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

The copper behind works well for small holes ..... Any of you guys know how big the holes on his car are ????

'58 Fords have a monster square hole to fill and even working slow he will warp the metal and end up with a brittle blob of weld that will need mucho grinding.

Im with ya on the need to learn, but if you have no weldiing skills & no $$$ .... you dont want to have to buy new body panels.

 

They do make some high tech panel adhesive now

I know a guy that used it to fill trim holes

Most modern cars have body parts "glued" on

One guy took roof rack off a blazer and did it ..worked good
stuff is super tough
His has been done going on 10 years, no sign of shrink ...yet

 

Look up Mason Designs in Bako. Drive it by there and ask Steve what he would charge. (it will be done right)

 

Okay so everyone can jump on me but I think he's looking for a way to fix it that is cheap and easy . Everyone knows it should be welded up and done the right way but i was 17 once and couldn't afford or didn't have the skill to do this stuff the "right way".

Go to a parts store and purchase a roll of stainless steel tape.
Clean the panel and tape patches fron the inside.
bondo up the holes.
sand and prime the bondo.
worst case you can remove the patches , knock out the bondo and do it right when you have the money, or learn to weld.
the stainless steel will help prevent water from getting behind the bondo.

 

It's simple... just buy a ton of these and screw 'em in..


(kidding)

 

I suggest using "kitty hair" bondo, which has strands of fiberglass embedded in the resin, and is generally believed to be waterproof. Make sure you grind the paint down on the front and the back of the panel, and spread the stranded filler on the back of the hole, where you've given it a nice tooth to grip on to. Use a tapered countersink on both sides of the hole to give the sheet metal a slight taper on each side to lock the fiberglass in place. You'll probably need a very thin layer of regular bondo on the outside to make the surface right.

Shade tree solutions, if you are careful and thorough, can last a good while. Worst case, you can sand off all the fiberglass when you get a welding capability.

Cheers -- Gary

 

we filled the trim holes on this ford 12 years ago counter sunk and filled with bondo still holding up the door handles only holes welded shut

 

Good advice! My bed had 56 holes that needed filling and they were too big for bondo. It was going to cost quite a bit to have someone else do it, so I borrowed a wire feed welder and did it myself. No previous experience, and the bed wasnt any worse wave wise than it started out being. Backed the holes with copper. Then had to CAREFULLY grind the weld down. Took a long time for it all but it was worth it!

 

put the trim back on.and make the car look the part.

i know in the 80's it was really cool to have mono colored cars with no trim.

but,if you're into a cheap looking car (the cars from the factory with no trim were the base model car).weld the holes.skip around from hole to hole.and only weld 3 to 4 tacks per hole.until they're filled .so, you don't warp those big panels.

good luck.

 

Scratch nailed it. Put the trim back on, if you didn't ruin it taking it off.

Bondo, JB Weld, fiberglass, chrome bullits?? WTF?? Step away from the bong, you knuckleheads! The kid asked politely, give him good advice. This is the HAMB. Sheeesh!

 

i like this idea. and if down the road you dont like it no harm done.

 

weld it up! my car was done correctly with metal and a SKIM coat of bondo and even after that the bondo still cracks with weather and driving!so even done CORRECTLY bondo cracks and falls out!bondo alone was not meant to take the place of metal.if it was,we'd be driving bondo cars instead of STEEL cars!
creepy

 

I'm with ya, Big Dad. I have an idea of how big those holes acually are. PROPERLY adhered and sized tin pieces would work. With a skim coat of Bondo or glaze this should make a great repair.

Jan

 

No way... I was only kidding. Anyways, the kid is broke and chrome bullets will probably cost as much as a correctly done repair.

Best advice - save up for an inexpensive 110 welder. Get a couple of junk doors and practice until you can do it properly yourself.

Or better yet - put the trim back on. The trim on 58 Fairlane is pretty damn elegant and really makes the car.

Is this the bodystyle that you have?


- Joe

 

Someone locally who can do this properly, welding and sanding, invite this kid over and show him a thing or two. Honestly, its not that much work, just takes the right technique and patients....thats what this is all about right? Thats how I learned, just happened to be that I just had to go out in the backyard shop and watch Dad and his buddies....

I am sure that being in that part of the country, someone within an hours drive could show this kid in an afternoon how to do this. He would probably even buy ya lunch, ha.

Step up someone!

 

Simple .......Weld em up !!

 

countersunk pop rivets.

 

Weld'em up...No substitution for a good weld and smooth lines 'cus bondo cracks and falls out over time..

