What is Mig Welding

Mig welding is the choice of most Collision repair shops today. Mig welding really took hold in the mid 1970 in the repair industry. Mig is a abbreviation for Metal Inert Gas Welding. Mig welders consist of a handle with a trigger controlling a wire feed, feeding the wire from a spool to the weld joint. The wire runs through a liner which also has a gas feeding through to the point of the contact Arc. The gas surrounds the Arc protecting it from the outside air. This helps the welding area to recieve the perfect enviroment for a perfect weld.

Mig welding requires three things, electricity to produce heat, An electrode to fill the needed weld joint, and a shielding gas to protect the weld from the air.

When you adjust your welder to the perfect welding speed, temp and gas output it will sound similar to hot frying bacon a fast crackling sound.

The age of the Paint Gun

Its very interesting to see the changes in the equipment and tools used today and the tools used in the past. The paint guns used years ago achieved the same effects that our new guns do today. The air is mixed with the fluid and a spray mist is created.

The two guns on the left are what we call siphon feed guns or cup guns or conventional guns. They were used in our industry going way back and probably are still being used today in some parts of the country. But do to the EPA restriction in some cities we are not allowed to use the siphon type guns anymore. Why? The siphon guns use a tremendous amount of air to siphon the paint up to the gun nozzle where it is mixed with air creating a large amount of over spray to disperse into the air causing pollution and waste.

The siphon gun has been our friend for a long time, but we now have the HVLP.

The HVLP gun seen on the right is our choice of gun today. It also can be called gravity feed. Notice the paint cup is at the top. The paint does not have to be forced to the nozzle by air, its already right there ready to be atomized into a mist. HVLP stands for high volume low pressure. The EPA loves the minimum amount of over spray generated by these wonderful HVLP guns. The paint departments over time find a nice little savings in materials also, since the unused over spray now can be going on the job.

Electrical Damage

Electrical damage from this accident can be and will be a nightmare if not found and corrected during the repairs. Often we don't see electrical damage after a collision because most of the vehicles come with a plastic type conduit insulation around the cluster of wires. Remember I said see, you can't see the damage because all the wires are inside the factory plastic conduit BUT GUESS WHAT? Yep we have cut and smashed wires. Its very important to do a little investigating if you see a factory conduit compromised in anyway. To go back and trace and repair these wires after the vehicle has been put together can be enough to make you ( well I'll be nice and say pretty upset). We remove the factory electrical tape and pulled the wire cluster through the plastic conduit exposing the many damaged wires. In classes that I've attended in the past, recommend a repair using what we call butt connectors. Butt connectors are great in some repairs, but not here. We like to use old fashion solder. We will strip our wires and run a piece of heat shrink up one side and twist and solder our wire, fold it over and run back our heat shrink and use a butane torch to heat our shrink. Now its totally sealed against the environment and strong. Now we don't have to worry about corrosion or any butt connector coming loose. Once we complete the repairs we will wrap with electrical tape and secure back in it original plastic conduit. Oh, and guess what? When we do our final light check, I bet they all work.

Frame Repair part 2

After setting the vehicle on the frame rack, measuring and installing our centerline gauges we start a pulling plan. We have discovered that we have a diamond and a collapse front cross member, (Not good news). There is a rule of thumb that the diamond should be the first item to address but with the severity of the cross member we decide to attack it first. We set up our chains in order to hold the vehicle in place and set blocks in areas to help against sagging.
Our Chief frame machine is equipped with three 10 ton towers capable of putting a tremendous amount pressure in the area that needs to be reversed. We wrap the area where we are going to pull with chains and a super strong nylon pull strap and we start to pull. As we pull we are watching carefully how things are moving and the amount of pressure we are generating on our pressure gauges. Our centerline gauges are moving as we pull and this really helps us see the movement of the frame itself. We are happy to see the cross member moving as our space between the transmission is improving, it actually took 9000 lbs of pressure to move the cross member since this is probably the strongest area on the vehicle. After several attempts to pull the cross member to its factory position we start addressing the diamond affect. What is a Diamond? Just think again about a ladder. If you were to be able to stretch just one of the legs of the ladder about six inches and the other stayed in it original position just think how goofy that ladder would look, that ladder would be what we call a diamond. The most important item when pulling a diamond frame is the ability to hold and keep the side of the frame that was not injured from moving. After securing the side with chains, clamps and blocks we begin to pull straight forward on the damaged frame rail. As our frame rail moves back to its original position we should have equal measurements between the cross members and the frame rails as we do our X measurement. Next, we will do a computerize wheel alighnment.

