In this work, a laser additive manufacturing (LAM) approach is proposed as a light-weighting strategy to reduce the thickness of the steel panels used for an automotive component. The selective reinforcement is used to achievestrength at selective location with minimal damage to the substrate. In this technique, also known as laser additive patch working, multi-layer local deposition is made using a LAM process on a dual phase steel substrate to increase the thickness at a location where stress concentration is expected. Using the finite element method, the residual stress development during LAM patch working is predicted during deposition with an objective to minimise (i) residual stress (ii) distortion and (iii) damage to the subsurface microstructure of the panels. A physically based fully coupled thermal-mechanical model was developed to understand the evolution of thermal and mechanical loads. Using a 3D conical Gaussian laser heat source, with adaptive meshing strategies and temperature dependent dual phase steel material properties, the multilayer deposition was simulated. Out of various scanning strategies used, Medial Axis Transformation (MAT) type scanning path was found to have better heat distribution on the substrate, which also minimises the microstructural damage. Based on the results of simulations, the scanning and deposition strategies are optimised to minimise the microstructural damage of the substrate and distortion of the panels