Cars are not just cars; they’re memories
For many of us, cars are not just cars. They hold special memories that take us back and remind us of where we were and who we were with.
Right now we're working on a family restoration for Tim's grandmother. This car will take her back to being 16 years old in upstate New York, when she first learned to drive. It'll take her back to memories of when she first met and dated her husband of over 60 years now. We've already heard how she named the car Ruthy after buying it from a nice, older lady with the same name.
This is a family project, and whenever family is in ...
Accident? What accident? FAST Collision Repair
In between restoration work, TD Customs also offers collision repair services. Accidents happen, and most of us have been there at some point or another. We're here to help get your vehicle repaired and get you back on the road as quickly as possible. Once we're able to get all the parts in for your vehicle, our collision repairs will generally only take a few days.
The damage to this 2013 Nissan Murano required all new parts, including a new hood, grille, bumper, front fender and headlight.
For this collision repair job, there were a lot of internal components ...
Major Progress on Ruthy, the ’39 Chrysler
The last couple weeks have been very productive for Ms. Ruthy, our '39 Chrysler Royal restoration that we are doing as a family project.
This week, while Tim was working on the more advanced body work on our F-150 restoration, Erick sanded down the surface of the car. We'll strip the paint off on certain parts of the car, like the doors and the hood. For the main body though, we're sanding it down with the DA sander.
There were rust holes that needed to be patched with new steel on the rear wheel arches. This week, Erick welded the patches in and finished up ...
’79 Sierra: Rust repairs & Fresh paint
This 1979 GMC Sierra Classic pickup truck was in the shop for some rust repairs and a fresh paint job. The customer wanted to keep the truck looking original with the same paint scheme. With all the rust, it was just time to do some maintenance on the truck to get it looking new again.
There were some minor dings and waves that required body work. The truck was speckled with rust on the roof and other areas of the truck, such as the driver's side door.
Since the rust was mostly just speckled, this was the best time to get to it. Taking ...
Ruthy got a visit from family this Thanksgiving!
Ruthy got to have some family time this Thanksgiving weekend! Tim's family was in town and all got together to work on this exciting restoration.
Ruthy is a family project here in the shop. It's Tim's grandma's very first car - a '39 Chrysler Royal.
(For those of you who are not yet familiar with this restoration, read Ruthy's story and browse through all the other progress updates here.)
Little by little, we are chipping away at the work that needs to be done on the car to bring it back to its original condition. Every little bit helps, and it was a productive ...
We are thankful for you!
This time of year always makes us extra thankful. Not only is it Thanksgiving, but it’s the anniversary of when we opened this shop here in Mills River.
Every year we are seeing our business grow. This one was the busiest and craziest of them all. There were definitely a lot of beautifully restored cars that left the shop along with happy customers.
We experienced a few growing pains this year. We've struggled to find auto body techs experienced enough to handle the intense body work we do here. (The older cars take lots more TLC than your average collision ...
’62 Chevy Impala Refinish & Paint
The 1962 Chevy Impala Classic is our latest full classic restoration. It needed rust repair, body work and a brand new color.
The car looked very unique when it first came in. The paint had been stripped down already. In a few different places, there were some cool spiderwebs and pin-striping. Take a look at the different designs below.
Of course, we didn't keep the pin striping. The owners chose a beautiful blue color for the Impala. It looks great both inside and in the sun. Here is the finished product after body work and fresh paint!
The body of ...
Electric paint that lights up!
Electric paint!
The future of light is here, and it's in the paint!
Thanks to electroluminescent paint, we can now make your paint job light up on command. We connect wires from a battery source right to the paint itself. The paint is actually a complex system of about 6 different coatings that all work together to produce light when energized by power.
When you flip the switch (or press the button, or power it from your smartphone), the light from your paint job turns on. It's really that easy!
Take a look at how 'electric paint' looks in different shades of ...
Little Red Corvette: A Race Car
One of the latest paint jobs we've been working on is this 1981 Chevy Corvette. With its huge rear tires, roll cage, and now a bright red paint job, this race car is definitely an eye grabber!
The car came to us in primer. The owner had done some of the body work on his own, and painted the door jambs. He did a great job getting the body work started. We just needed to fix a few cracks in the fiberglass and finish up the minor body waves down the panels, and, of course, get it painted.
Here is the Before picture..
The paint color is Brilliant Red ...
Ambulance Refinishing & Paint
Commercial vehicle painting isn't something we do often. However, we've been asked to paint an ambulance for a local emergency vehicle distribution company. For this job, we were only doing the back box of the ambulance. This meant all the exterior walls, the roof, and all doors.
A large part of any paint job is the prep work leading up to the actual paint. It takes several stages of sanding to make sure the surface is ready for the paint. Once the entire surface is sanded and any little dings or blemishes are filled, we tape everything off and get ready to paint.
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