Body filler abuse, I think we have a record!

That's armor plating, in case of a road side bomb!

 

The shop in which I work in recently re-did a 77 Cadillac Flower car or 77 Cadillac pick -em up truck whatever.

The paint was bubbling in mid quarter panel...So I'm thinking "Hmm kinda strange."

The whole rear quarter panels on both sides had bondo over 1 1/2 inch thick!!!!! All the body lines and character lines were created with BONDO , didn't even use chicken wire.

Get this ....this was done by the FACTORY conversion from The "CoachBuilder"

When we popped off the bondo it had a least a quart of water trapped underneath it on each side... Cut off the panels and created new ones... the originals were sooo rusty.

Gotta love that 70's American automotive technology and craftsmanship.


Jerome

 

heres one i fixed last year, someone made an entire roll pan out of bondo on this 50 cadillac hardtop . . . some chunks were over 3 inches thick










after

 

the worst backyard, hillbilly, hack job i've ever seen was on a '62 caddy i brought home about 10 years ago. damn i wish i had pix now.
a magnet couldnt even think about stickin' to the right quarter.
apon further inspection(a little grinding than some tapping, than serious whacking w/ a 3lb mallet) the quarter was repaired w/ chicken wire, a schlitz beer can and bondo. WTF!!!

you guys say "bondo" a lot. like it's a bad thing.
bondo is a brand name like kleenex.
douche bags or cheap guys may use "bondo".
professionals will use a quality plastic filler and use it correctly.

i was tought that you should do yer body work(hammer & dolly) untill it's pretty fuckin' close to perfect. and filler is to finish off the rest.
plastic filler should never be thicker than a dime.
at least that is what i was tought.

 

It's really amazing how some of this stuff can be put on so thick over rusted out metal and stay in place for 10 or 15 years...

 

I thought I had some good stories about some of the guys that worked in shops where I worked; but no, these are better. The only one I'll tell here is the guy that would pop rivet quarters on, because he didn't know how to weld.

 

good sweet jesus

 

Had an old 1950's English Hillman sedan in the late 60's, had real bad rust right up the back of the passenger front guard, where it joined the door pillar. Problem was the rust was DEEP, the pillar itself was rotten. I stuffed the hole full of paper and bogged (Aussie term for bondo) over the lot, then painted it so it would pass its yearly safety check. I drove that car until the rust got so bad the passenger door would fly open when I made a turn.

Had a 1960's Falcon wagon in the 70's. The floorpans were rusted out so I scrubbed them back to bare metal (swisscheese) then fibreglassed them and painted them with tar paint. Under the car I painted with fish oil then went for a drive on lots of dirt roads to cover the surface with dust. Looked good enough to pass its safety inspection too.

Cheers, Glen.

 

nice job, looks like you saved that poor caddy Tetanus Shot.

 

A few years ago my friend George asked me to look at his GTO. It had an early 396 in it and had developed a slight knock in the engine. I took out the motor and did bearings, curing the problem but noticed that the car sagged to the drivers side after. Never noticed that before. Had I done something to the car while doing the engine???!!! I went all around the car and checked everything. NOTHING! Until I washed the car. I was rolling down the windows after and couldn't roll down the drivers side rear window. A quick look with a flashlight revealed that the car was crushed in the rear and probably had 300 lbs of filler in the rear quarter! they had drilled it to make the filler stick, but never even made an attempt to pull it!

 

On the 80 Z28 I have been working on (trying to get it done so I can sell it and make room) I found bondo in the stupidest places. And I had sent it out to a pro shop to get done. I am glad I went and picked up my car before they painted it.

Where the passenger side trunk lid hinge mounted was rusted away - and they just bondo'd it up. When you opened the lid the entire hinge moved. I started digging and they had 1/2" of bondo completely filling the well around the hinge. It had then been all sanded (must have taken forever since you can't get in there) and then hit with spray on gravel guard.

