Refinishing is the stage where an auto body repair either disappears or announces itself. Everything before it is preparation for this.

Preparation is most of the job

Time in the booth is short. Time before it is not. Panels get taken back to a sound surface, bare metal is treated so nothing starts underneath, and primer is built in stages with blocking between each one.

Blocking is what makes a panel truly flat rather than merely smooth. Run a light across a panel that was sanded by hand without a block and the waves are obvious. Under gloss, they are worse.

The booth

Color and clear are applied in a controlled booth with filtered air and regulated temperature. Anything airborne that lands in wet clear has to be cut and buffed out afterward, so the cheaper approach is to keep it out. Panels bake to a full cure before anything is bolted back on.

Full repaints

Vehicles reach a point where the factory clear has failed across the roof, hood, and deck lid while the body is still sound. In Vermont that arrives faster than people expect, between ultraviolet in summer and salt-laden slush all winter.

A complete repaint on a mechanically good vehicle is often the sensible decision. Done properly it includes jambs, under the hood edges, and the areas nobody photographs, because a repaint that stops at the outer skin reveals itself every time a door opens.

Clear coat restoration

Where the base is intact and only the clear has begun to peel, the affected panels can sometimes be stripped and re-cleared rather than fully refinished.

Ask what yours needs

Call (802) 782-5373 or bring it to 423 South Main Street. We will tell you whether it needs panels, a section, or the whole vehicle.