should i bondo or weld the holes left from the side trimming of my car?

i have a 58 ford fairlane, and it had that side trimming on there and i didnt like it, so off it went a while back.

but ever since then there have been those ugly gawdy holes running down the side of my car. about 70 or 80 i'd imagine.

but the holes are smaller than a dime, and slightly bigger than the tip of an eraser on a pencil.

my dad said i should have them welded up, but that would cost a lot of money and time.

but i dont know if bondo-ing up would be good. what do u guys suggest i should do?

 

If you bondo them big ass holes, It will fall out for sure.

If ya dont get a real good body man to weld them up, It will be wavy as hell when yer done.

I opinion is, '58 Ford side trim is best left on ... but since were past that & its yer car ... spend the time &/or Money to have them welded up by a professional.

 

welding is the best way//instead of paying somebody to do it use that money toward an inexpensive mig welder with gas setup . then you can weld up the trim holes and a whole lot more

 

if you don't know what you are doing,when welding up holes,the car will be ruined.have a professional do it the right way.you will save money,and have a much better ride.

-danny

 

having holes, is better than bondo.

Bondo is temporary in most applications. It cracks and then falls off of the car.

Save your $ and do it right.

 

well from the sounds of it, some of you think i know how to weld, lol im only 17 and dont have a welder and have never had experience with one. so ya i'd have a pro do it, but i work at kmart, my paychecks arent that much. so it'd be a while if i wanted someone to do all that. which is why bondo is what i wanted to do cuz i know how to do that. its just that i dont know how it would look.

i imagine i can try bondo out with 2 or 3 holes in the back where no one can see them. to see what happens

 

i believe they way to learn is..
leave holes open a while..
put silicone over ones that leak .. like side and trunk..
bondo over em with enuf so it sticks..
finish paint over bondo
sell car cuz holes are rusty and bondo fallin out has wrecked finish paint...
buy car and grind off paint ,bondo, silicone, weld holes up properly
flip car cuz its a "old custom"

 

I cant help but wonder how well that epoxy weld stuff that you nead together would work,
I would put it in from the backside while pushing against a flat surface on the outside (maybe a bondo spreader) then after its set up good do the finish work with a little touch up bondo.
I would think that stuff would hold up a lot better than bondo???
I have fixed a lot of things with that stuff it will hold!

 

Low budget? Try something different! Maybe put some sort of rounded or bullet shaped decorative screws though the holes with a nut on the back. There are hundreds of different types..you'll probably find one you like. Probably $10 or so?

Dave

 

LOLOL.... Just cus he has 85 plastic silicone nozzles for a grill dont meen he should use it on the holes in the side also !!

I give him an A for askin whats right, but damnit.. he live in BAKERSFIELD land of oil field welders !!!

go ask GOATBOY he can do it at his house and maybe a good price... maybe !

Or maybe just put the trim back on ??

 

Sell the trim you took off to pay for the welding work. Depending on what shape it's in, and the type of trim, you could easily make enough to get it done right....make sure you sell the mounting clips too. Right now all those holes are allowing water to get to the inside of your body panels.

 

you should learn how to weld, had my first welder at 12, but i wouldnt try welding those holes as a first project as it would warp your body if it gets to hot, bodo is going to fall out, i like the idea of screws and acorn nuts that face out, aint never seen that before, get stainless acorn nuts and polish them, cool man

 

Get some cheap 110 mig welder. Cut out some little sheet metal circles that fit the holes. Drill some holes that fit the circles in some scrap sheet metal. Pratice welding the circles in. Just do a spot at a time. Don't try to weld all the way around. Keep it up until it's stuck on. Grind down. Bondo smooth. Now you have filled the holes, own a welder, and know how to use it. Good deal

 

Hey,

You can always solder these holes up.......

Cut small filler patches from galvinized sheetmetal (roof flashing) and
solder a piece of welding rod/coat hanger to the middle of each patch
you'll use the rod/hanger as a handle wile soldering.

Grind the area around each hole, and take a rat tail file and clean
each hole of its' paint/rust. IMPORTANT! solder won't stick or
flow over dirty,rusty, painted metal.

Now buy or borrow a soldering iron from a electronics geek and some acid core solder. If ya don't know how to solder check out
a how to book on plumbing/eletcronics, it's dirt simple!

Pratice soldering on scrap pieces of metal 'till ya've got it down.

If ya do a good job of it no warping of the panels will happin. The
solder will file and sand easy and outlast any plastic filler repair.
If you apply enought solder, you shouldn't need any spot putty or
heavy primer.

Swankey Devils C.C.

 

First thing, go find a bodyman that can do the job properly. Not just a collision repair type bodyman. He needs to know metal working. Show him what you have and start talking. What's it gonna take? Can you mow his grass? Clean up his shop? Date his fat daughter? Will he do a few at a time as you can afford it? When you talk to him, crying might help. Money you don't have, but two hands and a back you do have. See if you can work something out.

Is there a local car club? They may know some guys that can do it and do it right. Talk to them. Perhaps you can pick up a few bucks doing something for them?

Perhaps an epoxie (like JB Weld or something) would be good enough. Anything other than welding is going to crack eventually. Are you planning on a high dollar paint job? Or perhaps a paint job you can repair every once in a while as a hole develops a crack? If the cheap fix will last a year or so, perhaps in the intervening time you can scrape the money together.

