The Complete Guide to Auto Body Repair (Motorbooks Workshop) Paperback – August 15, 2008

Educational book covering the art of body repairs. Gave a lot of insight as to how to maneuver metal to go back to its original shape after a ding - it many cases a lot of manual labor and body hammer/anvils involved. But the techiques are proven and could be very useful if you must make repairs yourself vice insurance paid body shop. Very comprehensive in all aspects of the body repair art with good photos and referencing of tools and products necessary to do the job. I bought two books with second one intended to have more emphasis on rust repair. This book is good enough, I no longer feel a need for the second book. If you are looking for a possible one book reference book about body repair, this book could be it.

My son enjoyed it

Like it I do not know much about auto body repair but it sure has helped me doing a few things I needed to know and after asking a few questions with repair specialist they confirm what the book and I were doing to my own vehicle...I always double check things its a habit but when its confirmed I know I m on the right track..

This book is the perfect book for anyone who has no background knowledge in autobody repair. It can work as a two part series for the other book "How to Paint your Car". This focuses on body repair and helps the reader to develop a proper concept and prevent pitfalls that can be very frustrating. It also has a table of all the grades of sanding paper for each job. It's a "musthave".

It was just what I wanted

The book has a good overview but I feel it is not the complete guide to Auto Body Repair. I am still in need of a complete overview. My first read through it gave me some insight but not the confidence that I can go out and tackle a job on my car. The photo reference seems like it was shot with a low quality camera and many of the images seem like they were tossed in to add pictures to the book. Overall I find the book lacking the desired detail, I would avoid buying this book with the hopes that there is a better book.

The book itself is not that bad, but how good it is for you will depend entirely on how much you already know and what it is you want to do. I felt the book tried to cover too much and so while you got a good overview and some details on what's-what with the various stages of body repair, it never really got into any detail. This book would have been much better for me if it had half the topics but twice the depth on each. Certainly you'll know what to look for if you're having body work done and you'll understand a lot more about the process, but don't expect to pick up this book and learn details about how to start, improve and perfect your metal shaping or painting techniques. I was looking to use a hammer and dolly set to straighten out a body panel for the first time - I honestly learned very little from this book, though it is a good general high-level body repair reference.

I purchased this book as a gift for someone who is really interested in opening up a auto body shop. He felt the book was top notch and was so happy to have it in his library.