What is the worst body work you've seen or done?

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

bucket

Super Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Joined
Aug 3, 2010
Posts
28,956
Reaction score
23,466
Location
Usually not in Ohio
First Name
Andy
Truck Year
'77, '78, '79, '84, '88
Truck Model
K5 thru K30
Engine Size
350-454
No pics but it DID happen years ago.

A co-workers son had an accident that caved in the driver's side door. He asked me to help him repair it. I pulled the dent as well as I could (all he had was a dent puller, not wanting to disassemble inside door to do it right, no dollies, no body hammers) and then I told him it would make the bondo too thick unless we did it right. He only cared that it looked good until he could find a new door.

Soooo, I pulled dent as well as I could and caked on the bondo for him. When I sanded it, it needed a couple more coats. He said he wanted to finish it. I left. He painted over it "as-is" and came to work next day saying I did the body work and that's why it looked like that! BS!

That was the LAST time I ever did a repair without doing it the way I knew it should be done and NEVER left a repair without finishing it. Lesson: NEVER half-a$$ a repair even if the owner wants to. Makes you look bad. I should have known better.

Luckily, when people at work asked me about it and I explained what happened they knew my reputation as being truthful and his as being less than a stand-up guy. Obviously, I set myself up but I thought he would finish it then claim credit for the job but guess he got lazy and decided to dump the blame on me. I figure I had that one coming for not insisting to fix it the right way or not at all. Let this be a lesson to you if someone asks you to do a "temporary" repair.

I once did a repair that I'm still ashamed of to this day. It was a regular customer with a '96 Firebird, he was always crashing the darn thing. One of the times, it got blasted in the driver door, smashing the rocker panel in pretty good too. His insurance had already canceled his policy, so my boss said we could patch it back together for him and he could just pay the bill in increments. Well that meant that the car got a used door and some pull time on the rocker, that was it. I really really wanted to put a rocker on the car, but my boss insisted that I just mud it over after I pulled it. The rocker had been mangled mind you.

I ended up drilling countless 1/8 inch holes in the area that was going to need a THICK coat of mud, then ran a #8 panhead screw into each hole. Using a straight edge as a guide, I ran all the screws in just far enough that the they would be about 3/16 inch below the surface once it was sanded smooth. Then proceeded to apply one hell of a thick coat of mud, being sure to force it in around all of the screws.

The car looked great when it left the shop. I really hope nobody ever discovered that repair.
 

80BrownK10

Full Access Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2019
Posts
1,878
Reaction score
1,240
Location
Greenwood, SC
First Name
Nate
Truck Year
1980
Truck Model
K10
Engine Size
350

Snoots

Full Access Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2013
Posts
8,158
Reaction score
15,957
Location
Georgia
First Name
Roger
Truck Year
1973
Truck Model
Jimmy Sierra
Engine Size
350
When I look in the mirror.
 

jjester6000

Full Access Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2019
Posts
878
Reaction score
2,444
Location
Illinois
First Name
Jack
Truck Year
1974
Truck Model
C1500
Engine Size
250
Look at this guys expert repair, I saw this in the parking lot at work.
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
 

Donald

Full Access Member
Joined
Jun 24, 2018
Posts
74
Reaction score
166
Location
Loris SC.
First Name
Don
Truck Year
1985
Truck Model
GMC 1500
Engine Size
350 / 290
The worst I've seen was a guy I know had a C 20 . The front fender back by the door had a very big rust hole at least 4" or 5 " . He filled it with drywall mud smoothed it out through some primer on it and sold it to a friend .
 

jjester6000

Full Access Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2019
Posts
878
Reaction score
2,444
Location
Illinois
First Name
Jack
Truck Year
1974
Truck Model
C1500
Engine Size
250
The worst I've seen was a guy I know had a C 20 . The front fender back by the door had a very big rust hole at least 4" or 5 " . He filled it with drywall mud smoothed it out through some primer on it and sold it to a friend .

Wouldn't that just fall at the first sight of rain.
 

jjester6000

Full Access Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2019
Posts
878
Reaction score
2,444
Location
Illinois
First Name
Jack
Truck Year
1974
Truck Model
C1500
Engine Size
250
This is my co-workers dodge caravan (or what's left of one).
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

(notice the expandafoam)

We are about to do a HackNPack repair job on it with Rivets, Sheet metal, and some bedliner.
 

gotyourgoat

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2014
Posts
2,117
Reaction score
3,417
Location
NRV Virginia
First Name
gotyourgoat
Truck Year
1984
Truck Model
c10
Engine Size
smokin' 305
This is my co-workers dodge caravan (or what's left of one).
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

(notice the expandafoam)

We are about to do a HackNPack repair job on it with Rivets, Sheet metal, and some bedliner.
There's no fixing that. Enjoy being able to drive it instead of having to scrap it because it doesn't pass inspection. :cool:
 

jjester6000

Full Access Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2019
Posts
878
Reaction score
2,444
Location
Illinois
First Name
Jack
Truck Year
1974
Truck Model
C1500
Engine Size
250
There's no fixing that. Enjoy being able to drive it instead of having to scrap it because it doesn't pass inspection. :cool:

Well, there is no inspection in Illinois, so he could drive it until it literially splits in half.

