Tail end touch-up (1 Viewer)

CandC

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The origin of this thread lies in a lay-by In the north of Scotland , just over a month ago. We had pulled off the road into the lay-by (which had a kerb between it and the main road) and tucked right in to have a bit of lunch. I had just put everything away and was walking back to the driver's seat when I suddenly felt the van lean to the left, accompanied by quite a gentle scraping sound!

Realising this was not normal behaviour from my camper, I looked out the window and saw a very large motorhome a lot closer to us than it should have been!!

On getting out to survey the damage, I was greeted with plastic.... LOTS of plastic! There was black plastic, orange plastic, white plastic (or was that fibreglass???) and a strip of grey rubber about 2" wide and 10' long! "Ok, I don't recognise any of that apart from maybe the orange bits," I thought.

Meanwhile, the driver of the very expensive, very new, 6 berth rental motorhome walked over to me, apologising profusely. We looked at the damage to Charlotte first. The only damage was where the rather costly heated, electric mirrors, complete with repeater indicator had abruptly ended it's life on the rear column leaving a couple of dents and some white paint on the already dented and very solid corner bumper!

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After checking that little C and I were unhurt, then asked me how I wanted to deal with the damage etc. We'll, having seen the damage to both vehicles and knowing that it's a "no claim bonus", not a "no blame bonus" I didn't want to risk taking a hit on my van and car insurances so told him that I would sort it myself.

Oh and all that plastic? Well, there was the mirror which I already told you about, the rear wheel arch of the motorhome and the rubber joint between the body and the skirt which also had a nasty gouge all the way along it!!! The back bumper on the motorhome stayed on, but was looking rather flappy!

That's a lot of typing, so I'll save it there and show you what I did in my next post :)
 
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CandC

CandC

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So, to the repair...

Having seen a post by @Rob and Val about small dent repair, I decided to try the hot air and freezing technique shown in that post. It didn't work, but did motivate me to try other methods.

I stripped out the inside cladding from the pillar first of all. Next, I used a craft heat gun on its highest setting to heat the dents up, hoping to make the metal more elastic (if you try this, don't get it TOO hot or you'll be doing a paint job!).
Next step was to push out the bigger dents and then, after a bit more heat, use the round handle of a large screwdriver to roll out as much of the sharper crease dents as I could.

A bit of tcut and very gentle rubbing removed the last remnants of the mirror from my paintwork.

A going over with some mer Polish, followed by some meguairs (sp?) gold wax finished the job off :D

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While I was at it, I fitted the new rear light clusters I bought last week (y)

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And lol, seeing those photos together, my next job is to get the Polish and wax out for the rest of the van :rofl:
 
Nov 18, 2011
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looks like a good repair
I had a bit of a shall I call it communication brake down the wife reversed me into a bloody grate rock smashing the rear panel.
all most got it sorted all the fibber glassing done just filling and sanding to do
bill

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TheBig1

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think yourself lucky you have an older van with proper thick steel. modern vans and cars are made with wafer thin steel that gives as you press it with a finger
 
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CandC

CandC

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Thank you all for your kind replies and praise.

looks like a good repair
I had a bit of a shall I call it communication brake down the wife reversed me into a bloody grate rock smashing the rear panel.
all most got it sorted all the fibber glassing done just filling and sanding to do
bill
Thanks Bill: I'm sure you'll get the same sense of satisfaction when you're finished too. Maybe you would like to share some photos too when you're done?

think yourself lucky you have an older van with proper thick steel. modern vans and cars are made with wafer thin steel that gives as you press it with a finger
I do indeed :) I also count the lack of ecu, egr, dpf etc as a big advantage of an older van too (y)

The ex missus scaped down one side of my van once....... we were quite happy until that happened........may be l was a bit hasty.:LOL:
Was that in your reaction or letting her drive in the first place??? ;)

Anyway, yes, I'm delighted with the way the repair turned out in the end.

My next project, however, could be a bit more challenging... A previous owner scraped the nearside against a wall by the look of it.

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Suggestions welcome :)
 
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CandC

CandC

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Hmmmmm, looks like rust under a slight layer of filler on the leading edge of the rear panel is it, or should I have gone to Specsavers? :LOL:

Thinking about it, yes, you're right about the filler. That would explain why I can see white instead of metal where the paintwork has scratched through. Perhaps they "said hello" to the wall on more than one occasion? :doh:

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Badknee

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It's the water getting under there that's my worry. If you cover it up it will be back in weeks and take the new paint with it. Don't know what the best approach will be, a bit of investigation to the leading edge might be first job?(n):eek: :LOL:
 

TheBig1

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grind it back to see the real damage, not just scratched filler. then have a section of new steel welded in after cutting out the rotten and damaged panel. grind back the welds till level and use a very thin skim of filler and sand to give a good surface for paint

leave it or refilling the hole will allow the rot to continue and it wont have any strength
 
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CandC

CandC

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Jan 22, 2014
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Old School :D
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Used to go with the olds! Now I have one of my own :)
grind it back to see the real damage, not just scratched filler. then have a section of new steel welded in after cutting out the rotten and damaged panel. grind back the welds till level and use a very thin skim of filler and sand to give a good surface for paint

leave it or refilling the hole will allow the rot to continue and it wont have any strength
Sounds like a plan... Thank you :)

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