outter housing to see if the tumbers are intact.

GM wants $65 cdn to rekey the lock, or $300 ro replace it with a new one rekeyed to the old key, So I dont want to go with an oem replacement if I can get around it.

[SlipStone SourKnot]

not sure about the paint job, but you can goto any auto parts store and buy a lock and any locksmith can adjust the tumblers for next to nothing if you are willing to put it in.. thas not hard either.. had to do it to my firebird.



if once inside the door panel there is just 1 metal clip holding the whole assembly in place you can take it out and look at it yerself do decide which step you want to do next.



if you can fix computers fixing the door should be a breeze. :D

[Shaddow]

not sure about the paint job, but you can goto any auto parts store and buy a lock and any locksmith can adjust the tumblers for next to nothing if you are willing to put it in.. thas not hard either.. had to do it to my firebird.



if once inside the door panel there is just 1 metal clip holding the whole assembly in place you can take it out and look at it yerself do decide which step you want to do next.



if you can fix computers fixing the door should be a breeze. :D





Thanx Jas :D How is the fire......chicken :D :D

[SlipStone SourKnot]

i was wishin i had as minor repairs to my car as yer dad has to his..

[Shaddow]

i was wishin i had as minor repairs to my car as yer dad has to his..



hahahaha this is just the beater, the van is a whole different story, we have to drop the transmission and take it in for repair, cause we've blown all forward bands, and reverse is slippin somethin fierce.

I drove it almost 10 miles home (usin backroads) in reverse. That wasn't very fun, I'm gettin my pogey finally on the 28th of July, they're back datin my checks to March 28th, so I'll get a shit load of cash, and I'm gonna but something small & cheap that sips fuel. Prolly gonna get a scooter, cause at $4.00 p/gallon I want as cheap as possible.

[barracuda1187]

As far as the bodywork, firstly, and I can't stress this enough - if you haven't done bodywork before, or don't know someone who has that can help you - leave the scratch. A scratch, even a deep one, will always look better than a badly executed touch-up - especially if you plan to sand down just that area and finish it off with rattle-cans of paint. Seriously, you're better off just saying "hey there's a scratch here, you can get it fixed up cheap".



For the door lock - as you probably already can tell, you'll have to pull the inner door panel off and then take out the assembly that way. You'll have to remove the clip that holds it to the door as well as any clip(s) that hold the rods that go to the door latch assembly, so be careful that you don't break 'em off. Then, you can pull off the tumbler's front cover trim piece (the tweaked part that you see from the outside of the car) and check to see if the key still works in it. If so, you can get just that trim piece from the dealer (or even a local locksmith might have it) and reinstall it - you're done. The tumblers are probably okay if it looks like just some meathead jamming a screwdriver in there tweaked the cover and stuff.

[Shaddow]

Thanx Cuda, yeah I dont know much about body work. Uh Oh, I think it's time to call MAACO :D :D :D



I can get a full Basic paint job for like $200

[barracuda1187]

Thanx Cuda, yeah I dont know much about body work. Uh Oh, I think it's time to call MAACO :D :D :D



I can get a full Basic paint job for like $200



Heh, no problem.



BUT, unless the existing paint looks seriously crappy, I definitely wouldn't advise going to MAACO, either. A $200 paint job is gonna look worse than old paint (unless it's REALLY, REALLY old).



Seriously, when selling a halfway-decent used car, all you really should be doing is clean it up as best you can, make sure no parts are falling off, and make sure it runs nice on a test drive. People looking at used cars, unless the car is newer, will accept dings and stuff like that - they have to because if they're looking at something like an early 90s Corsica, they're not also considering a new BMW (or even a new Honda) so you don't have to 'compete' with something nicer like that.

[imhere]

If you really want the paint to look great. Ask a good body shop what a wet sand/polish would run. That can bring new life into paint.

[barracuda1187]

If you really want the paint to look great. Ask a good body shop what a wet sand/polish would run. That can bring new life into paint.



Agreed.



But again, make sure the expense is worth it. I figure an early 90s Corsica, unless it's REALLY clean, isn't going to be worth much more than $1500. So spending 2-300 bucks (plus your time) but not increasing the value by at least that much would be a waste.