Technical It was a “professionally restored” car

Having spent 45 years in body and paint, I have seen a lot of bondo butchery over the years. Will admit to having done said work myself in my younger days when shop I worked for did used car work for a local new car dealer. MGB was brought in rockers and front fenders rotted out, was told to aluminum tape the holes cover with Bondo overall paint job. Dealer sold it quickly. I didn’t like doing it but had to do what boss wanted. Have always try to get metalwork close , much more satisfying than sculpting bondo and really not any harder. The last 15-20% of metalwork and metal finishing is the most time consuming so get it reasonable and finish with a scim coat. I think todays fillers and primers can make it easier to achieve a nice finish than the original concrete hard bondo and I don’t even fill aggressive sand scratches lacquer primer.

 

I feel good about this job. It makes me feel like an expert.

 

Oh the stories I can tell in my 42 years in the business,back in the 80s I got a hood repair from another shop that was cracking after there repair my boss told me to v it out spread some new mud then paint problem was it was a inch thick, ground it down to bear metal hammered it out skimmed it then painted it. There was a guy where I work now that was a real Pacoso with mud he got a door job that had a magnetic sign on it he did the repair but the sign would fall off the door too much mud. Alot of this is preventable with more time on the metal work.

 

We don't know the story. There are many things to ponder. Most would be at best speculation so far.
The main thing I'm wondering is how did the taillights fit?

Like I said.....lots to ponder.

A different take.....
Those cars have been way too much $$$$$$$ for way too long. They were great but they were not that great.
We really don't know the history. Honestly, there may not have been any deceit involved at all.
Was it an inheritance?
Was it an amateur restoration.... a family project?
Maybe somebody got ripped off because they knew a guy? Maybe they had no idea after years of body shop jail??
There're many ways that we can see this result with no fault at least for the owner, and maybe even the shop? Maybe it was the best they could do? Maybe it was all they could afford? Who knows?

Let's get real.
What was the alternative?

To speculate more, maybe there is a lesson in restraint here for the shop.

To quote one the greatest philosophers of the 2nd half of the 20th Century, Foghorn Leghorn,

Again, more stuff we don't know.......

What I'm getting at is maybe somebody needed to take the grinder away from the body man? Did they poke the bear, stomp the ant bed? throw a rock at the hornet's nest?
Now somebody has to fork out the cash and a lot of it.

Thick Bondo can last for decades.

A spot popped off.....OK. Maybe the best course of action here was to grind it feather it back with copious amounts of mud and spot paint it.
It is what it, is and that could be a pro repair.

In my mind, the following is what a real pro would say to the customer.....

 

Looks like it must have been restored by a sculptor, not a body man.

 

If you want to watch me tear the sculpted bottom of a front fender off by hand.

 

finally got the scoop on the car.
Car was dropped off to be repainted. Had minor bubbles or pimples in places. Had a couple larger spots the filler had gave up. Owner had my friend pop those off when he dropped it off.
According to my friend, the quarters are mostly way over filled. Looked like they tried to reshape the qtrs with filler for some reason. He said the taillights fit the body better now with the filler gone.
the filler was built up under the tailight to raise the taillight to fit the qtr with all the extra filler. He hasn’t figured out why yet

 

See I went to school for paint and body work around 2000..... Around the time there was a flood of bondo buggies "restored" in the 80s and 90s rolling around. Occasionally I'll go over an 1/8" inch in some spots. But not majority of panel. Also a modern era "hack " that seems to be popular for "reinforcing " Bondo in holes is ramen noodles for some bizarre reason lol

 

@The Chevy Pope Don't be talking about my body work.

 

Yeah, it's weird. I have encountered a few of those over the years. Excessive filler on a panel, and after you remove it you find that most of it was never needed in the first place.

 

With the bubbles and pimples, the car being stripped to bare metal was expected. (No jambs at this point )
The shop removed paint in areas of concern for the owner. Removed easily with a blade.
The grinding came later as the shop further examined issues. There’s a good bit of frustration represented.

 

Hey when I bought a car from you I was able to see EVERYTHING on it lol. Part of why I bought it lol

 

Yep, that's it. At the beach. I think if you cover bondo with Centari acrylic enamel and bake it in the sun for 50 years, you will have a good finish. Phillips, I am always amazed at the you guys on here.
Bob

 

Looks like that bathtub leaked.
About 45 years ago I bought the missus a Beetle to thrash around in, the car was a cracker until one day she backed into a fence and a big slab of bog fell neatly out from the rear fender. I never noticed the big bulge on the inside of the fender (What do you want for $75?). I thought I can either waste a day and fix it properly, or re-adhere the slab of filler with more filler (they went to so much trouble sculpting the original repair, I felt it was a shame to waste it,) and a couple of screws for some added "bite", a quick touch up on the edges (more filler), and then a puff of rattle can paint, then drink beer for the afternoon. I chose option "B".

 

Man. ....that was back when there were only two mad max movies.

