Art & Inspiration Filler , pop rivets , window screen and other acts of shoe makery!

Late 70s/Early 80s, NE Iowa

I bought a pretty nice 64 Chevy II 2 dr sedan. It had tradiused wheelwells with flares on the back. When I started removing them, I discovered that they were made from 3 rows of electrical conduit, brazed together, and a LOT of filler. Honestly, they looked OK as far as workmanship, but ugly

Fella I went to high school with went to the votech (sorry, "career technology center") and upon graduation went to work for a local used car lot that would be a note lot these days. They painted every car they bought/sold. He said they would go down to the local newspaper and picked up overruns/returns and fill the trunk drops with wadded up newspaper and then bondo over it. These were commonly only 5-10 year old cars

 

And there's always the super thick Bondo patch. Sometimes an inch or better.

 

"Primered, ready for paint"

 

One of the guys I hung around with 30 years ago was a car flipper. We used to call Bondo “Hod”. Like bricklayer’s hod. I watched him dump an entire can of hod onto a roof, squeeze in a tube of hardener, mix it up on the roof and then trowel it out. Sad situation, I felt sorry for the future owner. Same person had an early 80’s gutless Cutlass advised for sale. The buyer (poor bastard) told my “buddy” that his wife was pregnant and that’s why they needed this car. The transmission in the Cutlass was dying and would slip until warmed up. Of course the car was warmed up when the unfortunate couple arrived to test drive and buy it. I don’t know how he slept.

 

When I bought my suicide door Lincoln the right rear door had a ton of bondo in it , you could see a huge patch in the door , only spot on the car with any repairs or rust . Car was really mint .

anyways I drove the car a couple years then dig into it for a full resto . Ground out the bondo and it was a big dent , but no crease or cave in , looked like a bowl . It looked like someone’s fat ass fell into the door .

with the inner door panel off I has able to pop the dent out with a couple good firm palm hits . It poped out and the door was mint .
That repair always made me scratch my head as the amount of bondo gooped on must have been a chor to get stick and sculpt compared to the 10 minutes it took my to fix it correctly .

 

Hot patch baby! Grind around the rust, countersink the area around the hole, rip off a piece of masking paper a little larger than the hole, wipe about an inch thick layer of filler on it, (and if needed, like anthony said, throw some cheese filings in with the filler for added strength) then throw the paper over the hole. Rub it in good, that's the secret to a proper patch job. When the paper starts warming up you peel it off the filler. Grind it cheese file to the desired shape and level, and apply more filler as needed. Now that's free info right there! You're welcome

 

Body filler.... what a concept.

I'm one of those guys. I sort of beat it back close to where its suppose to be and cover the area with filler. Then I sand too much off, so I have to add another layer of filler. Then I sand off too much again (not as bad as the first time), so I add another layer. Then I have most of it OK, except those few high still metal spots. I tap them in, and add another layer of filler and sand. Well, then I add another layer of filler and sand again. About that time I'm fed up with the entire mess, so it gets primed. Maybe there are a couple more spots that are low (read that as stand out real bad), so I add another layer and sand and prime again (and maybe one more round). Another gallon of filler is gone, but I've sure swept up a bunch of it and blew off a ton of body dust. About at that point it doesn't matter any more, I'm done doing body work. Paint the %^&#*!# thing.

I have a buddy that can spray it without runs (something I'm not capable of doing, I've tried). He usually wants to sand and prime it a few more times, but I tell him its paint day, so paint it. I end up with a very friendly ride with nice pretty paint that waves at everyone as I drive by.

The thing is, I have places on all the rides I have done body work and have painted or had painted over the years, that I have no idea how thick the filler is. There really is no way of knowing how thick the filler really is, unless you remove it. I have not had any filler fall out of something I have done body work on for more then 30 years, so I guess I'm doing OK. I am getting better at it being sort of smooth.

So the next time you see my ride, just smile and wave. I know the body work sucks, but I know the guy that did it, and he is OK with it. It looks better then it did before I started, and doesn't look too bad from 30' away. If you think it looks bad, your probably standing too close. I'll happily let you talk to my body guy, and you can lodge your complaint with him. See how far that gets you....

 

I have cursed my body and paint guy so many times for being so slow.
Just seems incredible the amount of time it took him to complete the task.
People would ask, I would cry my truck is still in paint jail!!!

TBF I had to teach myself to weld .... I picked several projects around the house .... I built a metal shed in the back yard then used my spray gun to paint it .... get comfortable with the process of mixing paint and spraying. .... Once I was comfortable with fabricating & welding patches, then spraying paint .... I got back on the truck and it went a lot faster.

