Hot take: old school shops had it better with metal work

I stopped by a salvage yard in Bakersfield last weekend to grab a fender for a '95 Ford. Walked through their back lot and saw rows of cars from the 70s and 80s with solid metal panels, no plastic or composite junk. Made me think about how much easier body work used to be when you could just hammer and dolly a dent out instead of replacing the whole bumper cover. My first shop job was in 1998 and we did metal finishing by hand every day. Now it feels like half the cars that come in need a whole new quarter panel because the metal is too thin to fix right. Has anyone else noticed the quality of sheet metal going downhill in the last 15 years?

2 comments

2 Comments

garcia.quinn19d ago

My uncle had a '72 Chevy pickup he bought new, and I remember watching him work a dent out of the bed side with just a hammer and a wooden block in about twenty minutes. That truck is still on the road, rust spots and all, but you can still pop the hood and see real gauge steel. The cars I see nowadays, you can almost push the quarter panel in with your thumb if you lean on it wrong.

jamie71216d agoMost Upvoted

Tbh, a body hammer and a dolly will fix most of what you see on these modern panels too if you take your time.