 

This is giving me nightmares, I just had an OT car painted locally after picking apart disaster after disaster from a big well known bodyshop down in Sarasota. It was down there for some time and eventually pulled from there (cir***stance unknown, probably bodyshop jail). I have receipts that came with the car. The work was just incredibly bad all over. Not really caved and paved but a combination of booger welds, body adhesive, bondo worms and the worst of all... body worked and finished a-pillars with the hinge locating plates welded to the inner a-pillars!

 

Talking about shops….
“Shop built” 1960s Chevy hard top….
Absolutely beautiful !
Just one minor thing…..
The dang doors don’t shut!
The doors were perfectly aligned at the top….
At the front…..
The middle body line? Perfect…..
The only thing from the body line down to the bottoms, the rear of door bottoms stuck out at least 2 to 2 1/2 inches on both sides!
The car had new floors and quarters. Plus new upholstery.

It reminded me of the old Chinese proverb……
Sum
Ting
Wong

 

There’s a simple solution to this problem. One part gasoline, and a match.

 

Man, you guys are harsh on the bondo slingers!

I'm so happy I'm not in the body shop professional business. I'm just an amateur hack doing my own stuff.

Lets say I have a dent to repair on a car door, It doesn't really look too bad, and I don't have any access to the back side. I'll mix up a fairly small batch of filler and spread it over the area, if I mix too much, it starts setting up before I get it smoothed out. Then I drag out my air file sander (with 180 grit) and take off the rough edges after it sets up. Then I'll mix up another smallish batch and spread it over the places I think are low, and sand it after it cures. I tend to sand too much, in the wrong places, so I always seem to end up with low places on my filler surface and a pile of body dust on the floor. About the 3rd round of adding filler, the batches get smaller each round, and I switch over to a manual sanding block. Somewhere around batch 4 or 5 I'm pretty much done with the whole deal, the repair can be friendly and wave at everyone as I drive past with the shiny paint.

So my question for all of you pros, how in the world would I know how thick that filler over that dent in the door really would be, after multiple rounds of adding filler and sanding it off?

 

@gene-koning if you’re a hack, I’m a hack -1
But I lay a straight edge over the dent, I bump it to be somewhat close then hammer and dolly (if possible) to get it somewhat in shape.
Then I become a sculpturer

 

Ah yes, bondo sculpturing... I've been guilty of it.

Years ago, I had a 27' motor home. Had a lot of fun with it, but finding a place to park it if doing tourist things could be tough. So the solution was to find something cheap (and light) to flat-tow behind it. Preferably with no top for summertime fun. but being the cheap-azz I can be, buying a factory convertible was out of the question. But I do own a sawzall...

I was offered a running '80s Ford ****** for free, but decided after looking at it that if I cut the roof off I'd have to weld the doors shut to maintain any sort of structural integrity. Not acceptable. Then I was offered a '74 super Beatle, also for free. A bit of investigating revealed that VW did only minimal reinforcing to the standard floor pan for the 'vert and I figured that with all the weight I was removing (roof, all gl*** except windshield, rear seat) I could get away without it. The problem with the '74 is it had been flooded and the motor was toast, and I was less than thrilled about the curved windshield. Hitting CL turned up a '66 regular Beatle a kid had bought as a 'rebuild' with fresh motor that he rolled over because of the swingarm rear suspension. It didn't damage the car as much as you'd think (fenders, doors and trunk lid were mostly untouched) but the roof was buckled enough that only one quarter window was left and the openings were too deformed to accept new gl***. As it was mid-winter, the kid was freezing driving it and needed something else. I figured it could contribute some body parts to the '74, which proved to be not very true. $400 and I drove it home... and it ran great!

To check my theory about the floor pan, I hacked the roof off and did a short off-road excursion with it. Very little cowl shake and neither door flew open, I'm good to go!

So the VW hack started. First I found out how few body parts actually interchanged... bummer. And other than the motor/trans, not much else there either. Then the goofy neighbor who lived past me stopped by, asking if I would be interested in a '71 Super for $200. I go look at that one, it even runs and has a set of 8 spoke aluminum wheels on it. And it's the flat windshield version and looks straight to boot. Sold!

The further I get into the '71, the worse it gets. 'Cave and pave' everywhere. By the time I was done, I repaired/replaced virtually every body panel on it. The '66 was just as bad if not worse, just in different places. By the time I was done, there were body parts from both the '66 and '74 on the '71, altered to fit if need be. I used two gallons of bondo and two rolls of wire feed wire by the time I was done. Most of the bondo I sanded off (I hear you Gene!). Those damn things are nothing but compound curves, getting everything decent took forever. The hardest repair was the trunk lid. The one on the '71 had been mashed/straightened multiple times and had gotten very thin by the handle, to the point the handle ripped off. I tried to find another one (it's longer than the '74 version) with no luck, I ended up grafting the bottom 18" of the '74 lid to it. What a PITA! And unneeded holes... I filled 21 in just the dash. Plus filling the door window openings, reconstructing the windshield frame and finishing the raw edges around the back seat area. I did cut out any rust I found and replaced it with good metal. I got a bit carried away with fit, but it turned out pretty good with no bondo thicker than 3/16" anywhere... except two places.

