Ford F150 Raptor Body Work Correction -
Two main reasons why this Ford Raptor F150 came through the doors of our London based body shop are Hate Crime and small width of UK roads. For less than two years old vehicle, there was way too much body work damage. Driver’s side has had a key mark throughout both doors, front wing and bonnet front. These are sad, unfortunate examples of hate crime or jealousy display. Nobody is protected from this costly exposure and we feel sad seeing such nice cars being vandalized. Moreover, every bumper corner on this F150 has a scuff or dent, probably caused by the driver not quite fitting in the limited width of UK roads. Don’t get me wrong, this car is MASSIVE! In fact so much that oncoming vehicles move away when they see (or hear) it coming towards them. I doubt there are these kinds of problems on the roads in US…
Big damage or small scratch, the car repair process is pretty much the same. We started off by removing Raptor decals from the side doors but bonnet ones were left intact. Owner has requested we didn’t remove them as they are difficult to get hold of and instead they were masked off. According to RT auto centre common practice, body shop guys had to remove those panels which were to be re-sprayed or which caused obstruction to successful refinishing. This meant doors had to be stripped, wheel arches and bumpers removed.
Body work began by sanding down damaged areas, assessing the extent of filler work and ensuring its smoothness. Deep scratches can cause damage even through to the metal beneath paint! This always leads to filler work. Any filler should dry properly before primer is applied. We used this time to mask up the monster-raptor, protecting it from primer overspray. Once primed and cured, RT Performance bodyshop guys used their thorough process to bring the repaired panels to needed smoothness.
Fitting such a massive vehicle into a spraybooth is a mission even if it is as large as ours! Once in the oven, another stage of masking up began. As we had to spray some panels in black and others in white, masking up the Raptor had to be carried in a way that either parts could be easily covered/revealed whilst spraying, and completely revealed when lacquering. This Ford F150 was sprayed using 2K paint from the factory, which means it had no clear coat. Since we had to blend some panels, we decided to use base coat and lacquer instead.
All things sprayed and baked, assembly began. Blended areas on bonnet were smoothed down and the monster-truck transformed back into its very recent new condition. Final shots of finished work look good outside RT auto centre!
