Bent, torn and rusted fenders, doors, hoods and quarters repaired in steel or aluminum, then aligned so the gaps sit right.
4.9 50 reviews from Cleveland customers
Rated with the BBBArc Wheels Welding LLC, since 2023
Black ownedIndependent shop on Cleveland's southeast side
Panel replacement is the default answer almost everywhere, and for a late model car with an available panel and an insurance claim behind it, that is usually correct. Outside those conditions it stops making sense fast. A panel for an eleven year old vehicle is often discontinued, and the used one you find will need the same work the original does.
Repairing the panel you have is the alternative. Tears get welded, dents get worked, rusted sections get cut out and replaced with fabricated metal, and the panel goes back on the car it was made for, which is the one thing a replacement can never guarantee.
Tears and splits, usually at a body line or an edge where the metal was already stressed.
Rusted lower sections on fenders, doors and quarters, which is where every panel goes first because water sits in the bottom of a closed section.
Wheel arch lips, which trap salt behind the lip and rot from the inside out.
Aluminum panels, which most shops decline and which are now on most trucks.
Panel edges and flanges that have corroded away where two panels were spot welded together.
Steel panels get worked, welded and dressed in a fairly predictable way. Heat is the enemy, so welds get stitched with cooling time and dressed rather than ground hot.
Aluminum needs cleaner prep, TIG rather than MIG, and dedicated tools that have never touched steel. A wire brush that has been on steel will embed particles that contaminate an aluminum weld.
Aluminum also gives no colour warning before it collapses, so heat control is judgement rather than observation. That is why aluminum panel work bounces between shops before it lands somewhere that does it regularly.
Either way the panel gets refitted and the gaps set on the car rather than declared correct on the bench.
Panels where a good replacement exists and costs less than the repair. We will tell you that rather than take the job, because the alternative is charging you more for a worse outcome.
Depends on the vehicle. Late model with an available panel, replacement usually wins. Older vehicle where the panel is discontinued, repair wins easily. We will tell you which you are looking at before starting.
Yes. It needs TIG, dedicated clean tools and tighter heat control, which is why a lot of shops decline it. It is regular work here.
Yes, and it is common. Arches rot from behind the lip where salt sits. The repair extends past what you can see, because rust travels under paint.
No, we take it to dressed and treated. Colour matching is a painter's job and doing it badly is worse than not doing it.
Most quotes come back the same day the shop is open. Free, no obligation, and if it cannot be repaired you will hear that straight.
