So my daughter was in an accident and banged up her RF corner of her 93 240sx convertible.  Not her fault, but they totaled it and we paid the salvage value and kept the car.  The damage appeared to be mostly bolt-on panels, so we decide to try and DIY some or all of it. We've pulled off the bumper, fender, and headlight, and have found that the corner of the radiator support and wheelwell is bashed a bit as well.

What I have:
1) The Nissan auto body manual, showing exact alignment dimensions to get thye corner back into shape
2) An air compressor, older oilless 30 gallon Craftsman
3) HF "purple" HVLP gun
4) Various mechanics tools
5) ZERO experience at bodywork.

Parts I have:
1) Replacement front bumper assembly, same color but dinged
2) Replacement retractable headlight assembly, differrent color cover
3) RF fender, same color but horrible shape from JY (first lesson learned, never send someone else to pick up parts)
4) Another JY fender, one easy dent, completely covered in surface rust - looks like the PO installed a replacement and primered it but never topcoated, so it surface rusted.
4) Hood: RF lip was bent down, and it may have bent slightly somewhere in the middle.

Things I need to do:
a) Straighten bodywork at corner so panels will align
b) Pound out dent in fender, sand to bare metal, shoot primer, basecoat, clear.
c) Fill dings in bumper, touchup
d) Straighten hood, touchup or reshoot?
e) Shoot cover for pop up headlight.

So what I'm looking for is guidance on
- paint sources
- whether I should get spray cans of touchup or try my hand at shooting
- Video tutorials of how to do all this shit.
- And of course the expected advice to take it to a shop, etc.

It looks like you can to everything. My goal would be to make it safe to drive and look decent.  Not new.

Unless you have a nearly dust free enviroment  I would go with the spray can.  

It's a college car - it needs to be safe, and *reasonably* unlike a clown car.  It already has dents and dings in damned near every panel.

Not sure how a rattlecan would deal with a dusty environment better?

When painting ground the car with a wire to the concrete to keep dust particles from attracting to it. If it is a dusty environment wet the floor first.

I wouldn't have thought of that.

One choice I have is to paint the components in a room in my basement, or mask and shoot them on the car outside.

Oh, also, recommendations for sander/grinder?  I was thinking HF cheapy, but do I need to get 2 different ones?

A standard D/A (dual action) type sander will do what you need to do. I wouldn't paint inside, do it outside and like mentioned, wet the area around where you are painting to keep dust down.

Use the spray gun, rattle cans will do a bad job on large surface areas like a fender.

You can get a DA sander at home depot for $50

Get a water oil seperator and put it on the compressor, HF sells a little one that also is a filter you can put by the gun. Use a air hose that has never run oil in it from air tools. It doesnt take much to cause fish eyes.


Paint you can buy local, most people i know use PPG, they have a value line, but it can be mixed any color once you give them the paint code. It is usually listed on the door frame or glovebox. It is about $200 per gallon, sounds like you can get by with a quart. A quart once mixed with the activator and reducer will make 2 quarts total.


Dont use Bondo filler, buy Evercoat brand body filler, so much easier to sand and it feathers much better.


Buy the paint and primer and it comes with a data sheet or one can be found and it will tell you what you need to do to prep the panels.

My plan for the day was to go to Harbor Freight and get a DA sander, a couple of disposable filter driers, and other supplies, but now I think I'm going to add an air hose.  Theoretically my compressor is oilless, but I honestly don't remember where I got the hoses, so better safe than sorry.

I located a PPG supplier as well, and am going to pick up some primer, base, and clear, as well as pick their brains.I'm thinking reduced basecoat for the fender and headlight cover, and a rattlecan for the spots on the bumper and hood.

Thanks for the tip on the Evercoat.

One big question: shoot fender on or off the car? I could rattle can the inside of the fender and mount it before the finish coat, but that means a LOT of masking.  But if I shoot it off the car, I run the risk of banging it up while mounting.  Any advice?

I know you are trying to do this as cheap as you can. My personal suggestion is to straiten out the frame panels, dry fit everything into place, and take it all apart and have a body shop paint the parts in thier off time/down time. Stress you can wait a few weeks. Ask for a cheaper discount.

Omce everything is painted, slap it back together and call it a fixed car.

Body work SUCKS. It's one place i never go. Let the pros do the work which requires skill aquired over time.

That plan was given serious consideration, except for the fact that she goes back to school at the end of next week.

But I am liking the dry-fit and then remove idea.

So, thought I would follow up.  It's definitely more of a pain than I expected.  Panel fit (one of the JY fender turned out to be an aftermarket replacement.) Etc.  But we test fit everything, and now have the panels pulled off.

The hood had the front edge turned down.  I banged it back into shape, and my daughter has been sanding and prepping today.

This is her first pass with 80 grit on the DA sander:



Told her to feather out more, and get into the divots with a sanding drum on the dremel.  Here's the second pass:



After this I told her to feel for any high spots and knock down any high metal with the hammer. She did, hit it with the sander again, and is about to start applying Evercoat Rage Gold.  Cross your fingers.

In the meantime, I had my son make a "workbench" from pallets.  This is to hange the fender, and provide a higher working surface for the hood.  I was then informed that my authority is not recognized in Fort Kickass.

Another update: Took yesterday off and spent it with the body filler and sander.  Ugh.  Got the panels as close as they were going to get.  Shot about 6 coats of primer - 3 coats, then sand and another 3 coats.  Here's the fender this morning.



And here are the first 3 coats of color from a $9.99 Harbor Freight gun, set up and operated by a 21 year old girl and a 16 year old boy.



Well...she already said it has some drips, so she's going to sand and shoot another coat or two.  But I'm waiting to hear back on whether that discoloration is a reflection or where the paint is thin.