Projects Question;Why would someone put Bondo on the frame?

Answer;To fill the rusty holes and cover up the angle iron that they welded to the rusty frame..

OK all of you smart *** guys ..start flaming because I didnt have a Hamber check it out for me!
At my age I should know better.I would advise anyone else that was buying a car a thousand miles away to have it checked out.
I asked the PO what was wrong w/it and he told me that the carburetor needed to be rebuilt and he told the truth..BUT..I like to think that he really didnt know what else is wrong w/it..

 

Maybe it's a special mix for strength........or something. How's that?

 

Did it come 'with' or 'without' the hammer?

 

See this all the time.

Lately we've had at least 3 after purchase inspections at the shop.. same cost as a pre-purchase inspection, but the results are often way more expensive.

We offer pre-purchase inspections at a preset price of 5 labor hours, includes a full detailed report and estimate of repairs. Cheap insurance if you ask me, but many people decide to take the risk and too often get hurt.

Sorry this happened to you, hopefully you'll educate someone else and help them not make the same mistake.

 

Hope your wallet didn't get hurt too bad!

 

.. to get it to pass a NYS inspection when it's just an old beater they're trying to get another year out of...

On the bright side, other than convertibles the frames are pretty well all the same for 49-52 and it shouldn't be too bad to find another one.

 

It probably didn't look that bad until you drove a chisal into it & hit it with a hammer!!! Sorry you got hosed. That window screen wire looks real familiar. I had a bunch of that in the body of my '31 Phaeton when it arrived from New York.
Good luck with the project.

 

I heard bondo was stronger than steel.

 

NOT DEFENDING HIM....but did you let him know about this ????
Maybe he is not a real detailed frame guy, and never knew it...
Good luck though...Hope this project works out well for you!
Cheers........

 

Holy crap. Did the ad say "Never driven in Winter. Stored indoors" too?

Sorry this happened. I wouldn't buy a car older than 15 years old, East of the Mississippi. Those Eastern Winters and Road salt are a real killer.

 

it looks to me like it has a subframe (camaro or other) Grafted to it. Id strip that mess down and check all the welds and joints cause chances are they were hiding either sloppy welding or gapped joints.

 

Thats never going to hold paint if you keep poking holes all in it............

 

Happened to me once ,I bought an elcamino 76 ,I know its off topic but heres the story ,Fiberglassed and undercoated ,I owned the car one week.Motor blew first week ,Went out for a long drive,Thermostat I believe failed .Un loading off the flat bed Man did I see the frame flexing ,I was out 1200 in a week ....My model A frame ,Actually 32 has bondo in it ,Not to cover rust ,Just to make straight,Plus to clean up some welds that stuck ,But arent pretty..........

 

If it were a house, it would be condemned. So sorry to see this happen to you.....dang.

 

Wow...scary...

Friend of mine years ago bought a 55 Chevy which looked pretty good on the surface. Got under it and found someone had filled the rockers with marine foam, then bondo'd over it to perfection...amazing. Not much left after we cut those out!

 

Wow! You get 5 hours for a pre-purchase insp? Are we talking custom cars/hotrods etc? Not that I don't think that it is worth it, but seems like most people bitch about every .10 that they pay, and that there would be few takers. I don't get the after purchase inspection mentality. It almost always ends up with regret.

 

don't feel too bad about it; i caught a car the dealership had sent to a body shop to do a straightening on (off topic unibody car) and when we got it back, i happened to be in the shop while the techs were checking some mechanical work (also fubarred, btw) when i poked at a funny looking spot on a frame rail out of curiosity... well; long story short, it was silicone sealant smoothed over a bent rail. btw; this was a three year old car, tops.

body shop never liked me after that.

 

Yes, this is for classics, hot-rods and customs... full inspection of mechanical, electrical and body with a full written report. Yes, some people complain it's too expensive and then complain after they buy a car that it would have been cheap insurance.

ps.. the 5 hours is for an inspection at customer location anywhere in the DFW metroplex.. pretty good deal if you ask me.

 

Thought I was the only one this happened to!!! HAHA!
Not to laugh at you man, just been there...

