It’s been a while since I’ve done any body work . I’m building a custom now that will need some filler . What do you guys recommend for a good lightweight filler? Not bondo.
I have had the best luck over the years with Rage Gold. It sands well and I never have a problem with pinholes. It is the only filler I use. Good luck with your custom. Pics?
My experience with fillers is they shrink.Ive done panels, shot primer,and been happy with it then looked a couple weeks later,and its pulled in leaving low spots. When I have to use it I try,and let it dry a few days before I sand.You can smell the solvents in the can,and they are going to evaporate as it drys.
Add me one to the list of Rage Gold fans for the body filler. Evercoat makes some great products. Their Metal Glaze is great for really dialing things in at the end.
I have used only Evercoat products on my current build and I have no objections. Rage, rage gold, polyester primer...excellent stuff!
Rage is good stuff sands great but is big money. 3M bought the Bondo brand so the same stuff a lot cheaper,
I really like this stuff, it’s probably the best I’ve ever used. Don’t think I’ll ever buy another brand. I like it better than 3m, ever coat and the rages, PPG’s. Do yourself a favor and try it.
Nope. Not even close to the same stuff. 3M Platinum Plus and Bondo Brand are about as similar as an apple and a doughnut.
Wow rage seems like a clear winner . Is there any real difference between the gold and ultra other than price?
May be so but that's right from the 3M rep. All I'm saying is if you don't have deep pockets for the rage or the platinum might want to try the bondo. I have used it in a pinch and it's not your father's mud. I'll use rage every day and twice on Sundays but at 100 bucks a gallon it may be a bit pricey for the home guy
Yes they are completely different resin technologies. The Ultra sands about 40% faster that Gold, has a denser surface structure so will absorb less primer and has the highest corrosion resistance of any filler on the market. It will survive over 500hrs in a salt spray booth pretty much everything else on the market is about half of that.
Maybe I should try Ultra. When Bondo first came out in the early 60's you had to surface it with a 36 grit disc if you did not catch it before it got hard. it was $12.00 @ case of 4 gallons. then other brands came out, so did the cheese grades.
Wasn’t a collision shops & high-end manufactures that started this idea/trend of epoxy first on bare metal , then filler then epoxy? The point of the question is if there’s epoxy on a metal sealing the filler what does and how much does it matter if the filler is extra corrosion resistant. Probably matters a bunch (500 hrs worth) for the cave&pave or wack&pack or the foam&filler guys. In the big scheme of things on a restoration project a few bucks extra in filler doesn’t matter much at all.
I worked at the original Bondo plant in North Branford Connecticut one summer during high school. It was my job to bring the bags of “dry” product to the mixing vat where the “secret” pink stuff was waiting to be poured in. I asked the chemist in charge of mixing what the dry stuff was. He said, “basically it’s tal*** powder”. I got to take a case home every week for free. Thankfully I didn’t need to use it on my car but a few friends had what we referred to as “Cheese wheels”.
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