 

I can't believe the amount of shitty advise on this thread. Do it right or don't do at all. That would apply to this situation and many others.

The following is Roadstar's response to a similar question asked back in march of '05. Because it is right on the money I'm not going to waste time adding to it.

 

Rich fox and Pimpin paint gave you the two most do-able solutions.

A back-up patch and small chain of small spot welds to keep the panel cool.

OR

Like back in the 50's when we used lead....Solder/tin the inside around the holes, then fill surface with either Bondo or (Better) solder.

These will be permanent.

 

sounds like you need a mig...

 

Roadstar is right but if you can't weld or afford a good bodyman to weld the holes and you really don't want the trim, I'm not sure why but anyway. Check you local body shops or boat repair shops for some Marine Tex. For about $40.00 you could fix every hole. This stuff sticks to metal way better than JB weld or any of that other crap. Grind or sand the paint off, dimple the holes, mix it up (wear a good mask, this is some tuff stuff, the catalyst smokes when you open it) spread it on pushing it into the holes as you go. Use it sparingly, you just about have to grind it off. Skim coat of mud and prime. Done right, it will last for years and years or until some dick head plows into you like they did mine. Good luck!

 

Just for the record I was not talking about J.B. weld ....It is an epoxy that sets up hard as steel or so it says, it also says it can be drilled,tapped,etc......I have used this stuff on a lot of things and it is tough stuff.
If I wasnt going to weld them up for what ever reason, fear of warpage or whatever, I would choose this or the stuff Big Dad or 28 TUDOR suggested over bondo alone.

 

Ok low budget, I did'nt mean to step on your toes. The reason I used the example of JB weld is because it will sag on a verticle surface but Marine Tex won't.

 

This epoxy stuff is like play dough you just start mashing or neading it together then put it on and shape it how you want.
It wont sag but I dont know if it would work as well as the Marine tex????
I just want to be accused of not knowing what the hell I am talking about for the rite reasons

 

Seriously, just get a 110 arc welder from Eastwood or someplace, get the copper spoon behind it, and weld up the holes. Unless you go ape shit with the welder you won't have any problems. Then use a little bondo when you are done. That's what I did anyway.

 

Get one of those hammers with a round head on it. Smash the hole with the hammer. Now take some fiberglass mat and cut it up so it looks like a big pile of ashes from a cigar. Pour in some premixed resin and hardner and stick the gooey mess into the hole. We did this a lot on Cessna's that got hit by ground fire back in Laos. Usually the planes were totalled after about 1500 hours, so riveting on scrap pieces of metal and fiberglass were the quick and dirty ways to keep the wing smooth for flight. We used rivets on the bottom of the wing, and fiberglass on the top of the wing. If the action was hot, we'd sometimes use speed tape, but the pilots usually had their hair on fire to accept that.

Welding is better. Get a 2 inch hole-saw with a guide-drill in it. Drill a hole just off the current hole, then take a 2 inch plug from a 2 inch hole-saw without the guide drill (in a drill press) and tack-weld them in. If you do all of them at the same time, you tack weld on only one disc at a time to let it cool. 2 inches is a good distance to distribute the heat.

If you have access to behind the panel, then use a hunk of copper behind the hole, and let your Mig wire shoot across the hole along the copper and weld one wire, let cool, weld some more, let cool, weld some more. You will have smaller and smaller areas to fill. Slide the copper off (it might get stuck a bit, but don't twist, just pull in one direction.

 

The problem with using bondo to fill a hole is that it absorbs water from behind, so if you get any moisture back there (and you will), then you will rust the panel out from behind. Fiberglass can cure this but there is no guarantee that it will stick long-term, even if you dimple the hole correctly. The same goes for just about any other type of goop that you could think of to put in there. The only thing that might be ok would be a structural repair adhesive, like Duramix, but you'd need quite a bit, and it would be damn expensive, so you're no better off there.

I won't comment on welding techniques since there's already so much good advice about it here already, but trust me... it's worth doing it right.

 

you're suggesting he drill a bunch of 2" holes in the side of his car with a hole saw, and then weld in the slug cut from a hole saw?

man, i hope i missed the sarcasm in your post.

 

All this "Good Advice" is making the stock trim look pretty good, right about now, ain't it kid? Standard Fasteners in Santa Fe Springs has the clips you'll need to reinstall the trim pieces. Want their number?

I have to say that quite a few people have come out of the closet as idiots on this thread. I am glad you didn't ask them about brakes or steering.

Oh and a '58 Ford is a pretty bitchen car for a first project. You won't ever regret showing it respect. Good luck, kid.

Chili