Advice needed on shaving handles

I've tacked in a peice of sheet steel behind my door handle hole as opposed to cutting a peice to fit with the intention of filling the space with body filler(the thickness of the door skin). I've got 6 evenly spaced tacks and its nice & solid. My question is do I need to continue the tacking/cool process till its fully welded or can I just clean it up and fill now, with just the 6 tacks? My friend said I should weld it all up so water dosn't get in behind the filler and cause it to lift. Also, a co-worker once told me about using Z-grip filler, I guess its for fiberglass? He said it was alot better than bondo and he used it when he shaved his handles. Would that stuff be resistant to the moisture problem? Any advice on that?

Thanks for any help you guys can give, its my 1st shave-job.

-John

 

It really should be welded solid, for best results. The problem with the "overlap" on the backside, is that moisture can develop between the skin and the patch, which will rust. Which will swell up. Which will turn your work into crap. Which is not good. Stu

 

My advise would be to start again and weld a piece into the hole and not from behind. Take your time tacking and letting cool and you can control the majority of the distortion and then skim it with filler.

The problem with the way you are doing it is the filler will expand and contract at a different rate than the surrounding metal and eventually the hole you filled with filler will show through your finish.

If you insist on doing it the way you have started definitley weld it up solid and I would use a product like Evercoats Fiber-Tech to fill the hole and then skim with something like Z Grip. Z Grip is just a regular talc based body filler and will absorb moisture if it comes in contact with it. If possible skim the back of the repair with Fiber-Tech as well to help seal out any moisture.

 

Hey,

Weld your patch completly, then hold a dolly on the outside of the patch whyle you tap up the metal from inside the door with a hammer or other dolly. Try to get the patch almost level with the surrounding metal of the door skin. Glassfibre, silly putty, plastic filler and most of that other stupid shit will one day crack. How soon has a direct ratio to how expensive a paint job you have over the "repair"! A chicken shit rattle can primer job will probably last for years, a big money base/clear with some flake or pearl, probably a year or two.
Little or next to no filler is always your best repair.

" Humpty Dumpty was pushed "

 

less is always more when it comes to filler. take this as an opportunity to hone your fabrication/panel skills

 

Thanks guys. I didn't think about the different rates of expansion and what not. This thing will never have a paint job beyond a home-spray by me but it would still suck to mess up the finish.

There is no way to get to the back side with a hammer unless I cut an access hole lol I should have just cut a peice to fit but several people told me this would be fiiiiiiine hahaha. Hmmmmmmmm now I got to ponder for a bit, good thing I'm not in a hurry lol

Thanks

-John