I’ve seen a couple threads on here about extreme bondo abuse, but you guys ain’t got nothing on what I found last night. I’m in the process of “un-ratting” my 66 Galaxie. Finally have a garage to work in, so the prior owners shitty spray bomb flat black has got to go. I’ve been working with a DA sander to take it off and fixing a few dents as I go. Nothing major until last night. My passenger rear fender has always been kinda wavy, so I figured that the asshat I got it from had just sprayed over dents instead of hammering them out. Ugh I couldn’t have been more wrong… 3 hours in, majority of flat spray paint removed and I have barely started to see ANY metal. The Bondo must be a quarter of an inch thick in places. No clue why this fender is so chewed up, but it’s the worst I’ve EVER seen. If this was a front fender, hood, door, I would have yanked it, trashed it and got a new one...but it’s not as easy with the rear since it all seems to be one piece. I’m thinking about going and cutting just the passenger side section out of another Galaxie and then grafting it on, but I’m not sure how well that will work. Seems like it be a lot of heat, and probably come out warped. Patch panels are out of the question as most of the damage is around the kick-up/swoop. I don’t think my metal working skills are up to re-creating that. Is hammering it ALL out right the only option I have? I don't mind bondo when it's used to smooth creases and such, but damn, it's almost like this guy BUILT a fender out of it. I was going to get some pics last night, but the camera was dead. Probably better if I don’t attempt to catch it on film…
1/4" thick is nothing, I've seen that stuff WELL over an inch thick on some projects I've taken on. Good luck!
oh it's still got time. 1/4 was my rough estimate of how much I've removed already! Plus it's on a panel that's about 5' x 2' and I haven't found a place where it stops yet...
Pulled off BY HAND: And this one... Seems like instead of banging the dent out They just puttied over it.
I'd try and find another panal for it .Nothing wrong with "Bondo" if you use good qaulity filler ,prep the surface well, and use it thin.I use it all the time and have never had problems with it ,but sum people get lazy and apply it with a snow shovel instead of fixing the panel first .This is what gave "Bondo" its bad rap ...
The lower rear valance on my`64 Rivi was like that, I suspected some rough stuff when I found bondo nodular lumps inside the trunk . I was correct,after removing 1/4" , it was bondo filling up the rust holes . great fun! Better to find it now rather than a few years down the road bubbling under new paint.
It seems like people use Bondo for rust repair more than dents on old cars.It absolutely wont work.The other mistake i see people do is to drill holes for a dent puller ,pull the dent ,and then Bondo .Bondo will soak up moisture like a wick through the holes and make the panel rust under the filler.I always weld the holes up then apply a product called "All Metal " which is a metal epoxy and will not absorb moisture .I apply filler after that and its fine for ever ...
Your dent looks pretty bad, but I still haven't gotten down to the bare metal....no telling how chewed up it is under it all.
Until it comes off in 1" thick chunks that look like sedimantary rock it aint shit. Just a common old repair. Rather fix that dented Chevy 1/4 than one someone tried to do a 70s brazing job on anyday!
I'm always getting lambasted by some due to my choice to move metal vs frosting shit up. I have a car in here now, one of many, that the previous professionals (HAH!!) frosted like a fuckin cupcake. Here's the kicker, It took about 1/2hr to adjust the lid to the 1/4 panel. Now that it's in place the 1/4 panel is high by anywhere from 1/8 to over 3/8...ALL FUCKIN MUD! Why? Because it was done by some mouth-breather. Some knuckle draggin wannabe who thinks they have all the answers. The down side is what I have to do for the customer and their hesitation when this dumb shit is discovered. I fuckin hate bondo as a repair. It's a finishing aid, nothing more. We had a couple Packard fenders in here that were 10-15lbs too heavy. "You're so smart, how do you know they're too heavy?" is the feedback I often got from some of the old crew. I think that once I cut into it with a zip wheel and didn't hit metal until almost 3/4" in, no words were needed. "STEP AWAY FROM THE BONDO CAN AND DROP THAT SPREADER NOW!" People on 'ludes should not do body work...
try to get some pics if you can. that'll really help us advise you. There's a lot of great metal men on the hamb, but in order to really help, we gotta see it. From what you're saying though, there's a lot of old time tricks you might be able to use. To pop a panel out that you couldn't get behind with a hammer, the old timer that taught me used to slide an un-inflated basket ball inside a quarter and then inflate it. worked every time
Yeah I'll get some pics. I'm pretty sure I could work the upper area from inside the trunk, but the lower area around the wheel well is gonna be the hard part. If I thought it was remotely possible I would replace the whole panel, but like I said in my first post, I think it'll be next to impossible to do it without warping it.
