I hate to think it but along with the term- RAT ROD,we may have stumbled onto another topic that should not to be posted on the HAMB.....
Also seen that done on VW fender,s to get away from the plastic bead the fac used.And it also cracked.Maybe now a days you could use gasket sealer. ................YG
Ahhh screw it, i'm gonna go spread some Bondo. I'll make a door that's worth $50 but cost $350 look like it's worth $700, for a cost of about $2. And until you scratch it or dent it, you'll never know the filler is there. Finally, if you tell me you've got a car with "no Bondo in it" you either just don't know better, or your old car isn't very straight.
If you see a really straight body, it's probably got bondo on it from head to toe. Even todays cars with there fine fit from todays technology and put together like furnature they still have waves but they are dam nice. Especialy the over seas cars. Fillers today are good stuff when applied properly. There is no need to lay it on super thick thou or it's just a bad job, period.
I've used it and will again, but keep it thin. Also learned the hard way from a truck I bought it doesn't work well with brazing.
Body fillers used correctly - good Used incorrectly and improperly - bad Final paint and lasting properties of work are only as good as the prep taken. I chuckle when I see or hear comments of "no bondo or filler ever" on cars for sale or factory original cars I've worked on with skimmed or filled minor imperfections. That being said I'm proud of the metal work/repair I've done just not anal about the "no filler" aspect, once the finish is on no one will ever see it. The hamb has many good metalsmiths and I appreciate the time and effort it takes.
And then he would have problems. The filled in fender seams on 46/48 Fords was the hot lick for a while with guys who made customs out of them. Often the seams were welded or brazed up and then leaded over or in cases like this they were filled with plastic filler and smoothed over and leveled out. If that is the worse thing they did to the car when they customized it why whine about it. Now that you have started you have a lot of bondo to remove from the car before you can start doing anything to it though. One more thing, a lot of these customs from the old days that we drool over photos of on the net or in the old magazines had a lot more body filler of one form or another than they had body work. They didn't call them lead sleds for naught and in those days it wasn't considered a positive term.
Hey Kenny, I guess what we're really talkin here is '' perceived value'' be it in filler & hi-build work vs. metalstraightened ''traditional'' metalwork and paintwork, too! If you've ever delt with Porsche or Corvette ''People'' the weirdos who show up @ your shop with dental mirrors and light meters, so they can check for the correct amount of reflected light in the peel of chassis black on the backs of splash panels, you're well versed in the term '' better than perfect ''. These freeks expect and demand '' better than perfect '' work and pay the freight accordingly, that's their perceived value for the services rendered. I haven't hit the twelve times value for a part yet, but maybe it's time I review my pricing structure. " Meanwhyle, back aboard The Tainted Pork "
ive repaired old jags benzs and italian cars,they were built by hand by talented craftsman, every one of them had a thick multi layer primer.if ya want it perfect ya got to fill it with something.
Does anyone know who did this work? A Shop or a home builder with very limited knowledge and body working skills. Today everyone is an expert in all things concerning the building of any type of car. As joe average now has access to low costs tools and basic information on how to do "everything" that use to be done by qualified trades people. That is why there are so many bady built cars around now, and why the RR movement has such a following
back to the first post..at least you can sand out the filler and get back to the seams maybe thats what the previous owner wanted. after all when you got the car you knew the seams were filled did't you?..i would say most all smoothed out cars have some sort of filler,todays technology is in plastics sometimes we should not stay in the past.....
I total agree ! the problem is people get lazy and use filler as a easy fix thou you will be right back at it in a few years ! for all the time we put into our projects seems like such a waste to get so lazy !
Not all cars left the showroom with perfect bodies. Euopean cars with custom bodies in the 1930's had fenders made from several pieces welded together. 1950's Ferrari race cars were built as race cars not future collectables. If they didn't use "Bondo" they used an earlier version of it.
In the 30s they would paddle lacquer based "paste" to fill deep file marks in high end bodies. I can't ever recall a significant car being slathered in thick primer from the 30s. And to say that the use of primer makes a bondo hater a hypocrite? That's silly fodder for flaming and argument. And I'll go on record to say I have and still use filler. My test? If a refrigerator magnet, those little flat buisness card types, will still pick up the metal, it's probably going to last a long time. I feel that's a good test of a metal finish/fill relationship. If that makes my hatred for the stuff hypocritical, I can live with that because there's cars out there with my filler in them from 20+ years ago...still winning shows.
Highlander if you do bodywork in Michigan you must have seen old cars with bondo 2 or 3 inches thick, still stuck in place like iron. You have also seen thin skim coats of bondo lifted off if water and rust got underneath it.
Another good rule of thumb in the car repair biddness is longevity of that repairing..... If you see a car and it has some repair done with Bondo in a proper fashion and it has been done for 20-30 years ,then I have to admit that must have been done,....well= good enough. As we all know there are some spots on a panel that are just not accessible from the rear and that tiny imperfection in UN-straightness is left that way usually....A lot of new vehicles are sorta wavy and dippy if one examines them very closely,so it must be ,MMMMMM-in the eye of the beholder,I suppose...... A very good friend of mine,who is a master refinisher of high end hotrods,told me once- the difference between a good Black finish and a very good black paint job is this- you can lay a quarter on the ground,about 4 feet away from the car. on a good car's finish one can see it is a quarter layin there...On the better job you can read the quarter's date.....
Yea, my dad died inhaling that stuff from the 40's -50's & 60'. In fact, he was so good, they used to call him "The Lead man".
You wouldn't believe what I've seen in 40yrs. Well, maybe you would being in the Great White North. I just figure it as an aid instead of a cure. Hard to go wrong that way.
Abso-fuckin-luteley. I wish i was a good metal man, but the truth is that i aint, and unless a miracle will turn me into Skoty chops, or any other guy that can make a wavy piece of junk steel into a perfectly contoured panel, i will keep using filler. And i totally hate it, as i hate sanding with a passion. This is the funniest shit ive ever seen. John Bondo Jovi, ahahaha
I'm waiting for badlefihand and all the other anti bondo activists to show us the thread where they take a beat up 60 year old vehicle, weld and metal finish the whole car to perfection without using any bondo, filler, or high build primer. Then paint it gloss black with a mirror like finish. I would sincerely like to see that. I love learning new things and that would be a wonderful thing to learn. I hope I live long enough to see it.
AMEN,RustyOtoole.... I think most of them all steel guys are telling us "other method" guys-THE TRUTH.... I believe they truly are turning em out with absolutely no filler at all......in bare steel so they can be shot for Rodders Digest features.... Then they are sent off to paint shops where -THEY- put on the missing filler.
All old cars cannot avoid a small percentage of filler in them areas where you just can't get behind the panel or reach with a dolly/hand-weight . my weekly metal work blog with metal finished panels! www.themetalsurgeon.com
Mike,do you find it gets stuck in your teeth if eaten? my weekly metal work blog www.themetalsurgeon.com
Back in the 70's I worked at a body shop in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. On a very cold January day a 63 split window vette built by a famous California builder hit a rather large pothole. The back of the body just above the rear window down to the corners of the b-pillars cracked off the rest of the car leaving a two inch gap. We took it into the shop ground away some paint to find top layer bondo, next layer fiberglass resin and newspaper. Back in the day some builders only cared about the end result carefully pushed out the door and to the nearest car show.
This thread sucks!!....Before he started grinding on it the fender looked pretty good......LOL....Sorry to be a smartass I could not help myself......LOL....
Yes it does, however, its not so bad with Duraglass....and all that extra fiber keeps me regular too.
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