Anyone here successfully filled emblem/moulding holes without welding? What products or method did you use? Thanks.
My dad filled several holes in the side of my 50 Ford sedan that was two-toned with an aftermarket Crestliner style chrome side strip. Which I chose to remove. The 10/32 sized holes were hit with a counter sink, paint was removed by a sanding disc and the holes were soldered shut with a small torch and acid fluxed solid solder. Then they were hit with the sanding disc again to get em down to surface level, the car primed and painted. Never had a problem with it in the three years I had the car including another paint job a couple years down the road.
I had a car 17 years with a few holes filled the way C9 described. After many years the spots sunk a little. These were holes on a decklid. Not sure if it sank because solder is soft or what caused it. The holes were a little bigger, probably about 3/8 of an inch which may be another reason it sank a little.I tried many things on that car. I've used fiberglass over some areas before and have never had a problem with that and it was pretty cheap.
Metal can only be mated with metal. All techniques other than the tried and true are destined for failure. It's cheap and it's easy, there's no excuse in these modern days of MIGs to contemplate anything else.
what about that new adhesive that is being used alot. Can you cut a piece of metal to fit behind the hole and adhesive it to the panel then use a little filler to complete. Most metal is pretty thin so I would think some good bondo would handle it Anyone use this new adhesive (I believe shops are using it on modern cars to do repairs????
[ QUOTE ] what about that new adhesive that is being used alot. Can you cut a piece of metal to fit behind the hole and adhesive it to the panel then use a little filler to complete. Most metal is pretty thin so I would think some good bondo would handle it Anyone use this new adhesive (I believe shops are using it on modern cars to do repairs???? [/ QUOTE ] The adhesives will show lines anywhere the metal is lapped, or butted. It has a slightly different expansion rate, so the holes will show too.
well, my wife's car has got glued-on 1/4 panels and THEY haven,t showed ANY signs of that! been 2-3 years now driven all year long. they used something from 3m rather than fusor.. that's the way stuff is being done nowadays with what they're using for sheet metal on L.M.S.
I did extensive bodywork* on ONE of my cars when I was young...I smoothed out the quareter panels on a rough old Pinto just for the sake of doing it, and to learn some basic bodywork techniques. I yanked the emblems off and threw them away, then stuck small magnetic strips behind the panel covering the holes from the backside. Bondo'd over the holes, sanded, repeated the process until smooth! Primer, paint...done! No welding...but a whole lotta sanding! *etensive bodywork = more than washing the car!
Tomslick, The 1/4s on your wifes car were most likley glued on at the flange seams, and not lapped on the outter part of the pannel, unless the shop went against 3M's recomended procedure. Most shops are using a combination of welding and bonding. Glue alone is grounds for a lawsuit.
"No-weld hole filling" sounds a little like "no-intercourse pregnancy". Yes, you can do it with state-of-the-art technology, but the results aren't as predictable. The new stuff (JB Weld, f'rinstance) will expand and contract at a different rate while in the hot sun or in the cold out of the sun. Also, both are less satisfying.
With small holes, solder works. A bit of tinned steel wool helps it across, and, believe it or not, the big size Weller pistol puts out enough heat for sheetmetal. Run a drill or reamer into hole to shiny the metal, dimple in hole very slightly, sand surface, and tin. With clean surface you can do it straight from a roll of rosin-core radio solder, so no acid reflux to worry about. Hold steel wool against back of hole if necessary, make sure you puddle up some solder out from hole a ways--you need to end up with a bit of a solder flange around hole. No torch, nothing tricky. Sand/file to suit, but not down to the hole itself--a simple solder plug without a tapered flange would likely fall out.
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