Readers who have been with us for a while will remember an article about a 1968 Amazon that had been totaled a few years ago and the process by which it was returned to its proper shape.

What we didn't tell you then was that this particular car had been smashed in the front years before that (and fixed) and that the left rear portion of the roof had been caved in (and fixed) years before that.

True to this tradition, the tan car was crunched again just this last August. The perpetrator this time was a fairly rough Ford Taurus, and though the damage was really quite mild, we learned that small dents can lead to a fair amount of repair work. The impact was to the right rear overrider, the gas cap, and the rear license plate. Though the photo doesn't really show it well, the overrider dented and tore through the rear valance.

The really unfortunate part was that the impact also buckled the right rear quarter panel, just slightly aft and above the right wheel arch.

Since the rear had been reworked once before, there are some welded seams that the car wouldn't otherwise have, and the obvious choice was to have it repaired by Bob Moreno at The Works. But instead of making it just like it was before the little crunch, we chose to take advantage of this opportunity and shave the hood, left side exterior mirror and reflectors.

Once the car was stripped of all the things we didn't want painted, Bob found that both the front and rear window openings had rust holes large enough to stick a pencil through; this was corrected by sandblasting followed by welding up all of the holes.

Instead of another coat of lacquer like he'd used the last time, we chose a two stage urethane paint (on Bob's recommendation), followed by layers of clearcoat, followed by colorsanding, followed by buffing.

The final result is a finish as smooth as glass on a car that once again doesn't have any dents. At least not for a couple more years, when something like this will likely happen again. The good folks at The Works did such a job that the car managed to take second place in this year's West Coast National VCOA/VSA meet in California. Not bad for a car purchased for the $75 salvage fee.