 

cant say iv found bondo on a frame like that before, the only damn experience i have with a frame sorta speak is when i built a 1950 flatbed chev. i put a nova front clip on her and used the rear too.. i had some brackets welded up so all i had to do was welded them to frame and i could use stock bushings etc.. worked out slick.. but i had to drill all them damn factory rivets out first.. that took many cases of beer. good times laughs

 

We had a 56 ford come into the shop that had a piece of burlap sack stuck to the inner fender in the rear and was covered with undercoating. another Ford was a 55 conv that came out of Calif. all the body mounts were roof flashing, the floors were aluminum , lower 1/4 were only riveted on over the original panels all this was covered with either tar or bondo. Took alot of work to fix all this and the customer still complained. I know a few people that buy and sell all the time I have seen alot of junk pass through thier hands. I asked one of them after he sold a 55 chevy with cardboard inner rockers how he could do this and his answer was they dont ask I dont tell. Every car he sells he has the same story I tried for years to buy this car and it is perfect . I dont go to cruise inns or many shows anymore because they will be there selling and trading and I dont want to be accused of being a part of this. I charge a straight $100 for a prepurchase inspection done at my shop and I am noones friend I tell it llike it is .

 

thats a great price 100.00 for peace of mind.. i hear ya not wanting to get in the politics.. man i dunno how i would respond to a guy who said "they dont ask i do tell" or whatever he said.. i grew up in a small town where everyone knew everyone and all we had was our word.. small town morals i guess.. life sure is a trip.
enjoy the fall fella's.
chris.

 

But there's a reason guys do this. The same person who won't buy that car when it obviously needs all that work done to it, because he thinks it's junk, goes ahead and buys it with shitty work hiding all the damage, because a lot of people in the hobby are some form of lazy or moronic. I'm not saying the OP is, we all get caught once in a while. But if guys were smart enough to see the potential and understand that if they have it done themselves, it gets done the right way, then it would be a lot harder for guys to screw people over with cardboard, window screen and bondo.

 

I also did pre purchase inspections at my shop. Special Interest vehicles, Porsches, and Classics. I charged a fee of $120, Calif. flat rate. (2 hours then)
Problems with Porsches were: Rust; (easily detected with experience; the 'usual places': water traps, salt pockets, etc.) Engine mechanical; (the lion's portion of these cars have been 'repaired', or 'amateur-restored', there are studs forced through blind holes in aluminum cases, main bearings installed closed over oil holes, rods installed backwards, and any number of things undetectable without X-Ray!)

But back to the post: Good thing they restricted all that bondo to the frame. Coulda been put all over the body...(satire)

 

Isn't that the car you got from Texas? Looks like it has spent some time on that famous car lot in Staunton,Ill. To bad you got screwed,did you ask the guy how long he owned it to see if he was just a car flipper? If I spot a frame close I will let you know.

 

you need to caption the hammer pic and print it in poster size. you can use the proceeds from the poster sales to buy your new frame

 

i don't want to begrudge anyone making money off cars, but i blame a lot of this shit behavior on the "flipper" mentality. this is my hobby; this is what i do to wind down and get away from "work"; it's not a BUSINESS to me. if a deal sounds too good to be true, it usually IS. lots of guys with deep pockets saw a big profit in buying up old iron and doling them out one at a time to hungry car nuts, and for the most part none of them are real car guys and know JACK about what they have except the shit they hear watching the latest Blareit, Jackson auction. every Mopar had a Hemi and every Ford had a 427 SOHC, every Chevy a 409 and every Rambler was a Hurst Special, even that rusted Classic 440 wagon with a straight six and three speed stick.
bottom line: people put bondo on the frame to catch a buyer who otherwise would have walked away with his money safely in his pocket.
we who crawl through rain soaked briars and tick infested weeds to ferret out a possible project car that MIGHT be back of someone's barn are fair game sometimes.

 

The only car you can trust is one you've owned.

 

Sorry ya got hosed. But in the end is the rest of the car worth the dough you shelled out. Not really talking about "book value" but value to you. First thing I do is lay down under it. Dont have the tools yet to seperate the two so that is very important. Can look past some body work. Though I got screwed once on a 68 Nova cause the title and car did not match. Parted it out though and made back all but 100 bucks. Good luck with it.

 

$500.00 for an inspection? anybody foolish enough to pay that should just find another hobby.