Many times the only sign that you've neglected the proper maintenance of your vehicle is something important falling off, like a wheel. Jalopnik commenter Pres started off to work one morning only to have his wheel exit stage left shortly after takeoff and quickly make friends with a nearby bush. Thankfully, the only damage is a bent suspension bracket and some tweaked sheet metal. Remember kids, always keep those lug nuts torqued to spec. And knowing is half the battle.

We're not 100% sure what is going on in this image, but it looks to us as though this man is the proud owner of both a Ford Focus sedan and an early 1990's Spirit/Acclaim. Given that the Pentastar sedan already has custom rims, we wouldn't be surprised if the gentleman is trying to install aftermarket fog lights and has rigged a way to suspend himself upside down for the installation. But hey, that's just a guess. What do you think is going on here? (h/t Bob)[Google Street View]

Though it's a simple substance, the two part epoxy we all know and love is often the bane of inherited project cars. Too many fall prey to its siren song of cheap and fast repair, and thus end up filling cavernous dents with the stuff. Fortunately, in this case, the repair area is not too bad, from a depth perspective. However, the damage is over a long distance, probably almost a foot... and on a car with strictly straight front to back lines... and on one of the few curved surfaces... and right over the prominently visible drivers door. Given that, this presents some unique challenges.

For those of you unfamiliar, get ready for a primer (ha!) on the art of Bondo. There are several levels of knowledge here, I am by no means a master, but I've picked up some tricks over the years. First and foremost, make sure the area of repair is clean and free of paint, rust, grease, cheeseburgers, primer, and dust. Feel free to get to that point in whatever creative or low budget way you like. When mixing, use some type of surface that is portable and will forever be dedicated to Bondo mixing. I've got a nice piece of plastic set aside for this. Lay down the gray filler in the middle of the surface and then squeeze setting agent out next to it. The proper amount of setting agent to add is determined by black magic, but it's almost impossible to do it completely wrong. Here is a good time to put your latex gloves on. Use your Bondo paddle(s) to quickly mix the two elements together to an even color.

Now get to work laying it down, move quickly because you've got about five minutes before things get sticky. Select a Bondo paddle appropriate for the size of the defect. With firm, even pressure push the Bondo into the valleys of the repair area. If you're paddle can bridge the valley, stand it on end while applying the Bondo so as to mimic the original profile. My personal rule is to never lay down more than an eighth of an inch of Bondo at a time, and never more than a quarter of an inch in total. If it looks like it will take more, that's why man invented body hammers. I like to take my time with Bondo, rushing it just gives you a crappy end result. Even though the can says you can start sanding within an hour, it usually results in Bondo clogged sandpaper. Give it a couple of hours to set up, there are plenty of other things to fix in the mean time.
Sanding is the yin to the applications' yang. Whereas applying is a hectic race against chemical reactions, sanding is about gradually reaching the zen state of surface perfection. As illustrated, I like to sand in the dark. Why? Well, who knows what evil lies in the peaks and dips of Bondo? The shadows know. Using a strategically placed light source allows you to see what your hands can feel. This greatly increases the efficiency of your efforts. Unless you are a glutton for punishment and wish to hand finish things, grab an orbital sander with about an 80 grit sandpaper. Again, take your time working things out, find the high spots and work until the surface is uniformly as smooth as you can get it.

With an area this big, you'll probably have to reevaluate things now. Use your spotlight to look at different angles of the repair. I like to have a pencil handy here to make notes on the surface. If you see a peak, draw its outline and a rough map of it's topography (I use plusses and minuses, bigger plusses mean higher peaks, smaller minuses mean shallower valleys, and vice versa). This will give you a map of where to sand next or where to apply your next skim coat. Another tip: For bigger jobs like this, I like to use the two different colors of setting agent, blue and red. It provides contrast to the different layers, indicates where things have been worked already, and shows you how the repair has evolved.

When you've got what seems to be a nice smooth surface to the hand, mask off a generaous area to prevent unwanted overspray and lay down a couple of thin coats of high build primer. I garantee you won't be finished after that unless you're some kind of bodywork Michelangelo. The primer layer usually does a great job at showing off defects for you to go after. Repeat as necessary.
The process can be tedious, and a pain the ass, but you can't go around gangster style with a dented sled now can ya?

Obviously the right way to do it is to source the all new lines, which run as one piece from the wheel well to the fuel tank. This would be obscenely expensive for a $2,000 car. A quick trip to Murrays and $12 worth of brake line and compression fittings and the repair was underway. First step is to clear out the underbody tar from the area in question, unbolt the retaining clips and pop the lines out of the flex hoses that make the connection from the wheel well to the engine bay. Next, with the help of a measuring tape and Mr. Pipecutter, the rusted lines are trimmed well past the corrosion point but with a little to spare on the new pipes. A word of caution for you cheapskates looking to make this same fix, if you have parallel fuel lines being replaced, make sure that you offset the cut point on the fuel lines. If you don't, the compression fittings will be sitting next to each other, and there is no way you will be able to get the retaining clips to do their job properly again.

Next we prep the brake/fuel lines, again, a pipecutter and reamer are most useful here. With those expensive fittings and flanges now removed (fittings are now acting as weights for the light fixture pulls), we move on to bending things to fit. When bending, take things slow, especially if you have the cheap ass one sided pipe bender. The key here is to make bends gradually, and keep the bending action controlled to a point within the die. If you bend the pipe outside the die it will kink and render your tube useless. See, look how nice the replacement looks here.

That bending is pretty much the hardest part of the whole process. After that, it's a matter of putting the compression fittings on the old lines, fitting the new lines to their home and tightening everything down. Make sure to run the fuel pump and start the car at this stage in order to confirm that you did indeed fix the problem. This car of course has a mechanical fuel pump, and combined with the 7.0-liter V8, the old battery died before getting fuel to it. After a charge, the fix was confirmed when the beast roared to life. Things were buttoned up and panels returned to place. I'll have you all note this represents the first new parts for car while under my custody. I am considering it a milestone.

Today's question comes to us courtesy of a reader we'll just call Gregor. True, there are some green zip ties lashing down the front of our WRX. Though, the plastic bolts they replaced were actually inferior. So we can't count that. We do remember a friend with a mid-80s Thunderbird that carried 5 gallons of antifreeze with him at all times because depending on the weather, his radiator would start boiling up green funk. But that was more stubbornness than DIY disaster. Could it be that we've never done anything boneheaded while fixin' our own car? And we're not about to count a 7-cylinder Pontiac as a mistake. How about you? – Jonny Lieberman

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