Now I'm complaining about my mechanic .... seems he sits more then he works

 

A rear fender on a VW beetle was found to have a different profile on the outside than the inside, thanks to a pound of filler (bog). This piece eventually cracked around the edge, and fell out. Luckily, it fell onto the floor in the shed, and was in one piece, about 6" wide and 1-1/2" thick. What to do? Only a little bit of new filler left! Put a little bit of filler on the back of the big piece, carefully replace the old piece in place, put a couple of screws in from the back, then run the rest of the filler around the outside edge. In some places it came out so cleanly that a couple of coats of hi-fill hid the break. Not done by me, but someone who looks a lot like me, with the same name, too!

 

I feel blissfully encouraged by this thread. With this as inspiration, I might be able to finish all my impossible projects before I check out. I won't last long enough for perfection, but there is a way!
Now I don't understand why the plywood floors that my 55 Chevy had when I was 15/16 made me so ashamed. It was a creampuff compared to some of the cars on this thread! Didn't really matter though, when I was 16 years and one week old, I pulled out in front of a 57 Chevy and got hit broadside. Bondo flew out of my car from impossible locations. Wrecker driver must have swept up several gallons worth of bondo shards, chunks, and pieces when he cleaned up the wreck. I swear there was bondo dust in the air, too.

 

That’s fantastic!! I’ll have to remember this trick when I start blowing holes in the body trying to weld!! My free welding lessons also include blowing holes in metal of all thicknesses.
The smell of an open can of Bondo is like DuPont Centari, you never forget it.

 

Here in New Mexico....the old cars were made out of adobe..... it's dry here....but when it rains the cars melt...ever run over a mud puddle

 

Bought a '55 Chevy and the rear wheel openings were cut in a damn near perfect arc.
They had used a bicycle rim cut in half with screws to attach the ends. Held it upright with something to hold it flush with the body and filled the gaps with bondo. Looked great.

 

25 years ago I bought a rusty Henry J. It was original, but it ran. Sorta. So after blocking the radiator and getting it hot, I dribbled 2 liters of water/ brake fluid mix, through, got the rings unstuck and running well. Bought some kitty, hair, bondi , spray foam, and a closeout bin of spray paint. Filled the holes, painted it Satin black with flames, raised the rear wheel wells and put some Rock hard Cheater slicks on the back and drove the hell out of it. I wasn't kidding myself, it was a parts car, but fun for a while. Kitty hair over newspaper, there is the trick

 

By the evidence, you can see that I do both mig and the God forbidden Brazing. I was trained at a vocational School back in the mid-seventies. I don't buy patch panels. My instructor had more of these classic cars than you could shake a stick at. Thats another Old School saying. The fender appears to be hanging below the rocker panel, but it is only resting on the block of wood. So don't panic. Rust is a bitch, it's everywhere in these old ass cars. My grandson gave me shit about brazing. He is Certified-ICAR Technician. But then one day he apologized because now they glue these cars together with Silicon Bronze. It's a Mig Process that I have no clue or information to offer. I've known a lot of guys who gave up before the got started rebuilding their project cars. Cut out a section of rust and weld in in your first patch job. My Great Uncle Wilbur, who was an engineer, told me, DON'T LOOK AT YOUR MISTAKES, LOOK AT WHAT YOU GOT DONE! 

 

I didn't think to get a closeup shot of the carnage that the previous owner created on my 66 Suburban but I will say his overlapped and stitch brazed quarter panel (used) repair followed by his equally talented use of bondo was grounds for a public hanging.
I did the rework in the early 90's before replacement Suburban panels were being made so I used a replacement bedside from a pickup, quite an improvement considering it was one of the first projects learning how to use my new mig welder.

 

My Dad used to have a '61 Biscayne when I was a little kid. The floorboards rusted away to nothing, so he installed some plywood as he was afraid that I would fall through! He eventually sold it to a coworker who drove it for several years until he couldn't patch it up anymore.

 

Had a fellow that worked for me....he wouldn't spend any more on a car than what the tires were worth.
When the car fell apart so bad that he couldn't drive it, he would leave the keys in it and just walk away....
no repairs required....

 

Early 80's bought a 70 Monte Carlo as a beater. Rear quarter was hit hard and for some reason the hood rusted unbelievably bad. Big spots all over it and the front edge was so jaggedy with rust you probably should have a tetanus shot before approaching. Eventually the framework at the front of the hood with the latch got so bad it came loose and also the hood started to fold in half while trying to close it. Solution: remove the hood springs and add hood pins.

Interior was real nice though so when covered with snow it wasn't too bad.

 

I saw one a couple years back in the junkyard, appropriately enough. It was a modern vehicle but the outer tie rod was being held in place with a wrapped toe strap and zip ties. Hopefully it wasn't on the road to long.