But in all seriousness, I am going to brace up the body by welding some angle iron where the jack rail was.

We don't want to spend a cent on this repair (the van doesn't deserve anything more).

I found some corrugated sheet metal in a ditch, and plan to build new door bottoms out of it.

We may also steal the downspout off somebody's house in order to build rocker panels.

It looks like a lot of fun to us.
 

dvdswan

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2014
Posts
2,366
Reaction score
2,024
Location
Port Orchard, WA
First Name
Dave
Truck Year
1978
Truck Model
K10
Engine Size
350
My buddy had a Honda del Sol that he bought years ago. Apparently it was drifted into a guardrail (best guess). RR 1/4 was showing 1" of tire and the 1/4 was pushed in 2" with bondo building it up. After finding this we replaced the RR 1/4 completely. Then repainted the car.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach
 

jjester6000

Full Access Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2019
Posts
878
Reaction score
2,444
Location
Illinois
First Name
Jack
Truck Year
1974
Truck Model
C1500
Engine Size
250
We decided to spruce the van up a bit yesterday.

Did not really fix any holes yet, but we did grind down any loose rust/paint, and sprayed some rusty metal primer on it.
You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

(Also added a racing stripe)
You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

I also buffed where the clear coat had pealed with some boiled linseed oil.

We're going to do all the rust repair this weekend.
 

Doppleganger

Full Access Member
Joined
May 24, 2019
Posts
11,600
Reaction score
53,648
Location
OH-MI: Just like it sounds
First Name
Chris
Truck Year
1985
Truck Model
K20
Engine Size
5.7
Dodge has always had garbage steel.....worse than the early Honduhs. Couldn't give me one. I've seen 5 yr old trucks around here with holes in the bumpers you could put your hand in.

When I was a kid my dad and I were at the dealership (he had a Golden Eagle pickup at the time he had bought new there - unloaded it 2 yrs later because the bed was rotting so bad). The truck arrived loaded with new Cordoba's. The rims were all rusted - looked like they had bug bombed Dutch Boy primer on them at assembly. I mentioned it to the salesmen and he said 'thats nothing - many times the fender edges are bubbled and we have to fix them before they go on the lot..' WTF?
 

idahovette

Full Access Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2016
Posts
6,451
Reaction score
13,782
Location
Weiser Idaho
First Name
Perry
Truck Year
1975-1979
Truck Model
K20-K10
Engine Size
350
Dodge has always had garbage steel.....worse than the early Honduhs. Couldn't give me one. I've seen 5 yr old trucks around here with holes in the bumpers you could put your hand in.

When I was a kid my dad and I were at the dealership (he had a Golden Eagle pickup at the time he had bought new there - unloaded it 2 yrs later because the bed was rotting so bad). The truck arrived loaded with new Cordoba's. The rims were all rusted - looked like they had bug bombed Dutch Boy primer on them at assembly. I mentioned it to the salesmen and he said 'thats nothing - many times the fender edges are bubbled and we have to fix them before they go on the lot..' WTF?
"Quality Control" Chris!!
 

jjester6000

Full Access Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2019
Posts
878
Reaction score
2,444
Location
Illinois
First Name
Jack
Truck Year
1974
Truck Model
C1500
Engine Size
250
Dodge has always had garbage steel.....worse than the early Honduhs. Couldn't give me one. I've seen 5 yr old trucks around here with holes in the bumpers you could put your hand in.

When I was a kid my dad and I were at the dealership (he had a Golden Eagle pickup at the time he had bought new there - unloaded it 2 yrs later because the bed was rotting so bad). The truck arrived loaded with new Cordoba's. The rims were all rusted - looked like they had bug bombed Dutch Boy primer on them at assembly. I mentioned it to the salesmen and he said 'thats nothing - many times the fender edges are bubbled and we have to fix them before they go on the lot..' WTF?

Rust is standard equipment on most chrysler products.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
41,851
Posts
903,488
Members
33,365
Latest member
rossivey
Top