Worst part was - I had given them a good hinge well I had cut off another car to replace it with and it was still in the trunk. Took me about 2 hours to fix it properly using the well sitting in the trunk.

 

I had an old 79 chevy pick-up truck that had bondo bottom doors on it when i was about 20. drove it down to Florida for Daytona bike week with my H.D. in the back. I get there and am wondering why the locals are all looking at my truck. Seems the road trip down there shook all the door bondo loose and there was no lower door skin at all, the bottom 9" of the doors were gone!
some where on I-75 were some light blue door bondo patches big enough to take out a Peterbilt Grill.

 

It's really amazing how many plastic filler sculpters are out there! My buddy had a 71 Camaro that was mostly constructed from shop towels and fiberglass resin. It was really light and easy to repair!

 

Rusty, I'll forgive you for the mild shot since you quoted Savage.

 

Dang that hurt.

 

I think we still hold the concrete record though....

rear seat riser on a customers '37 Chevy...


after dipping...






what came out of it...



after we started repairing it (Justin is kicking ass on this thing)....

 

And the winner by knock out in the 9th round .... Tetanus Shot!! DAY-UM!

 

A saw a couple of concrete jobs almost as good as that one. One was online on a early 70's camaro. The entire rear frame rails were full of concrete and while the guy was taking it out - he even found some rebar added the the concrete frame rails!

Betcha that car hooked good!

 

concrete in a car, now ive heard and seen it all

who in their right mind..........

 

The guys tease our buddy about how he pretty much whittled a 68 Firebird convertable from a huge block of Bondo. Another guy's brother got screwed on a set of double hump heads he scored at a swapmeet. When he got around to hot-tanking them, the humps were bondo!

 

I have laid some fiberglass that held up, prep is the main thing if you get it really clean and all of the rust killed and make sure the drainage is right it will hold. I did used to repair fiberglass boats though. I had some holes in my toe boards on the floorpan and put 5 layers of cloth and resin down like you would a boat. The structural cross pieces were still strong, as was the metal I cut back to. Next repair will be new metal, but this is plenty strong and it won't rust again. It is a lot in how you patch it, getting it to bond completely so moisture doesn't collect is the key. But plastic filler itself is no thicker than a dime on the whole car. Blue filler is like paper. So far so good. I had a '68 Mustang that has been going for 20 years on a repair like that, the owner likes it fine, no issues.

 

Picked up this gem to part out, had a 500 inch Caddy in it and some '36 Ford parts. The whole hood was made of cardboard, fiberglass and wall plaster. Probably weighed 300 pounds. I defy anyone to beat this.

 

Oh My ! I think their is a law against that sort of thing.

 

It's funny cause it's true. LOL.

 

this is the FILLED ROOF of my 32 5w

the DRIP RAILS as well

 

^^^ Fark

 

wow never saw so much body filer , lmao and concrete ? thats a new one , although a friend went to intall new frame rails into a 67 mustang and couldnt do it because someone had filled them with expandable spray foam , and glassed over them , car was a mess lol

 

I can only imagine the bright cherry red brake drums on that thing while its driving around haha.

 

About 15 years ago I decided my wife needed a sports car.I found a 63 MGB,a rust bucket and for sure there was body filler.But better than the filler was the floor of the car.MGB's are unit body and the entire floor,front to rear,side to side,including all suspension mounts was hand frabricated from 1/8 inch steel plate.All was smaller pieces welded together,nice welds too.The only original part was pretty much the tranny tunnel and firewall.The car appeared lowered cause it was probably 400 lbs heavier.I bought it cause the mechanical shit was in good shape.After a year I transplanted the mechanicals into a non rusted body.

 

i built an entire dash board for a 62 cadillac out of sweat pants, resin and bondo. The guy who bought the car covered it in those giant crown air fresheners. There is also a batle axe mounted to the trunk, im VERY serious. It's always sad to see a previous car end up in the hands of a derelict.