Frame Repair (Diamond)

As our age of unibody construction is taken over, we still have conventional frames mostly seen on our trucks and heavy duty vehicles. A conventional frame is what we call most the time as a ladder frame. Think of a ladder, you have two long main frames with several cross members. On this little Ranger truck our customer hit a tree and decided they would repair and keep her for Jordan to finish school. Jordan and his Dad did most the suspension and upper structure repair and had us help them with the frame repair.

We first begin by setting the vehicle up on the frame machine and measure the front, center and rear frame between the cross members to see how the frame traveled at impact. When we were measuring we discovered more damage.
Our front cross member at the lower control arm was bent so much it was hitting the transmission. We discovered that we had a diamond and a collapsed front cross member and a front sway. Now we set up, block, and develop a pulling plan.

Customer Pick Up

After the painting is complete the vehicle returns to the Body Shop for reassembly. We start by assorting all trim pieces and begin to install the front headlights, grilles, bumper and all trim on the drivers door. We evacuate and check the A/C system for leaks before recharging. We had a challenging job with replacing the fuse block that was destroyed, had about 50 wires to change out. After all the trim and hardware has been installed we have a 4 wheel alignment performed we then road test and off to make ready for a detail. The customer arrives to pick up her car.

No this is not a prank, this is our awesome customer of near 15 years

Carol Crawford. She is always Clowning Around. Carol is a true Clown among other characters. She owns Singing Telegrams of Dallas. Carol recently sang to President George W Bush at a Presidents Day party.

If anyone is interested in a entertainer for any occasion please give Carol a call

at 214-381-7464 (sing) or visit her website at http://www.singingtelegramsdallas.com/

She has many characters for any occasion. Thank You Carol your awesome.

Its Paint Time.

After the sealer that was applied evenly on all panels we like to allow this sealer to dry for at least 30 minutes or more and we will lightly go over the final sealer with a soft gentle tac cloth to assure there are no lingering dust particles or lint before we will apply our base coat. If we detect any dust or lint we can at this time gently sand these imperfections out with a fine 1000 grit sandpaper before we apply our base coat. We have tested our final color match and we are ready to spray. We prepare our HVLP gun and select our desired air pressure and adjust our gun to a consistent fan pattern. I like to start for just a moment in an area like the lower panel areas to assure the gun is tuned to my satisfaction before I commit to the upper areas. Its very important to be happy with the output and the fan pattern before you really go for it. Now, lets go for it. Come across your hood as steady and even as you can while paying close attention to your fan pattern, you want a even pattern and you will overlap each coat by just a small amount. Try to keep the tip of you gun at a steady distance from your panel, a all around average distance might be 6 to 10 inches ( pay attention how your fan pattern is in relations with your tip distance) Remember we want a even look. One of the most critical item is the speed of your gun, stay consistent, don't slow down or speed up use a nice steady pace. If you see it going on to heavy (speed up). If you see it going on to dry (slow down) find that steady pace.

After you have applied the desires coats for a good even coverage you are ready to apply your clear coat. Let your base coat flash and sit for maybe 20 minutes til its not sticky on the outside before applying your clear coat. You can be cleaning your base coat gun and preparing your clear coat gun while your base coat is flashing. Now lets crank it up. We have our clear coat ready and we adjust our gun again to a little different material. I like to crank the air pressure up a little and adjust my viscosity knob up and really put it on. The first coat is a even medium wet coat that we want to let it set till its pretty tacky, this is going to help hold our next coat up. We are not concerned with pretty at this point. Our second coat we want to be a little wetter than our first, again we are going to let it set for a while because our third coat we are really going to lay it on. I sometimes will adjust my gun again so I can really get it wet and shiny and I often speed up at this point to assure I don't get to heavy. What we want is a wet look not a heavy look ( remember we want to be steady and even). Now your finished with the fun stuff and your arm is about to fall off. But your happy because she looks awesome.

New Wreck Goes to Paint Dept.

