Body Shop 101

Body Shop 101

James had the misfortune of trying to pass a dump truck in a tight spot.  As he slowly inched by he cut a little short.  The tailgate of the bug truck sliced into the side of the truck like a hot knife into butter.  It left a nasty gash in the bed of the truck and punched a deep hole in the post of the cab.  Of course, the dump truck had no idea that anything out of the ordinary had happened.   So, on the day trip to Port au Prince, that was one item on the to do list.  Get the truck fixed.



Holy mess on truck bed

So it happened that on the day we couldn’t find the truck axle in town, we had just enough time to go the one stop body shop.  Actually, it was two stop.  The first stop was in the repair lineup.  Kiki managed to wedge the full size extended cab GMC truck into an open slot between a Toyota pickup and an in descript something.
 


In descript truck in repair lot

The repair yard was actually a large sloped graveled …. Well, dirt covered with a little gravel lot.  It was packed with cars in no apparent order, each having something different done to it by the attendee at hand.  The Toyota pickup had what I think was a mechanic under the hood trying to figure out why the truck ran, and then didn’t.  On the other side of him was a couple of younger adults trying to remelt a side mirror back together over an open fire of burning trash.  Next to us on the other side a group of men was watching what I think may have been a mechanic rebuilding a motor with a rock hammer in the back of that non descript truck.  Other’s were stretched to the end of the lot each doing their own thing on whatever it was they were working on. Each vendor also had on average 10 to 12 observers, or, perhaps, assistants, watching.  Every few minutes those observers would break up into small groups and move to another site where they would resume their, uh, observing.  They came by our project numerous times as the groups rotated around the repair lot in sequential timing so as to not appear too random. As usual, trash was everywhere, vendors were moving up and down the lot trying to sell sunglasses, bags of water, condoms, underwear, pants, toothpaste and whatever else one can imagine.  It was noisy, dirty, trashy, smelly, and quite intriguing.

The primary body man for this part of the procedure was an older man probably in his early sixties.  He had two primary helpers, not part of the 12 observing, who were younger but seemingly quite adept at knowing what to do.  First task was to chisel out all the damaged metal; ie, where the holes were. This they did in fine order. 


Make a bigger hole

Body man B proceeded to hammer out the metal on the ground with a variety of hammers:  one with a big head for beating, one with a super small head for tapping, and one with a flat head for hitting smartly (smartly being categorized in the best sense of not hard but harder than light). 

Big hammer straightening out the wrinkles

Meanwhile lead body man A had chiseled a slot in the door jam, inserted a large flat pry bar (obviously made from a broken leaf spring from a truck … OBVIOUSLY) and proceeded to pry out any indentations, jagged metal and crinkles.  Two extra chisled slots aided in his quest.

Body man B hands off piece of metal to body man C who seems quite content using only the big hammer and the ground for his creative reconstruction of the body panel.

Hmmm, what to do next

After a couple or hours our threesome has flattened out, or should I say straightened out the rough stuff.  Now it is off to our second stop. 

Kiki moves the truck across the street and down a narrow alley with a concrete wall on one side and a line of small shops on the other.  He pulls in between another Toyota truck and a small car.  The body men have relocated over to the operations part of the center.  To the side is a large tank where calcium carbide tablets are placed.  A shot of water produces acetylene.  Add some pump up pressure (like on a bike pump), throw in a hose to an oxygen tank, add some additional hose and a torch and it becomes the welding outfit.  Body man B pulls out a coathanger and helps Body Man A weld the flattened panels to the truck.  Weld a little, bang a little with the flat hammer, heat, bang, weld a little, bang a little, heat, bang, weld, bang.  And the beat goes on for another hour.  Little by little the panels come together into a Picasso of metal, soot, and smoke.  Quite the operation. 



Ready to paint....not yet..

Alas, no more coat hangers are to be found.  So the balance of the unwelded area is filled with body putty.  Three coats, smoothed out with a plastic trowel and then grated and sanded in turn.  Finally another coating finishing putty is applied.  It is lightly sanded and smoothed with water, dried and touched with lacquer thinner.

A rickety compressor is wheeled into place and hooked up with a leaky air hose to an antiquated airgun filled with white paint. 

Hockey Puck covers a multitude of errors

 Two or three coats are applied with time to dry while the air gun is broken, then finished.  After four hours the holes are repaired for the soaring price of 1750 gord….which is about 25 bucks. 



OSHA approved torch holder....it was lit a moment ago