Now I'd been using bondo here and there for 20 years at this point, so I knew it's limitations. One, it had to be attached to good, properly prepared metal to give structural support. Slathering it over rust holes or using it to form missing metal is never a good idea. Two, stay away from edges. It can chip easily. Three, using it on panels that flex will invite cracking or just plain falling off if it's too thick. Hoods, trunk lids, doors. But if it's a place that doesn't move much, you can go thick. The two places on the VW where I did this was the quarterpanel door jambs. VW had a semi-sharp edged pinch weld facing in there, I slathered it on and rounded both of them off. My dog was going to ride back there, I wanted soft edges. I probably used a 1/2 gallon on just those by the time I had the shape I wanted. I'll admit I probably could have done this with metal, but I just wanted it done at that point. I filled some pretty big dents in motorcycle tanks without pulling them out, never had any issues.

 

I ran a welding shop for 30 years. Time is money. Often I'd weld in patches, and sent the vehicles back to be body shop that sent the welding part of the job to me. What the body shop did when they got the car back was up to them.
These pictures are my 48 Plymouth coupe. The metal around the rear window had rotted away from inside of the rear window frame. I removed the old window frame, and installed the split rear window frame from a 37(?) Ford.
I've done this enough to know that the first thing you do is make a pattern of the original body shape. My goal was to have the weld joint below the original curvature of the body panel. The new joint will be between the two "Vs"

After this was the old spot weld on each side of the clamp. Then fill in the blank spaces, then fill in the holes, if you have ever done it with a mig, then understand. Then you grind off the welds, and fill in any new holes. When all the suspected holes are filled, and the welds are dressed down, the repair looks something like this. What a body shop wants to do with this is up to them. Personally, I fill the gap with filler.
A "proper restorer" should probably bump it back flat.
I think it came out OK. Well except where the tape didn't stick to the plastic for the coat of red... I cleaned that up too.

 

Thickness guessing? Well the human hand can detect a .001 difference.
I like to use straight edges as guides along with feel. Gives you a visual of what you are filling

 

Most of us will never know how thick we layered on the Bondo until we have to redo our work 20 years later

 

My Uncle a career bodyman gave me some parameters when I did the highschool restoration on my avatar. If you can feel an imperfection with your hand-eyes closed- you will see it in the finished paint. Worry about the stuff at eye level, nobody is going to get on their hands and knees to check out the body work a foot from the ground. Lastly light colours hide bad bodywork. I didn’t follow most of his directions, but he did the block sanding on it before he hung his name on the paint job.

 

The only vehicle that has been around here for 20 years is my wife's driven appliance. The next in line vehicle that has been here the longest is the 48 Plymouth coupe pictured above, it arrived here in 2010 and made it to the road in 2011. Everything else has been replaced by something I built that was expected to be "better," which it may, or may not, have actually been better. My short automotive attention span provided me with a different Mopar hot rod every 4-5 years.

The only promise I make is that when the bondo was spread, there was real metal under it (not rust pretending to be metal). I am a welder not a body man, over the years that welding included patching vehicle bodies. I did not apply any filler to any customer's vehicles, only my own stuff. My stuff was built as a driver, not a show car. If it looked good to the average person as it was rolling down the road, it was good enough for me.

 

Thanks to Overhaulin every wanna be custom painter thinks the car has to be frosted like drywall in a new house.

Doing a Packard with minor transport damage. Yeah, found a similar scenario. Right hand raised, I will NOT remove all the fill and start over. It's going back to what it was, and I'll hate every stroke of the sandpaper, every inch of the hardener, every spec of polyester flour it leaves behind. Hey, imagine the cost of a simple door edge chip repair when the door is ⅛" thick...

 

Had to fix a Lamborghini once. First one I ever dug into. Damaged qtr amd rear body. Car had what looked like some kind of polyester primer on it. Very thick. Once removed you could see file, grinder marks and welded pieces in the body. Worked the metal, bumped and filed as close as I could get it.
Used a very thin layer of filler. Had to be blended into the existing primer. That was the strangest part of the repair. Luckily it was black or we would have had to blend the door just from working into the products used on the car.
Filler is just that. A filler.
Bondo, lead, glazing putties, chewing gum, all metal, panel bond, kitty hair, primer ……….
Something is used.
friend recently stripped a late 60s Ferrari. Dang at the lead. Multiple pieces of hand formed metal welded together just for a qtr. fenders the same way. If those high end hand built rides can cruise with filler so can mine .

 

When we were just 16-year-old kids and doing some rust repair on our first cars we had heard that you could use some steel wool as a backup for the BONDO. Well, we didn't have any, so we used several SOS pads instead and it actually lasted as long as that guy owned the car!
Today the hacks use foam sealants like GREAT STUFF.