Auto Body Mechanic Reacts to Awful Tiktok Hacks

We asked real auto body mechanics to break down some of the worst auto body repairs we could find on the internet.

Huge thanks to our experts!

Real Mechanic Stuff is a channel from your pals at Donut! We feature all kinds of automotive experts, every week.

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[rickcasedrinksbud]

I didn’t know Nick Kroll became a mechanic 😂😂

[The_Razielim]

I love how we're pretending like Zach hasn't tested a whole bunch of these firsthand either on "Money Pit" or "DIY or Don't", including going up against a few experts before.

[williamprentice]

The older gentleman, Kevin, seems like he could be a doctor, or surgeon. “ Dr Autobody” 😂😂 Very professional and well spoken

[rotorhead]

Having mixed paint at a previous job, that dude at the end was wicked impressive. Usually you have a paint code, and some paint chips with the variants, or if you are modern enough, you have a tool that scans the paint, and gives you a recipe for it you mix using a scale. I tried once just playing around to make a fun cor for a beater of mine, and it's way harder than you might think, my bright orange came out kinda pink depending on the light. Mixing by eye is truly more of an art than a science.

[JumpingTuna]

The last guy is a true artist. Skill like that can't be taught. That's all experience.

[adamg]

The last guy is seriously amazing.
When I was younger, we had a guy who owned a local shop and could match color like that. It was a blast to go with my older Brother, Uncles, Cousins just to watch him mix color after going outside to look at the car (or to see whatever piece/part was brought to him in the sunlight).

[Eldenoras]

Just a better solution than the torch to revitalize the faded plastics, use a ceramic coating like the ones you put over your car paint. Put a bit on a sponge and wipe the plastics down. Works like a charm (thank you chrisfix for this one lmao)

[GingerBeardMan]

the flame to melt plastic works great for removing graffiti from bathroom stalls and stuff. worked a janitor for 3 years and had to remove shit from stalls every week (both graffiti and literal shit sometimes)

[DanGoodShotHD]

My uncle owned an auto body shop back in the day(70s). They didn't have computers or scanners or any fancy doodads for matching paint. It was all done by eye. He was damn good at it. It was like watching an artist at work because he was an artist at work.

[anotherpeasant]

Not an autobody hack, but anyone living in the rust belt will definitely come across seized hardware. One of the best little life hacks I learned from my old man is when heat and penetrants are failing, use a plain wax candle. When you're heating a seized nut, the bolt threads are still gonna catch heat. Dab the candle on the top side of the bolt, like if you're soldering copper pipe, and the wax will work its way down the bolt into the seized nut without burning off, and will stay in place inside the seized threads when it cools back down. Work that with the torch a few times and it works awesome. I've done it many times on my Nova Scotian trucks over the years.

[King_DarkSide]

13:38 he was legit going to say "ive done this to sell a car"

I can see it in his eyes 😂

[spacetiger]

Re: the toothpaste, you can also use toothpaste (make sure it’s a gritty kind) to remove permanent marker from a lot of surfaces. It’s just like a little sandpapering compound.

And the lemon and baking soda thing… honestly that headlight looks like it’s new and they just smeared it with some baking soda water and let it dry to make it look dirty. That’s why it cleaned up so nice. It’s newer.

[LsdGuy]

Those playing card technique is actually genius not just for car stuff.

[aaronburratwood.]

The last guy that mixed the paint by brain is amazing. So many great art forms being lost to time.

[cheeseninja]

It's refreshing to see an auto body content. And you brought Angelina's co-teacher, Eric, for this episode.

[mentat]

This is a very cool channel and I like that they have expanded from mechanics, to tow guys, to body guys. Great concept!

[claytron]

These videos are great, I'm always trying to do my car stuff at home and finding consistent, reliable info online is tough. Thanks Donut guys for providing this outlet where things can be confirmed or debunked

[Columbus]

My grandfather was an auto painter way back in the day, and he could match colors by eye, in fact a lot of local competitor shops would send him high end repairs or OEM parts to match.

[GhostRyderFPV]

Green is typically a higher-tack tape than blue, if we're dealing with a common brand. And as we learned in the first minute of the video, green may have been the wrong choice.

[Kevin_]

I mixed paint for years. That's seriously impressive that the guy matched it by eye. Paint fades over time and imagers that digitally match colors have their limitations too. I'd be curious to see that paint after it dried. Considering it was so close to the color while wet, it probably wouldn't match once dried.