Technical UPDATED AGAIN! Bondo on New Brookville Body?

I've finally getting my full fendered '30 RPU together, and today I started sanding all the red oxide lacquer primer off the assembled cab I bought from Brookville in 2007. When I got to the rear corners, I struck plastic filler... LOTS OF IT. I rat-tail filed a section, and it's 1/8" deep.

Is this typical for Brookville-assembled 'steel' bodies?






Where it's going...

 

That should not happen!!!!
If you bought it from Brookville I would be Bitching up a storm!!!!

 

I am not sure of the body work quality that Brooksville supplies, but your rolling Chassis looks great!
Please post more Pics as you progress.

 

yup....for the money paid.....I'd be calling out!

 

LOL Like buying a new car from the dealer. Never know what your getting

 

I had the exact same experience with a Brookville extended cab RPU purchased in 2008. The cowl area was filled with Bondo over 3/16" in some areas. Doors were ok but the back panel and rear corners were unbelievable, they weren't filled with filler but more like sculptured! If ordering a RPU do not allow them to prime so you can see what you are getting. It cost me a lot of money and time to get something I could live with.

 

That rear section is in 3 pieces, two end pieces and a middle section. My Son bought his RPU body in pieces from Brookville, and we assembled it ourselves. When we got to that rear section he fully welded it up and metal finished it so that it took just a very thin skim coat of filler before primer.

With the quality of the rest of your RPU (it looks REALLY good), I would grind out all that filler and weld it up and do it right. It is worth the extra work. Here is my Sons during the construction phase:



Don

 

Thanks for the feedback Dave and Don. I'm obviously frustrated as hell at the thought of having the either (at least) re-do their filler job to something more reasonable, or going whole hog and and metal finishing it into what I thought I was buying from them in the first place. Like Dave said, it's not 'filler'... they sculpted the whole lower corners of this cab and body lines out of filler.

I have NO IDEA what I'm gonna find under all that mud... dammit.

 

Wow, Bondoville. Apparently the 'May contain artificial fillers' tag was missing. I think first I would grab the DA and 80 grit and see how much you can remove and still keep the shape correct. Maybe they flung it on there heavy for expediency.

 

Thanks... that's kinda where I am now... trying to pare it down slowly to see what happens. Still pisses me off, tho.

 

Purchased a new Brookville 31 roadster body and when we went to prepare it for paint the body man called us to come have a look. Full of bondo in the front quarters and several other places. No attempt to straighten the warped panels. A call to Brookville revealed they make the bodies and use bondo to put them in red oxide. They don't do that today as all I see are bare metal examples. We hammered and dollied the sheet metal back in place, skim coated it — went on with the project. Just saying fiberglass cars are not all that bad if you have to cover a steel one with bondo.


You can see the bondo on the cowl when the body man started to fit the hood he found about 1/8 to 3/16 inch thick bondo on the front cowl sections. Brookville said that is how they get them ready to ship. They are in bare metal today and much better when you receive them. I have worked on several but this one was the worst.

 

my Brookville 32 roadster body is a work of art, all metal, and gaps are perfect .doors click shut . once the red oxide was off all shiny metal

 

Luck of the draw as far as the Quality of the Guy who works on your order maybe ? I'm sure they have more than one " technician " as they call them now

 

Yep, no bondo on my Wescott body.

 

I have used a lot of 32 bare metal bodies and all were very good. When I built the 2004 NSRA giveaway 30/31 RPU Brookville furnished the body and box and we had no bondo problems?

 

Are these truly "direct from Brookville" or are they "dealer for Brookville" bodies? I question the source...

 

I don't have a comment on the bondo, but for what it's worth, I really like the build. Love full fendered RPU's.

 

Things may be way different from 2007 to today. I've dealt with a lot of Brookville bodies, and they all have been of great quality. I just got a '30-'31 roadster body for myself. I've actually been impressed as to how good the shape was along the back panel of the 32' RPU bodies, because they are lap welded, with MIG. However, none of the bodies are they old, so like I said, maybe a lot has changed. Do they even come in the red oxide primer anymore? Maybe that is a clue as to what the quality is now. I've never dealt with a Brookville body in primer, they have always been bare.

 

i have been pretty disappointed with model A parts from brookville. Id rather fix old junk ford parts any day.
That being said I did work on one of there 32 roadster bodys a while back, It was an older one that was still in red primer. There was no filler at all under the primer and the metal was very nice, so it must just be a model A thing
The rest of your truck looks great though.

 

I`ve bought two of the `29 roadster bodies and they are a bit rough as is.
One was painted shiny black with extensive straightening and prep work to make it right and the other was left as bought, painted semi gloss black and is acceptable as a driver. You can see how off the bead lines and edges are but it`s better than repairing rusted hulks needing the bottom six inches of body replaced all around.

 

I have used quite a few of their bodies starting in 2008, including the 32 RPU I'm building right now. I have never had a spec of bondo on any of them, and overall the amount of metal work has been very minor to get them ready for paint.

 

That's what I expected, but like I said... I have 1/8" or more at the corners all the way to that bottom body line. It's completely accurate to say that these corners and lines are sculpted out of filler. I expected to have to finesse some things like the fender/aprons/running board fit... no sweat... but when I paid a premium to have the cab pieces assembled by Brookville (as opposed to having to do all of that assembly and finishing myself) I sure as hell didn't think I was paying them to tack the corners together and then bury it all in mud!

I'm calling them today to see what they say...

 

Just talked to Rick at Brookville. He says I must have a really old body because that's how they used to build them "before they fixed all their tooling". He said he knows they used to skim coat with filler, but when I told him this is much more than a skim coat, he said I'll need to talk to Dale... who is away... so he'll have to call me back tomorrow.

 

Stay on them, make them make it right for you! It doesn't matter how long ago you bought it, and if they shipped it that way then they are responsible for cleaning up their mess.

 

No Bondo but it is not straight!! All new pieces from Brookville!!

 

Nobody does lead anymore, all the old guys retired or died.

 

Bondo.....maybe they were trying to make them like lots of original 32's these days.

 

TO FUNNY

 

Yes some young or middle aged bodymen still do lead, even less customers want to pay for the cost of material and the extra time.
I worked on some red oxide brookville 32 and 30/31 roadster : once striped they were flawless.

 

Ronnie---
Seriously, there is no bondo on it, are they perfect, nope, I expect it to need some.