Don't let just anybody that can weld do it. It takes experience and a bit of metalworking skill to do it without warping the whole side of your car. The metal has to be properly worked to relieve the stresses that the welding heat causes. This is why its gonna cost some money to get it done.

 

wow
how about lites in every hole

 

just the clips to hold on the stainless sell new for 2.50 ea.
Like the man said, your stainless, if you didn't ruin it is worth something to somebody

 

Weld the holes, slowly, don't put too much heat in one spot, if you just use bondo, that shit will fall out within' month.
!!!!!!Do it right, do it once!!!!!!

 

Find a way to do it right, this isn't a civic, don't treat it like one.

 

Get yerself a roll of that shiny silver furnace tape. Cut small squares of tape and cover all the holes ya don't like...then after 3 or 4 coats of primer and some paint they are well hidden.

OK,OK...yes I have done it that way as a temp fix but not really recommend it. Try your local community college or do a search for an ROP program and take a class...usually only have to be 16.

 

The first thing I did on my car was shave trim, and it was the first time I ever welded anything seriouse (ie. My car). I did practice on scrap for a day before I started.

I took 1/4" steel rod, put it in my lathe, and just cut off enough discs at the right thickness, and used them to fill the holes. You can use a metal punch and sheetmetal just the same.

Most of the discs fit so tight I had to tap them in with a hammer, but for the ones that didnt, I used a magnet to hold them in place.

I read the precautions about welding on body pannels, and did one small tack weld at a time untill the whole circumfrence of the filler piece was welded in, and ground the welds smooth. You have to wait for each tack weld to cool before going to the next one.

It worked out perfectly. There was no warping at all. By the way, I didnt even have gas on my machine at that time, but I dont think Id ever go back to flux core after I got gas.

The key is to take your time, and work very slowly. There will be tons of threads on how to do this peroprly if you do a search.

 

Yeah. What Chad said. Thst's how you become a Hot Rod guy. Not by paying some one else to do what you can with practice. Then you can make a few bucks doing the cars for the guys that are telling you to have it done.

 

Grind back the metal around the hole (both sides), make sure the hole itself is cleaned up. Place a copper coin behind the hole, and fill hole with a MIG – start at the edge of the hole and work your way around. The welding wire will not stick to the cooper but the coin will support the weld and stop the wire pushing though the weld area.
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
Or –
<o></o>
Grind metal around holes; use a drill 3 or 4 times bigger than the hole to make a small countersink. Place a silver coin behind and use solder to fill the holes. Use a plumber’s gas soldering iron or a big electric soldering iron.
<o></o>
Whatever method you use, do 1 hole at a time and wait until it has cooled completely before doing another on that panel.
<o></o>
I have also used a bit of plate with a ½ inch hole that goes behind the hole and a tapered bit of rod – with the metal cleaned up, get someone to hold the plate with the hole behind and use the tapered rod and a hammer to push the hole a bit lower than the surrounding metal. This will mean that the weld will not have to be ground flush with the hole. Also if you use solder, the solder will have the sides of the indent to hold on to.
<o></o>
I bet the idea of getting the trim repaired / repolished is looking good at the moment.
If you refit the trim and don't have the clips, use 2 sided tape to fix the trim the tape over the hole will stop the water- you may have double up on the tape to get it high enough to stick to the back of the trim. Put the tape on the full length of the trim, remove the wax paper and stick it to the panel, make sure you clean the back of the trim and the panel.
<o></o>
Maybe getting one or two trims repaired at a time as you can afford it may work out for you.
<o></o>
Bits of bondo falling out is going to look worse than doing nothing.
<o></o>

 

The copper behind the hole works, but for this guys first time, using that method puts him at a much higher risk of warping the body pannels.

I would reccomend working with tack welding in a filler piece for now. you greatly raise the risk of warpage with the copper method, as you're applying more heat for a longer period of time. Ron Covell even states that for anything larger than 1/8" , a filler piece is the absolute best way to go.

 

Absolutely. Unless you pick up the MIG machine and find you totaly suck no matter how much you try, or fail to read about what to do, and what NOT to do, this is not that hard.

Educate yourself and practice a bit on some scrap and you should be fine.

Go into it haphazardly, and you could create a real mess.

 

if your going to try and learn welding yourself go out and did up some old car doors and drill holes in the center and then try welding them up.

 

How about this. Leave the car as-is. Take some welding classes after hours. Pass with good grades. Now you'll have the skill to work on the car and to get a better job than K-mart - not that there's anything wrong with K-mart, a job is a job, but welders get paid more $$$ an hour.

 

Sounds like a young guy trying to do right. Hell, bring it to Idaho and I will let you use my MIG and help you learn how. Now tell me there is no HAMBER in Bakersfield that can't do the same thing and help him out?

 

dimple the holes in a lil bit and fiberglass over em.....no more holes...

 

Jesus, what's with all the temporary band-aids, tape, fiberglass, JB weld. Weld it, or leave it alone, there is no substitute for doing it right.
Remember, this isnt a Honda civic your working on, it's irreplaceable American history, please treat your sheetmetal accordingly.