Rock chips, dings, scratches on the paint, flat tires, and flat batteries are always a risk, whether you’re driving a fully armored 4×4, a Ferrari with paint protection film, or a pile of rust and regret.
Even if you have a great auto insurance agent on call and full coverage, going to a specialist for every little problem or bad accident can cost a lot of money.
If you want to save money or try your hand at auto repairs, remembering the following five things you can do yourself will be a great start. When our cars are in danger, and the cost of fixing them seems too high, it’s time to roll up our sleeves, put on our safety gear, and get to work.
FIX DAMAGED WINDSHIELD
Rocks that break auto glass are the worst thing about the auto industry. These small, annoying, common cracks in our glasses are a royal pain.
Even though it might seem hard at first, fixing a rock chip in a windshield is very easy. If the chip isn’t too bad and there isn’t a big crack, a simple do-it-yourself fix followed by some time to heal can often work great.
Professionals would charge $50 or more to fix a chip in your windshield, but a do-it-yourself windshield repair kit costs between $10 and $20. If it doesn’t start to rain, you can fix this in a few minutes in your driveway, carport, garage, temporary garage substitute, or nuclear fallout bunker.
FIX THE CRACKS AND SCRATCHES
There are a lot of different scratch repair hacks on the internet. Some are good and clever, while others are questionable and funny. Scratches on the surface are much easier to fix than scratches deeper in the paint, which will need body filler, high-build primer, wet sanding, and maybe some paint touch-up.
Sometimes, all you need to get rid of light surface scratches like swirl marks and moderate spider webbing is a polishing compound set, some polishing/buffing pads, a six-pack, and a lot of elbow grease. There’s more to it than just buying some polish and rubbing away the scratches. To learn more, check out our blog post on the four most common ways to fix scratches.
Pull dents and door dings.
You don’t have to drill holes in your car to fix a small or medium dent yourself. It can be done in the afternoon. Does it take a long time to get rid of dents? Of course. But if you do it right, you can save a lot of money and impress everyone.
You need an electrical outlet and a paintless dent remover to get dents out of a car. The clamp-style dent puller is the safest and most effective tool in these kits. Its price ranges from $30 to $150, depending on the size of the kit and who makes it.
A few drops of the paint-safe hot glue with the kit are put on the “pull button” that matches the dent. The button is then pressed firmly into the dent and left to cool. After the button has hardened, you can put the notched end into the metal shaft of the puller and close the clamp.
If you can’t even put pressure on the surface, you may need to move the spring-loaded knob on the end of the puller up or down. It’s important to find the right amount of pressure between too little (which won’t do anything) and too much (which will hurt) (which might cause harm to the surroundings around you). When the right amount of pressure is reached, the button can be taken off by pushing the hand lever in short bursts until the glue gives way and the button comes off.
You might have to do this more than once before the ding is gone, so be patient and don’t pull too hard, or you might make wrinkles. After a dent is fixed, you should wash the area with water, a gentle clay decontamination agent and a good-grade surface prep shampoo to eliminate any leftover glue. The next step is to bring back the shine with microfiber buffing cloths before moving on to the next fix.
