Technical It was a “professionally restored” car

Over the years,seen a lot of "So called big name shops,put out stuff on the ****py side!<must be alright,it was a big shop! " ,,,
Some times it gets layed off on ;; " What the owner ask for"=There fav. cover up lie. But also another often used lie="We did it traditional"> over used BS. I owned my own little speed shop,for 40 years" Comp Tech",About 20+% of biz,was fixing other shops BS work. Ture, some customs with big* body mods,used some thick mud; For spots were two def. car fenders had to come together.but that was not fixing dents! .
Those same" BIG TIME high $ Shops would repete doing things like ****py design cowel steering,plus a number of other poor engineering junk. "Can't be anything wrong" It a big high $ shop after all !!!
The list of other
**** work I had to fix,over my 40 years,would make a s****book too thick....
Cars the owners thought were finished right,but with screwed up ackerman,high scub far out set front rims,rear tires not very good for even a Flathead v8,when rod has a big overhead valve V8 power.
Stuff every one should know? "Sesame Street" one of these things doesn't belong together"
I guess they missed the show.

 

My last 3 purchases have been on "unrestored" basket case cars. That way I know what I started with. I have seen way too many "mud babies" here.

 

After seeing this, maybe I’m more professional than I thought I was.

 

How would you fix something like that,it would have to be stripped and most likely need some new panels.Im sure that is just the tip of the iceberg on this one.Good Luck harvey

 

Fill the holes back over and either drive it and enjoy or move it on. Too much work at that point to fix it properly so take it as it is.

 

Look at the bright side . With mud that thick it would take a long time for any rust to pop out .

 

Professional or Expert is a widely over exaggerated term used Very loosely in our car hobby and everything in our society. I'm 78 now and have been cynical for a long time as I have learned in my lifetime of experiences dealing with Pro and Experts, I use the 10%, 20%, 70% rule. 10% qualify as a Pro/expert. 20% acceptable, 70% operating on pure BS not qualified in their chosen field. I'm a Tradesman 44 years, owned and ran a Tool & Die/Pattern shop for 36 years. My percentage rule applied to all the Journeymen I worked with or hired, the 70% part, 35% experienced apprentices at best, 35% useless. One of the largest skills I didn't reconize or understand in my early years is how far a professional BSer can go and what successes he or she can achieve. I've dealt with many Pro's, Expert's in my life, fortunately several in the top 30% the rest 70% a learning curve. In later years with our health issues I feel the Medical profession operates on protocols and profit based treatments and the % rule applies to them also. My suggestion to everybody and was told this by my DR, One that I have some faith in, Be your own medical advocate, Read, educate yourself, plenty of credible sources available. Sadly, IMO Everything always comes back to the money.

 

I think possibly a 1953 Willys Aero Ace. Or maybe a Dodge. It's always a f'kng Dodge!

 

I’ll find out more details. I’m sitting here guilty of similar. Especially in my early days. “Write it cheap and fill it deep” one of my first jobs was building totals. I have made a lot of car sculptures.
Spend some time around some customs. Friend of mine had a custom merc with canted dual quads. Custom fender openings. Built by a know customizer “back in the day” Was around 1/2 to 5/8s of an inch thick in lead. Brazed in conduit with sculptured lead in places.
I kinda expect to see filler like this on a custom. My own merc has some fiber fill in places blending parts from other cars in.
for me it’s how it represented and priced.
I have sold rides and told em it was wrecked, totaled, smacked, has filler……
If/when the Merc gets sold you can dig back into it and post the pics. Just make sure you also post I told ya what was under the primer
The difference in labor for a coat of filler and metal finished to primer only is huge.
Welding up a headlight ring and blending in with filler vs metal shaping a piece for the blend.
Hopefully I’ll be around to see some guy post a pic of the bad work
I recently “patched” a floor for a friend. Didnt recreate the floor, I patched it. It was priced as a patch.

however, what I’ve posted is not “a thin skim” some looks over sculpted.

this area. Maybe they didn’t understand the shape and floated it out for some reason.

