TOTAL OBD Car Diagnostics & Tuning Software – OBD-2 OBD2 Scan Tool Scanner

And all this is done with 17 included advanced and sensational car-manufacturer-approved OBD 1/2 software applications — that will connect to your car as you can see below:

What’s more, TOAD will instantly show you existing problems and faults with the car, where they’re located, and how to fix them. This could save your car from potential future complete failures — ultimately saving you thousands of dollars, time and frustration before the vehicle brakes down unexpectedly. Worse yet, leaving you or your customer stranded!
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SprayPaintVideos® – How To Spray Paint Your Car – Auto Painting & Bodywork Repair

… and ever wanted that kind of look for your own project car? Those kind of paint jobs cost tons of money and most of us just look and wish. Only a lucky few have the resources to get that dream look.

Or have you ever wanted to do a simple car body work paint repair but have no idea where to start?
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Things To Consider When Getting A Car Repair

Owning a vehicle is just like having a baby—you need to take care of it, you need to keep it healthy, and you need to bring it to a professional when it encounters problems. Car repair is a necessary aspect of car ownership, especially when the vehicle has already traveled a certain number of miles. In fact, next to fuel, the repair and maintenance of a vehicle takes a huge block from a vehicle owner’s budget.

If you’re experiencing problems with your car, you’re probably thinking about bringing it to the mechanic for diagnosis or repair. However, before doing that, you must know that there are a few things you should consider to ensure that you’ll get the best in terms of caring for your vehicle and caring for your budget.

There are a few things you must look into before you decide to go to your local shop for car inspection and repair. These things include the following:

1.) The seriousness of the problem. Are you suffering from a serious drop in driving performance due to a trouble in one of the systems in your car? Do you experience stalling and other similar problems? If the issue has something to do with your driving performance, especially with critical systems like the suspension, steering, and braking assemblies, then you must immediately have your car checked. The said systems are critical and even just a simple problem in these systems can brought accidents like collisions. If, on the other hand, you’re simply dissatisfied with your car’s horsepower output, you can simply go for performance upgrades like high-flow headers, cold air intake, or turbocharger.

2.) Your skill in car repair. If you’re someone who has sufficient knowledge and skill to tinker with the parts under your hood, then there are probably some car problems that you can deal with all by yourself. Among the simple tasks that you might be able to do on your own are the fixing of a damaged windshield wiper, headlight, or auto windows. This way, you can even save on mechanic fee.

3.) Repair or replacement. There are problems in your vehicle that can be solved by a simple repair here and there. However, there are others that require the replacement of a few vehicle parts. If you’ve got a clogged cold air intake, for instance, you may have to replace your paper air filter with a new one. Problems with gaskets, weatherstrippings, and rusted components will also require the replacement of the involved parts.

Once you have already determined the exact problem with your car, assessed whether it’s something you can fix on your own or not, and determined whether a simple car repair will do or if a replacement is needed, it would be easier to handle the issue. If you think you will need a mechanic, be sure that you find one that you can trust.

Like a good doctor to your child, a good mechanic can do a lot in the preservation of your car’s good condition.

The Basics Of Car Hood Repairs And Maintenance

Body panels make up the greatest portion of your car—its metal skin, doors, hood, trunk, roof, and even the floor. Of all these panels, the hood is the most important because it houses all your vehicle’s performance parts, including the engine. Unfortunately, the hood is also among the panels most susceptible to damage because of its front most location. Car hood repairs are often common and they can take a great chunk out of your car maintenance budget.

The Different Types Of Hood Damage

Hood damage can take in different forms, from the simplest to the most serious. Here are three common damage that the hood often encounters:

• Hinge Problem. Your hood is connected to the main body of your vehicle as it covers important auto parts. Among the different hardware that connect it to your automobile are hinges. Sometimes, however, these hinges loosen or even disappear. If you experience rattling of your vehicle hood when you drive, there’s a great chance that the hinges are already loose, failing, or even missing. If you neglect this, there’s a possibility that the hood may suddenly go up while you’re driving in the highway, blocking your view and even resulting in accidents.

• Scratches and Dents. Simple vehicle accidents known as fender benders can also damage the hood, causing problems like scratches and dents. These may be simple problems, but they can be unsightly. They can make your vehicle look older and worn-out, decreasing its value. Besides, when these problems are neglected, they can lead to more serious troubles. To eliminate scratches, you can simply do a vehicle repaint. For dents, you can do the fixing on your own or you can bring it to your local mechanic.