Looks like you popped that crease out pretty good, but it looks like it was too far gone already...much like I'm afraid mine is.
Who knows coulda been done by some driveway professional. or just some one not wanting to spend any money and just turn it. which worked because someone bought it. never asume anything, under that flat black is a ton of sin or they would have left it alone. be sure and post pics after you hammer and dolly it out, that is a really hard area to reach, unless your arms are 8 feet long.
1/4 inch aint shit. ive seen an inch think on rockers many times. its funny when you cut the rocker off and it weighs 15 pounds. you kinda already know what your in for with the rst of the car.
haha, who knows. My car has a long and storied history. It was built and originally sold right here in Dallas TX. It's been all down hill from there. I won't get into some of the more frightening shit I've found and fixed, but it was used and abused by several "rat rodders". Luckily I didn't buy it, I traded my 1979 Dodge Warlock truck for it (guy said he was gonna rat rod that too...god I hope not!).
I'd rather have rockers built out of bondo that an entire rear end... Neither one are a good idea, but damn.
Oh, heck, I can top that. I had a '70 Cutlass convertible and the rear quarters were just FULL of bondo. I didn't care because I bought it for next to nothing ($200 in 1990 or so) with a wrecked door. After I replaced the driver door I decided to fix the rear quarter and guess what? The rear quarters weren't wrecked OR rusted out! Someone spread about a half-inch of bondo over perfectly good fenders. I have no idea why, other than minor dents. I just block-sanded about 90% of the bondo back off an presto, perfect rear quarters. Sold the car for $1000 a couple weeks later.
Hey Steve, 1966 was a long time ago! Long before the cars we treasure were ''cool'' they were jus old cars- think '83 Chevrolet, here for a context! For years in the life of this vehicle no one was gonna spend real money to repair one properly. Now the balls in your court. Replacement isn't always the best way out of a tough sheetmetal problem. Sixty five and six Fords had a lot of semi flat panels to them, and semi & flat body panels dent easily. That could go a long way towards explaining why so much filler was used in the quarter. Too, perhaps the vehicle was hit from behind, and the quarter was never pulled out to its' original length, but jus filled over-this would be some serious butchery, but not unheard of for an old repair. If you've more filler to remove, I suggest you break out the 7'' or 9'' grinder and a 24 grit open coat disc, and make careful passes from left to right the length of each panel removing all the paint and filler back to metal. This will tell you just what you have to work with. I don't have to tell you to ware a mask and goggles do I ? Fire off a couple pictures and maybe we can give ya some ideas on an easier way to repair this. " Life ain't no Disney movie "
Sound advice man. Here's an update; I rolled her out into the driveway yesterday and got in the trunk, so I could see the damage from inside. Not what I was expecting to see really. the panel for the most part seems to have the proper contours except for the area in question. There was a groove about 2 inches deep...leading up to a split in the panel. I took my hammer to it and started massaging it and knocking off the bondo from the inside out. It came out of the area in huge chunks and then I could see what happened. It looks to me like the car was hit hard in the rear at some point and the whole rear end was pushed forward. Someone cut it off and refitted the whole thing. The drivers side is well done, the passenger side is not so clean. That bondo has been on there for a LONG time. I honestly don't know what to do, short of removing the whole passenger side and installing another rear clip. The groove that I could see was from where they had hammered it in on purpose so they could build the rear conture out of mud. I'm not sure how I can make it any better without re-clipping the whole thing.
Ferrari Dino's have 2" of bondo in the flying buttresses - FROM THE FACTORY!! Five years ago I bought a brand new Ford StreetKa convertible - very pretty little thing built by Pininfarina in Italy and it shared no body panels with the standard Ford. First week I had it someone ran into it in the car park. The kicker was that this was a private car park belonging to Chester Cathedral. No note left on it and, surprise, they claimed the CCTV cameras weren't working that day. The drivers side sail panel (behind the rear door was stoved in) and to fix it properly would have to be cut out. The thing was, whether to let this hand made Italian car be pulled to pieces by a local body shop or just let them use a pin puller, leave it low, and skim it with bondo. I decided on the latter because it would mean less damage to the car. Didn't regret it because it looked perfect and using a magnet I couldn't tell where they'd used bondo.
I just can't think of any other way to save it. Hell, I'd probably pay what I have in the car for a complete rear section. So what's the downside to smoothing it out and leaving it alone? I don't care about the weight, I'm more concerned with it cracking and screwing up my paint that I eventually plan to have...
Must be with the amount I've seen pulled out of vintage tin. I've gotten the panel beaten out as good as it's going to. Looks like I'm stuck with it for right now. It's not going to turn out any better. That patch panel is so poorly fitted, there's no hope for it. Gonna have to wait until I can come up with a better panel and just redo the whole damn thing.
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