 

That kind of work is awful, but I find nothing shocking about it and work it is what you are going to find in a majority of body shops!

Most body shops do insurance collision work; most body men are not metal men and insurance companies are not going to pay the labor to get a panel perfectly arrow straight.

I can't speak for other parts of the country, but around here are close to $100 dollars an hour! Most shops are not going to tie up someone for hours and hours to do metal work!

They are going to do what makes them money!

Also, what was the quality of the replacement sheet metal?

Was it N.O.S. General Motors? N.P.D? or a fly by night offshore company?

 

What your seeing here is why you don’t by a car at one ofthe auctions where you can’t do a real inspection. It’s all trust and no one can be trusted. When I see a perfect upholstery in a trunk and I can’t reach in and feel in outer body it’s the first thing I think of. To make bondo stick you need to drill the tell-tale holes…dead giveaway.

 

I wouldn't want to see that on any car, but on something that has new quarters available with a phone call, that's just wrong. Not all of us can afford high quality work and metal finishing takes time and skill. This is just sloppy.
Problem is, we don't know if this was a customer 'prepping' the car before the shop got involved, the 'pro' shop's typical work or if they bent to the customer's demands.

 

You know you need to find another body shop when they order Bondo in 55 gallon drum's!

 

, and have a cake decorating shop out front!

 

When I was in the Army I bought a '63 Chevy 4x4 Carryall that had been formerly owned by an archeologist in Mexico. It had been wrecked and repaired in Mexico as evidenced by Hecho en Mexico etched on the p***enger wind wing gl***. The Bondo was over 1/2" thick around the windshield on the p***enger side. It was known to everyone in my MP company as the Bondo Buggy or Bondo for short. Every now and again a chunk of Bondo would fall off when boon docking on a desert road north of Reno.

 

Made me think of George Castanza after he got out of the pool.

It always perplexed me the amount of work to sculpt it vs putting the on the proper sheet metal

 

I’d drive it
I’ve seen some major bondo jobs hold up decently. Its all about $$$s and skill level. If the decision is pave it and drive it or fix it right and get it on the road in a couple few years well the decision is the owners. Do you want a perfect car that may take years or a good enough car to drive. Neither is wrong.
Dan

 

Yep. If kitty hair and bondo gets it enjoyable, then so be it. As long as it stops and goes like it should. But try to be honest when you p*** it on

 

I've seen a lot of mud but......THATS A LOT OF MUD!
On the other hand, I looked at a 75(ish) Chevy pickup years ago that was advertised as fresh paint, walking up to it I could see the ad was truthful, you could still smell it but around the front bumper something didn't look right, the ***** had stuffed NEWSPAPER in a rotted out corner of the front fender behind the bumper, no patch, no mud just NEWSPAPER and said good enough, shoot it, the guy should have been shot!

 

I was thinking they should drive it like that & call it "Patina"

God Bless
Bill
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ar-transport-hauling-open-or-enclosed.614419/

 

But try to be honest when you p*** it on
Absolutely! I’ve found through the years that being honest about a vehicle never affected the price I was asking much. I think most appreciated knowing the flaws of said vehicles.
Dan

 

The president of a company I used to work for (was a direct report), called them “floaters”. Lol!

 

Owner: What's the magnet for? Buyer: I want to see how much bondo it has. Owner: Ok put it on the back side so you don't scratch the paint.

 

I was waiting for someone to mention newspaper, cardboard, etc stuffed under the bondo. Lol!

 

Seen it, done it, repaired it

 

Have you seen something like this? Lol!

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1bygsiZchm/?mibextid=wwXIfr

 

My dad bought a 51 ford for a parts car and the motor was supposed to be rebuilt recently. For some reason pop pulled a head off to check or do something and the head gasket was newspaper! The guy stacked layers of the stuff and coated it in Indian head gasket sealer like paper machete and called it a day

 

Now if that was done by a professional it would be full of beer cans and the box’s they came in!

 

Maybe it ain’t so bad having almost totally worn through original paint all over my car. At least I know what’s under it!