Bondo

I was just wondering peoples thoughts on mudd. I really try not to use it, yet some people use the heck out of it. Is it the norm now? I learned that you use it when you have to.

 

It's like any other tool. You need to know how and when to use it.

 

Bondo brand body filler is no no good, i never use it on anything.

 

ever coat is good stuff. my belief is to use it as thin as possible.

 

Spend more time doing the metal work right and you wont need much if any mudd. In the long run, you'll have a better car/truck.

 

its good for fixing doors, i see carpenters use it as wood filler! and i think thats about it?

 

for me it depends on the type of car being built.

if its for you and you only and plan on having it forever use little as possible.

if its a car your trying to flip several factors come into play....

1. is this going to be a high dollar show car or daily drriver?
a. high end show car little to none.
b. driver let the mud fly!

2. fixing for a customer......

a. how you fix the repair reflects on whether or not the customer comes back. also word of mouth means alot

3. if it really bothers you that bad of you use the bundo then just dont use it

4. atleast make the repair with metal before using the filler. dont use news paper or chicken wire and insulation for backing material. put some kind of effort in building the car. i think there is a thread on here somewhere about extreme bondo usage

 

You guys must be Master Craftsmen and Gods when it comes to getting sheet metal smooth,I've been beating and banging on old cars for about 43 years and I still use mud. HRP

 

I never use Bondo.
I use dent removing compound!
Apply it and sand it off, no dent left!

 

i have beat on cars for 35 yrs now, i still use when needed, only go 1/4 '" thick at the most and use a good one like evercoat gold, it sands good and leaves no pinholes.
bondo gets a bad rap because it gets "overused" so to speak by idiots that fill rust holes and leave it 3 in thick ! best i can say is prepare the metal to the best you can BEFORE any filler is applied.
goat

 

ditto goatboy!

 

I watch Car and Bike shows on TV and they always seem to end up with at least a skim coat over the entire project. Way to over used in my opinion.

 

Nothing wrong with using filler in moderation. I like Micro Lite from NAPA. Preparing the substrate makes all the difference. Using filler over even one pinhole of rust guarantees the repair will eventually fail. If used properly plastic fillers are permanent.

 

Keep plugging and you'll get there one day.

 

I'd love to see someone straighten out or weld in a panel and not use some kind of filler. There's nothing wrong with quality filler, used properly.

 

Kind of a weird question. Like saying what are your thoughts on crescent wrenches. Some people use the right size wrench, and some people use the heck out of crescent wrenches. You use what you need, when you need it. When it's time for filler, you use filler. When it's time to hammer and dolly, you hammer and dolly. Is it the norm now? How many guys these days have true metal working skills vs. guys who can do magic with 80 grit and a long board? Use the skills you have, and try to improve the skills you don't have and don't worry about what everyone else is doing.

 

I'd have to agree that a bit o' mud in moderation is acceptable.

I was helping a buddy redo an old Model A hotrod a year ago, one hit on the rear quarter..............this fell right off.....wtf?

 

You know how you can tell a guy who's never done any body work? He's the guy who says his car has "no bondo" in it.

You can use lead or "All-Metal" (bondo with aluminum dust in it) or 100 coats of fill primer but you're still using some filler. Even those metalworked masterpieces that get magazine coverage in their bare-metal state still have some kind of filler on them before paint. You can't block out a bare metal car.

Sure, it can be used improperly, and bondo filling holes or in heavy thickness is a staple of butchered bodywork. But don't kid yourself into thinking you can metalwork a car perfect and then paint right over it.

 

There are very few people on this earth that can put a car into show paint with out a body filler of some kind. If you have to ask you are not one of them. There is no shame in using bondo (I use the bondo labeled "rage" much easier to work with) Just get the panels close and properly prepped and you start spreading bondo guilt free.

 

the body of my `36 is polyester resin with a steel inner liner

 

what "he" said!

 

Customs in the day used lead, is lead better than polyester filler? Not really, it requires a lot more skill and has heath issues. Where I see the problems is when people think Polyester filler can fill large holes. Never intended for that. Weld in new steel, skim on the makeup , good to go. Polyester fillers are basically polyester resin and talc like filler to give it some body . It has absolutely no structural strength , that is why we use polyester resin and reinforce it with Glass fiber ( GRP in the boat world ) When the resin is reinforced with Glass fiber matt or weaves you have a strong matrix. I am trained in advanced composites but still weld in a repair of steel ,do my best to make the repair as smooth as possible in steel and then make a good job better with a skim of mud. I am in awe of some of the metal finishers on the Hamb but until I get to that lofty plane, it`s still mud for me.

 

Lol ! I will have to remember that line when someone asks if my 47 is Steel !!

 

Ive always been a fan of ever coat products, the evercoat rage xtreme is my fav!

 

There's nothing wrong with filler when it's used sensibly. I hear of guys saying that want to have their car done with "no filler", and I just roll my eyes. Good luck finding a guy that'll do it, and I hope you're sitting down when he hands you the bill.

To truly get one perfectly straight, you have to skim coat it from front to back and block it numerous times with a longboard. If you did your bodywork correctly, there won't be much filler left when you're through. You can always tell the cars that weren't blocked right because the sides of the car look like a bag of rocks.

 

Now that's funny!

 

we had no choice to use it on our car. the passenger side door had been hit and had horrid body work done on it in the 60's. We could'nt bend the door back and we didnt want to stretch the metal too much so we fixed what we could of the actual dents and had to mudd most of the door. we only used high quality products and made sure that it was NOT over-used. The rest of the dents and dings were fixed with hand tools as best as we could and then they were given the skim coat and then sanded. The rest of the car is dent and rust free and we're left with a really nice surface to work with so there is absolutely zero need to mudd the majority of the car. the car is going under primer this weekend and then then it will be blocked multiple times for a very clean, clean finish

 

Right there with you. I try to get it as close as I can and use as little as possible but my metal working skills are far from perfect and I won't lie about it just to make it look like I'm one of the cool guys who doesn't have to spread a bit of mud to get things perfect.

 

plastic filler is our friend. and like every good friend needs to be treated right; don't ask too much of it, don't ask it to do something it's not supposed to do and it will treat you right.

 

Yep, my 49 had several OLD repair done to it that I never noticed until I started sanding it down. They hadn't fallen off or out in 20 plus years.
I'm on the fence about filler as a whole. I know where the bad wrap comes from as I've seen it first hand, but I think people make it out to be a lot worse that it is.
When I was trying to hammer out the fender on my 66 that I posted about it took forever the get the nearly inch thick bondo to break and fall off, and that was after sanding on it, and then hammering the panel from the inside.