After all the cut in is done and the outer sheet metal is installed its time to ship to the Paint Department. The paint shop will clean, prime and block any body repair or imperfections that require attention. After the primer dries we will hand block the areas needed with a flat hand block with a fine sandpaper 220 to 320 grit. After all the blocking is complete we will sand the complete paint areas with 320 to 600 grit and prepare for paint. We will blow with a high power blower removing any dust particles that may be lingering in and out of cracks and seams. I cannot tell you how important blowing and cleaning is before you begin the painting. We like to blow the floors, walls, car and ourselves before painting. After we have blown many times we will use a solvent called pre cleaner. This cleaner removes any hand print, wax, or oils that could cause contamination to our paint. The car is wrapped with a clear Norton plastic and tightly sealed to car. We then take a final tac cloth and gently wipe all surfaces down to remove any remaining lint or dust. We now will spray a sealer over the complete area to assure adhesion. We are getting real close to the fun stuff.

New Wreck Arrives

The tow truck slides new wreck on the lot. The insurance is dispatched for a visual inspection. After the insurance appraiser inspects we start the process. We bring our new wreck in the shop for a tear down ( removing damaged pieces to expose all the inner damage and inspect for possible hidden damage). After the tear down is complete we notify the insurance company on any hidden damage. We will set the vehicle up on the frame machine ( anchoring the vehicle level and secure) to further check for hidden damage. We examine the damage and then we create a pulling plan. Our pulling plan will consist of restoring all upper and lower structure areas to our printed factory dimension sheet. After we have made our necessary pulls the damaged sheetmetal is drilled out and removed. With the damaged sheet metal removed we now have a better visual and we inspect for more hidden damage such as motor mounts,A/C lines, and pulleys etc. Now we start the construction part of the collision repair. We fit and align our new sheetmetal parts and prepare to weld. Before welding we like to use a weld through primer consisting of zinc and copper, this primer helps eliminate corrosion from the heated areas caused from the welder. After our welding is complete we grind the welds smooth and get ready for painting the new installed sheetmetal, we call this cut in. Now we are ready to start installing our outer panels such as our fenders, hood, and any part that is to be painted. After all sheetmetal has been installed off to the paint shop it goes.

Candy Paint

An often asked question. What is Candy paint? How does it work?
I bet you have heard the word candy apple red many times. Just what does candy apple red mean? Candy painting is so sweet, if you have a hunger for the WOW factor candy might be your answer. One of the hardest to match and one of the most expensive paints on the market. I will try to make it simple.
Candy paint is a illusion created by two differant colors. #1 you have a base color like a bright gold or bright silver that is sprayed as the base coat. I like to call this the KICKER coat.#2 The actual color coat like our red is a special blend red using transparent toners and binders. The color coat, yes its red but you see right through it down to the KICKER coat. You can put 12 coats on a panel and still see through it. The transparency of the color coat in conjuction with your KICKER color creates a illusion that leaves you thinking its 6 inches thick and the color is so vivid you just stand back in the sunlight and say WOW! The final stage is of course your clear coat. The clear coat brings it all together and helps give it the glass look and helps with the reflection in the sunlight. One of my favorite candy is the Wineberry. A deep dark maroon that looks deep and rich.

Section Refinishing

Most collision repair today requires only the damage area to be refinished with some blending on the adjacent panels. The most important factor in section refinishing is color matching and texture. Color matching is the painters most challenging aspect of refinishing. The colors we have today are so complex with pearls, metallics, toners and transparencies, a painter may spend hours working on a perfect color match. Most good painters will use what we call spray panels to finalize their formula before spraying. A painter will take a heavy paper panel or plastic panel and spray their final tinted color match to these test panels. They will select a part ( maybe the damaged fender etc) from the vehicle, clean and place in direct sunlight. The test panel will be sprayed and placed next to the original color from the vehicle and tested for color match. If a painter has achieved a perfect match we are ready to spray. Now the fun begins.

Quality Colors Collision established in 1982

In the summer of 1982 Quality Colors opened for business. Our specialty at that time was a custom refinishing shop specializing in custom painting and auto restoration. As business improved in the first couple of years we were faced with a tremendous amount of collision repair. By 1984 we had become a full service collision repair shop with a mix of custom painting still happening with the new corvettes coming. If collision is going to be our destiny that's what we will do. We love it. Its challenging and very satisfying as our passion to take a badly damaged vehicle and restore it to a like new finish its extremely rewarding. Its now 2010 and we are still at it. We repair approximately 25 collisions a week now and we do a very limited amount of custom repairs.