Agreed! Id like to see all of the bondo haters perfectly metal finished, shinny painted arrow straight cars!
My personal opinion is to drill some small test pilot holes so you can see where else the mess is and how deep, then if it's throughout the car and deep...... well maybe you want to move and sell the ride. And let the next guy know what he maybe in for, he may have more resources and time than you at this moment. Buzz
I find a lot of unneeded bondo is a result of inexperienced body men not knowing how to blend the edge of a repair. They cant make a smooth transition so they cover everything in the surrounding area.
I've seen some old repairs done in the early '50s or earlier where they used some blue stuff that smells really strong. I don't think it's polyester. It looks like short asbestos fibers soaked in some smelly clear blue goop. It never really dries all the way. It turns into a hard gummy stuff kind of like dried up chewing gum and has a really bad odor that'll curl your nostril hairs. It could be something like pine sap or gum mixed with some other toxic slop. They probably only used it for a little while while for doing shoddy repairs while most other people were still using lead. If it smells like Bondo, then it's just Bondo that they didn't mix well enough or didn't use enough hardener.
You could take a fridge magnet and walk the car. If it won't sitck anywhere on the car you might as well live with it. Like some of these guys have said, If its an ok driver, rebondo the hole and keep on truckin. As a testament to bondo, a customer brought in a spare fender for his car when we were doing all his metal work(patch panels and such). The fender he brought in was off an older custom. The headlights were frenched and the trim removed. I had to use the lower half of the headlight bucket and the majority of the lower front fender. When I went to hit it with the plasma cutter, the plasma wouldnt cut and a big cloud of black smoke came off the fender. I hit it with my grinder and found 2+ inches of bondo. When I told the owner about it he told me he got the fender with the car. The previous owner had the fender from a swap meet 10 or so years earlier. The current owner has had the car for at least 10 years, so thats at least 20 years. It wasnt cracked or in bad shape at all. The laquer paint was faded, but that was it. Btw my painter skim coats everything. If you want paint anything shinny black bondo is a must. edit: I forgot to mention, the customer paid about $5000 in metal and bodywork alone. Alot of rust and bad previous repairs.
Mine was like that in the quarters. It had about a 2 foot long streak of holes drilled in it in a failed attempt to pull out a crease, so of course the moisture got into it from behind. By the time I got it all ground out, there wasn't much metal left back there. Luckily I found a donor car locally, and a no-longer-produced path panel for the rest, which took me months to find.
Here is most of the bottom 6 inches of my 39 Ford.. ...And a close up.. Made some new panels.. The thing to remember is it is just sheet metal. With a welder, grinder and some paitence you can fix it. Don't cut off great big pieces of body off all in one shot, start with a smaller repair to get some practice. You can do it. Really. Good luck, -Abone.
My painter is working on a 34 Ford Bonneville car. The owner bought a nice looking pro street coupe for the project. Once the interior was pulled you could see there were problems. The roof had been filled with the 80's ribbed style but it didn't show from the outside. The bondo was 7/8" thick up there and weighed out at over 100 lbs when the roof was replaced. The roof was supported with a car spring, welded in place. The whole body had been cover with think bondo and then sculptured smooth. He paid big bucks for the car and I must admit it looked good. Once it was all striped, there isn't a panel that hasn't had to have metal replaced. Bad previous metal work and brass. It was chopped and had to be redone. He has been on the body over 2 months now and looking like off the assembly line new. I would hate to see the hours and bill for this one.
On my daughter's CJ, the seat belt anchors were nothing but bondo. The floorboards were two metal street signs that were pop rivated in and covered with bondo. The body has at least 10 gals of bondo holding it together. George
WOW what a difference!! I remember when you posted the first pics of the body you dragged home..beautiful save!!
in this time and age i would be surprised not to find mud on a car. I've seen guys sculpt the shape of a trim piece that was missing down the side of the car and paint it. I've see a 51 merc with one flushed skirt done the right way from one shop and the other side just mounted on the skirt and a strip of cardboard or something taped up against it and the piled the mud on and shape it and call it a flush mount skirt. just chalk it up as a learning experience
Anywhere it is blistered or cracked needs to be stripped, but judging from the pics, I would strip the whole car and know what you are starting with. Better that than to do the car again in a few years when the rest starts to fall off. Pat.
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