We've always said that the smart way to buy a car is to get one that already has a straight body and good, fresh paint. That's because a good paint job is one of the most expensive parts of building a car (assuming you pay someone else to do it) and also the messiest, most time-consuming segment of the project (especially if you do it yourself). But the reality is that a car with good paint is far more expen- sive than the work-in-progress that finances usually allow. So what are you going to do?
We put this body and paint section together to shed some light on stuff you can do at home, without paying through the nose. Tips and tricks that you can use to fix dents, repair sheetmetal, apply filler, sand the body panels to perfection, and even lay down flashy new paint and buff it out-if you're confident enough to go that far. Unlike many other paint stories, we're not showing how we painted a car from A to Z. We dug deep into our well of sources to show differing opinions on how best to turn your car from Ugly Betty to Heidi Klum.
