Damn body filler prices are INSANE!! A GALLON FOR 80.00???IM GONNA HAVE TO SHOP AROUND!LASTgallon I bought was USC FUSION FOR 29.00!
I try using it as sparingly as I can. But everthing used to be cheaper a few years ago and will be even more expensive in a year or two,so better buy now
Funny thing is that other than the solids content it's all the same shit. Polyester resin and cabosil (a form of talc). The quality of application is 100% operator. The extra $$$ is just an excuse to fondle your ego's junk. Yeah, I said what I said. And as much as I hate the shit I still love the smell...
Just be thankful we are not still using the original stuff, Bondo.. Or what ever was before that, lead? Last gallon I bought was 35$, some where around 2015.
I think the last gallon I bought (in 1982) was probably 15 bucks a gallon. I'm so far out of the loop on paint and body supplies that I may never recover from Sticker shock. I know that at that price the quality of my metal work has to improve greatly over what it was in 1981/82. I've got a lot more time to hammer and dolly than money for body filler but I do have a bucket full of sticks of lead.
Filler is primarily used by body shops. Body shops primarily do insurance work. Insurance companies pay those bills, and you pay them back with increased rates. The small shop, or individual user is irrelevant to this market.
I'm seriously hoping that I don't need or use near what I used between 1980 and 82. There is a lot of "you aren't supposed to do it that way" in that cab because I was in a big ass rush to get it done by a set time and the mud is a bit thicker than too damned thick in a few spots.
Is it still holding? That’s all that’s important really I’ve chiseled out 40 year old stuff that still looked ok Dan
In highschool I WAS pretty much building cars out of it. I honestly thought it was closer to $10 a gallon back then BTW.
Anybody remember Black Knight body filler. Purchased at the local Two Guys store in the late 1960's. Rock hard crap to sand on. Came with a square of fibreglass cloth with the hardner.
using it to repair old skeleton key doors ....filling in old door hardware holes with wood plugs inserted coated with Bondo....fill...sand,,,,smooth....redrill doors for modern hardware....
I use Evercoat for all of my final bodywork and love the stuff. I’m a stickler for getting it as close to bare metal straight and use the urethane skim coating and call it a day. Sands easily and no pin holes to deal with. On a side note I had a buddy that bought out anold sheet metal shop and gave me about 25lbs of body lead and a couple dozen zinc rods that were used to coat fresh welds to keep them from rusting. They are what you use to TIG weld pot metal and are pretty rare to find these days. I’m going to have to repair and replace several panels on my ‘51 when it comes to the repaint and I’ll be using the lead for the most part to which I’ll be on a learning curve since I’ve only seen videos and pics of it being used.
Well the reality is this hobby/lifestyle/obsession of ours is a luxury not a necessity of life. If I can afford to play I do, if I can’t I find a way to. If I can’t do that I wait. Hard to complain I can’t afford a luxury when people can’t afford food or housing.
Evercoat Rage products are even higher. It's a sad day when Evercoat can make 3M products look affordable
Historically, what I have observed is that companies get "full of themselves" often price themselves out of the market. Then some enterprising small company sees the overpricing and produces a good product for far less money and as word of their product spreads, they become the replacement for the defunct gouger. I can think of several well known companies (not automotive) that no longer exist, and they were the "go to" for a while. I'd say look for products that others have used successfully rather than just having to buy the name brand. So in that vein, anybody out there have any lesser known brands that they like................
"Yesterday's luxuries are today's necessities." Or so I read somewhere. In 1958 I bought a running 1941 Ford convertible, running and driving - flathead V8 with a 39 floor shift for $25.00. Friends told me I overpaid. Go figure.
Of course they're building cars out of it. Everybody sees the TV shows and soc med posts where you must frost the whole car like an old plaster wall. Then spend day after day, week after week, trying to shape what they see as proper surface development. I won't get on my usual soap box about mil thickness, but I'll tell you a short story, and I can't show pics because it was so OT but the work was as traditional as it gets. "Smart Truck III" was an interesting project. They wanted a Cadillac style box and were undecided about a bumper. I scribbled a rolled pan alternative and said gimme a day and if you still want a bumper at least its a finish panel. I used my leg, a big piece of pipe, rolled up a badass rear pan with a lic plate area that looked similar to a 2nd gen vette. No dents, symmetrical side to side, even a perfect reflection in the roll. Overnight the "finish crew" covered the whole fuckin thing with over ¼" of mud and blocked it flat. Flat. Yes, no roll. "We thought it was a mistake." "Who ordered this?" I said. "Nobody we just did it, somebody fucked it up making it round." "Says who?" "Well, me." The company owners were pissed to say the least and the rest of the day was spent removing it. Maybe they were more suited to running drywall in construction. Mud is like booze or religion, fine in moderation...
I went to the Canfield swap meet a couple of weeks ago and saw a gallon of Rage Extreme with hardener for $55 . I didn't need it but I was tempted to buy it, but I didn't feel like carrying it the rest of the day.
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