• Rusting and Corrosion. This is probably the most serious problem a hood may encounter. Rusting can result from neglect, scratches that you fail to cover up and repaint, as well as the vehicle’s long exposure to environmental elements without protection. The solution to this problem would depend on the extent of the corrosion on the part. If the rusting only affects a small part of the panel, you can still save it. However, if rust has already eaten a great part of the hood, the best thing you can do is to replace it with a new one. After all, you wouldn’t want to risk the parts in the engine bay by exposing them to damaging elements.

Taking care of your vehicle hood is crucial to the well-being of your engine and many of the parts that work with it—the ignition system, fuel injection system, and many other vehicle assemblies. So once you notice even just a simple hood problem, do not neglect it and find a solution at once.

Car hood repairs need not be expensive—you can even perform simple repairs on your own. All you will need are the right tools and the basic skills in auto maintenance. These will not only save your money but will also give you more knowledge to help you take care of your car.

Performing Car Dent Repairs At Home

Car dents are among the inconveniences you may have to put up with throughout your car ownership. They can occur anytime without warning—a vehicle bumped on your car while backing up, a supermarket cart got out of control and came zooming toward your car door, or you got into a tight parking space and the car next to you banged its door on your auto body panel as it was being opened. Car dents can give your car a worn-out look and reduce its value, so car dent repairs are very important.

Unfortunately, these repairs can get so expensive when done by a professional. So, your best bet would be to do it yourself in your own garage. It may take a lot of time and patience, but you’ll also get a lot of savings.

Car Dent Repair Procedures

Repairing a car dent includes two general steps: restoring the original form of the dented panel and then restoring its original look.

• Restore the original form by fixing the dent

1.) You need to pull out the dent. You can do this by pushing the dent out from the inside with your hands. Simple dents are soft enough for the hands to push.

2.) If the dent doesn’t budge, the next option would be to use a block of wood and the right mallet or hammer. Position the wood outside of the dent while you hammer the dent from the inside to push it out (be sure that you use just the right amount of force here).

3.) If you cannot gain access to the inside of the dent (i.e. if the dent is in a tight area like under the hood), you can use an electric drill, screw, and a self-locking vice grip. Drill a 1/8″ hole at the center of the dent, screw in the screw, and use the grip to pull on the dent.

4.) Sand all the paint from the area of the dent and then fill it with body filler. Once the filler is hard, shape the surface with sandpaper (start with a coarse sandpaper and finish with a fine one).

• Restore the original look by repainting

1.) Apply spray primer on the area (several coating is needed, and each coat should be thoroughly dry before applying the next).

2.) After this, repaint the area of the dent (several coating is also needed, with fine sanding done between each coat until the desired smoothness is achieved).

If you plan to do your own repair, you can find complete repair kits to help you with the task. Today, there are already a wide variety of kits that will help you do the job easily. Among the latest are those that do not require you to drill on the dent anymore, reducing the incidental damage to your car. There are kits that make use of hot glue gun, tabs, and brackets for an easier and faster repair of car dents.

With all these now offered, it’s easier to perform car dent repairs at home without all the major expenses.

Modern Techniques In Car Body Repairs

Your car may still be in good running condition, safe and fuel efficient, but if years of exposure to all the environmental elements had already taken toll on it, you might need to do something. After many years of using your car, you may find that its paint has already faded and that it already has some scratches, cracks, and dents that no amount of waxing can cover. Well, there are modern auto shops that offer excellent car body repairs to restore your investment. They offer a wide array of services depending on your needs and budget.

And today, there are already a lot of techniques used in restoring vehicles. Here are some of the modern techniques in car body repairs:

100% Auto Paint Match

Whether your car needs whole body painting, spot painting for covering dents, graphics removal, or others, the new paint should match the original car paint 100%. To achieve this, photo spectrometer is used to analyze the original paint of your vehicle. Then, a computerized auto paint color match system is employed to find the true color that will match the original color of your car. After this, the painting is done carefully to achieve a seamless finish. Once the paint has dried, your car will surely look like it’s just freshly taken from a showroom.

Paintless Dent Repair (PDR)

Dents are commonly caused by impacts when your vehicle comes in contact with other cars or other hard surfaces. And the problem is, dents can sometimes occur at or near the angular or curve surfaces of the car, in which case they are very noticeable and harder to repair. Today, paintless dent removal method is already in use to solve these problems. Special tools are used to press, knead, or rub down on the affected part until it is back to its normal shape. This should be done while ensuring that the paint does not get damaged. And for those dents on hard-to-reach areas such as the edge of the car’s floor, fill and spray methods are used.

Body Frame Straightening

For cars that experienced collision with another vehicle or object big enough to cause a longitudinal or lateral damage on the car’s frame, body frame straightening is required. A computerized tool is used in this process. An ultrasound technology measures the discrepancy of the frame alignment and then a laser is used to accurately align the frame back to its original shape.

