Rage Gold that is. I am a novice on body work. My bible is the Bondo Tech 101 posted here some time ago. I have used Rage Gold before and had great luck with it. So today I mix up a batch like I have always done. I put it on the clean metal and do some other work and come back about an hour later to start to sand and in some areas it has not cured. I mixed my can up real well, used the same amount of cream hardener as I have before, mixed it the same way, so I don't know what is wrong. Does the hardener go bad? My gallon of Rage and my tube of hardener was probably bought last year and it has been in my ba*****t in a cabinet. The temp today was in the high 80's and the humidity was not terrible but sticky. The shop is pretty warm when the sun comes in the windows. If I have done something wrong, should I grind it out and start over or do I just need to let it cure longer?
Try to sand it and walk away for 20 minutes and come back to it. When you open up the top layer it will dry. Usually it is the outside that feels tacky. If you knock the top off of it and it won't dry, grind it out and start over. The hardner could go bad but I have never had it happen.
I use have used Rage Gold for years & I can't ever remember it or the hardner going bad. Actually the longer it takes to harden the better it should be, alot of times if you use too much hardner, it will harder too quickly & you will end up with problems.
Typically a "tacky" top surface. As said before, lightly sand and open it up. It will fill the sandpaper fast until you get the tacky part off. Stu
Grind it off and start over. It isn't worth ruining the whole job with a bad mix of filler, whatever the cause. Buy another tube of hardner if you don't trust it. Remember to knead the tube of hardner before you use it. The hardner will occationally separate in storage and needs to be mixed before you use it so the ratio is correct. If it seems watery or lumpy or grainy, after you knead the tube, replace the hardner. That is a common cause of a bad mix. overspray
I did knead the tube but it was watery...maybe I just didn't knead it enough. Thanks for the help everyone. Overspray, I use the method explained in your post to figure out how much hardener to use and I tend to go more toward the 1 1/2 % as I don't want it to set up while I'm working it, so it was probably short on hardener. If it is all cured up in the morning am I good to go or still grind it out and start over?
Mix up a small batch and pay close attention to the ratio, spread it on a piece of s**** to see if it does the same thing. That should tell you what you need to know about your product. If you knocked the top off of it and it isn't hard in 5 minutes, it is ****. I have never had it take that long to harden.
If you look at the crimped end of the tube of hardener and on the bottom of the can of filler there will be a 6 digit number. That is the batch code. The first number is the year the product was manufactured and the second two are the month. It is possible if it has been sitting in your place for a year that it sat in a warehouse before it was sold to you for a year or more as well. If the numbers reveal it is more than 18 months old I would get some new product.
This is a myth. Every can of filler that gets sold in Canada in the winter has been frozen and there are no more problems with it up here than anywhere else.
And to think I'm using some that is 10-12 years old and still works great. Maybe it's in how you store it or I'm just that lucky.
It's probably short on hardner. Grind it off and start over. The newer resins, like in Rage, do not stay "tacky" or "sticky" on the surface after they cure, like the older resins did. The older resin formulas contained parafin, which comes to the surface as the resin cures. It helped seal the mix during the cure. It was the pet peave of most bodymen. That is why cheese graters are used to remove the top layer and rough out the shape before using sandpaper. The sandpaper plugs up and is usually ruined. Sandpaper is more expensive than filler, also. The non tacky resin formulas were an added bonus for sandpaper cost savings, which make buying the "good stuff" worth paying extra for, and the new fillers sand so much easier. If the batch hasn't cured in an hour at around 80 degrees F, it probably won't finish curing. Usually a medium batch of filler is ready to sand in 30 minutes at 80F. 30 minutes to an hour at the most. Production bodymen will be sanding it in less than 20 minutes, but they do it every day and usually have their mix down pat. overspray
Probably lucky. Seriously the resins do dry out and change the mix ratios and when you use the same amount of hardener and you can end up with under or over catylization issues which can lead to shrinking, bleaching etc.
The filler is OK if frozen, but let it get to room temp before use. Hardner can be compromised if frozen. If it is separated and watery, grainy or lumpy, it's probably bad, and very cheap to replace.
You guys need to live where it really gets cold. I can guarantee that the majority if not all of the hardener gets frozen at one point or another in the winter up here. When it sits on a train going across the country at minus 40 it is going to freeze and as I mentioned with the filler we have no more problem with it than anyone else does.
Filler lasts a long time, hardener does not. Hardener is cheap buy a new tube and see if it makes a difference.
I had that same problem with watery hardener when I was doing my Buick. Once i sanded the tacky top part off it dried right up and was fine. I did however buy new hardener and didn't have that problem. I have also been told humidity can effect filler, I dont know if thats true, but I would think you would just be trapping moisture. Good luck! Chuck
Yesterday I ground out the old filler and started over. I'm sure I was a little light on the hardener as the next coats seemed to set up fine. When I discover the optimal mix ratio, how long should I be able to work the filler before it starts to set up? I put my puddle on the mixing board, add hardener, mix til uniform color, spread and smooth.
Our shop supply rep is always barking about the date on the bottom of the can. I wool damaging that after a while the chemical does break down, you can sometime notice that the oil substance in the the can is no longer present when your towards the bottom of the can. Ambient temperate on that specific day may also have been different.
Try a little on a piece of card board. If it looks like it's questionable, s**** it and buy a new can of filler and hardener. It's cheap insurance against problems later.
It seems to be setting up fine now, I just am such a novice that I don't know how long I should be able to work with it until it starts to harden.
get a heat gun or poss a hair dryer and heat it up till its nice n warm next time it does that .the heat kicks it over quicker just like on a hot day... you should get it quite warm but do not singe the surface!! lol once you've heated it for 10mins or so ..then let it cool and see if its still tacky on top. Rage gold doesn't like being put straight onto bare metal .It adheres best when its got a good 2part primer under it. If you've put it on bare metal..i'd take it all off cos your asking for trouble I reckon ..my .02 PB
So in the past couple of days I think I have my original problems figured out. I'm getting decent working time and curing times. I did Rage followed by Metal Glaze then did an etch primer on the bare metal. I now find one or two little "dimples" I'm calling them. They are about the size of a dime and didn't show up until the whole piece was in primer. what do I do to fix them? do I need to hit it with a small piece of paper to sand out the primer or is there something I can use without having to sand it out?
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