SMART Repair

This is a technique used to remedy a very small damage like a chipped or scratched paint. This is quite harder because only the small affected area should be sprayed accurately. It is very useful among brand new cars in which the damage may be conspicuous since the whole body is still glossy and newly painted. Some auto shops even offer a mobile service and perform this repair right at your home or office, so you won’t be waiting for long before you can use your car. Just check online to find one near your address.

With these innovations in car body repairs, you can enjoy driving your car like brand new again. And, it will be easy to keep its value high in case you want to sell it in the future.

Human Technician Versus Machine

Car repairs have a lot of options. Car owners are very reliable to car repair shops and there are even machine who do the basic repair. But who can really repair your car? Will the machine good enough to do the process or it would be better to have a human do the troubleshooting?

In this topic, I will give you the insights about differences between human repaired cars and machine repaired cars. There are jobs on the car that needs to be done by a machine to make it more perfect like wheel aligning. However there are also jobs on the car that needs a human to do it and make it more powerful, like analyzing about a possible leakage on the transmission. And talking about analyzing, it is only human who can initiate that thing, like analyzing why there is a need to replace some parts used for breaks. Periodically the brakes in all automobiles need to be repaired or even replaced.

This is due to either brake shoes and/or brake pads wearing out from use. Every time a person wants to slow down the speed of an automobile, he/she presses on a foot pedal which in turn causes this shoes or pads to squeeze against the metal wheels which cause friction thereby slowing down the automobile until it stop. This causes the material which the brakes are composed of to disintegrate over a period of time and require repair or replacement. No machines can do the explanation about breaks to a car owner like that.

The very main point is that the car owners or a driver must not be totally dependent to a technician or mechanically equipped technologies for any repair. Sensitivity is important so things will never repeat over and over. Other situations would consider sense of obligation for your car. They would say that we have to treat our car like our best friend or best buddy. If we need something, cars also need something. The only difference is they can’t shout their needs so we are oblige to check the parts time to time and have a good maintenance to maintain its ability to run smoothly as we always wanted to.

A mechanical repair needs to be guided accordingly with a closer look so it would yield a result best combined with a fully equipped process. The technician in this case would shoulder the responsibility and most of the time, they are careful as they think that it’s the life of a person in risk if they don’t do the right and complete repair process.

So in order for them to make it sure, they will have it checked and tested with their machines and this would sometimes make their load heavier thus making the car owner pays more. But it’s just a way to ensure right job and complete repair. A car repair performed by a technician and verified by a machine is the best approach usually done by car repair shops.

Car Repair Comparison Between Its Model And Manufacturer

When we buy our car, some of us choose to have a policy for repair but other may not as they would say that there is no need for them to have a car repair only if they take good care of their cars. They maybe right in some point but still, playing safe is better as we can’t avoid any circumstances and we can’t control the situation.

This is mostly the common situation that a car owner is facing whenever a car needs repair. Since there are a lot of manufacturers and models nowadays, it’s sometimes hard to locate a repair shop that specializes in every car repair. And in some point, advertisements may be confusing and sounds sweet.

A car manufacturer would always advice a car buyer to have a policy with them so it won’t be hard to have maintenance and a possible car repair whenever you needed to. But these may sound like an advertisement for us for we thought that they are only trying to sell their insurance policy. Well, this case is just a give a take relationship.

They take our money by paying extra for the repair policy and coverage but we also have the advantage to have our car repair in good hands and we can say that the repair is specialize since they are your own manufacturer. In this case, we don’t have to look around for the best repair shop thus saving our effort, time, and less frustration during damaged.

On the other hand, a business repair shop would encourage us to bring their car to them for maintenance and repair with a cheaper price. When you choose to have it that way, make it sure that the repair shop is not recycling any parts from their customers. You can make it sure by asking for a receipt every time they say that some parts must be replaced. Or another option is for you to have the parts bought yourself from any car spare stores to ensure quality of the spare and to make sure it’s new. But make it sure that you know what kind of spare you have to buy. It may vary from model to model and may not be compatible to all manufacturers.

Just be wise to choose a good option at all time. If you think you have no idea about car repair, maintenance, and other car stuffs, you better have it covered under the manufacturer’s policy so it will never be a big hassle on your part. But if you feels like you can manage the repair and you can find a reliable repair shop, then you can do the trick. Just don’t think of the money for this case.

Consider all the possibilities in the future, its not just about money, this is also about effort, time, frustration, and even savings in the future only if we choose the right decision.