 

There isn't much "paint jail" (or any other kind of "delay jail', other then me, at my place. I kinda like doing the welding and patching, so that part is easy. I can even get the patch panels pretty close. The dent removal is more a matter of the level of my tolerance on the given day, some days are better then others. Body filler work? Man I hate that stuff, there is nothing I like about doing it. If it was not for me being to cheap and not wanting to pay someone to do what I know how to do, I wouldn't touch the stuff. There is a very short window of doing body filler work at my place. That window is 2 months, start to finish, for the entire vehicle! Its going to have paint on it by that 3rd month, or I might be cutting it up! I start out with good intensions, but about a month into it, the attitude changes to "get it done" then quickly to "I don't care what it looks like, put paint on it, I'm done." I think I stretched the body work out to 4 months including the paint on the 49. You really would not have wanted to be around me at that time (the "talk to my body guy" reference).

I'm the mechanic, the designer, the engineer, the parts scrounger, the finance guy, the upholstery guy, the wiring guy, the assembly guy, the suspension guy, the brake guy, the troubleshooting guy, and the if it got done I probably did it guy. The only thing I didn't do on my 49 was spray the paint and mount the new tires (new tires with warranty requires they do the mounting and balancing). You need to be able to accept the fact that if you can do it all, some of that won't be as good as the guy that only does a certain things. Not many can do it all, and very few of those can do it all very good (some here can, I'm not one of them). I can live with that.

Being broke and cheap means you learn to do a lot of things yourself, the best you can. Then if it doesn't work out, you take it apart and do it again, only better. You will probably learn there are some things you just shouldn't be doing, with those things, its better to seek help. After you do this on a few rides in a row, you get to where you feel pretty confident about what you can do, and just as importantly, you know what you can't do. You have skill sets no one else has, when you understand that, its not as hard to accept someone has skill sets you don't have and sometimes its worth paying for their skills.

After you figure out there are things you shouldn't be doing, you have at least gained an understanding about what has to be done, and that makes it easier to to pay someone that posses those skills to do those things for you.

 

Sorry @gene-koning .... Maybe I threw you off and was not clear ..... I was talking about myself as a 3rd person .... When I said the Damn painter was stalling and holding up my project .... I'm the painter.

Take this cab corner for example ... I had to fix that. Could not leave it.


I have taken out 2 or 3 dents before, I'm no pro.
I got it pretty close .... seemed like the metal had been worked so much, every time I touched it I just made it worse .... Time for putty.


Just saying I'm not proud of my repair, I feel the only way to get it better would be to cut it out and replace it .... the metal was stretched too much.



You can see where I fixed the major dent, I left 2 dents there and call it character. I thought about fixing them .... I was right there .... I love it and happy with it. I'm going to use the truck on a daily basis to haul construction materials or groceries .... I simply do not want it too nice or perfect.
Even in the photo you can see the truck lives outside under a carport and is filthy, I painted it last fall and never has been washed. It will probably get washed 3 or 4 times a year in the future ... time will tell.

I'm just saying I'm with you about my love for body work .... Its a chore that needs to be done ... I'm not crazy about it.

 

Pretty car huh? It is now. However even high zoot cars like this are not immune from the fuckery that befalls us now n then. It had floor plate above the steering/pedal area to keep engine heat from the cabin. Somebody made a new one out of, wait for it, cardboard. Not even a nice interior panel board, I mean fkn corrugated cardboard. They stepped up the game though. It was reinforced with duct tape and painted black. Yeah, fuckery to 10th power. It took 1 hour and 40min to make a nice proper sheet metal panel.

 

What I think I-CAR. They teach you the test then feed you lunch and then you take the test. It covers the insurance company. When you take the ASE Test you walk in to the room and take the test cold turkey. You either know it or fail it. I have both certificates and I am most proud of my ASE Certificate. Ive only been doing paint and body since I was 15 years old so that makes 65+ year’s. I once took a I=Car class on panel bonding there was a young 3M sales man demonstrating the procedure then gave each of us small pieces of metal to practice on. Instead of using the supplied adhesive I just sweated them together with some 7030 and promptly brought them back to the instructor he said they didn't have time to set I told him that I had used a different product Dutch Boy #7030 said he had never heard of it. I told him to try it so he took a pair of vice grips and tried to tear them apart. The older gentleman with him eyes lit up when I said 7030 . He and I had a good laugh. I have sweated lots of panels on and still occasionally do it. The man that mentored me did body work during the Great Depression and WW2 And that’s the rest of the story

 

Gene, you sound exactly like me when doing body and paint work! My motto, the longer I work on it, the lower my standards go!

 

Love it !!!

one I use at work is “ I’m not just good , I’m good enough “.

 

My Dad was a Union Trim Carpenter and when he did projects at home, my Mom would get aggravated at the progress and tell him that being done is better than being perfect. Dad found no humor in this.

 

I don't dnow where my photos are but the gent who restored My Blue Heaven showed me some of the sketchy stuff that was done on it that he fixed right at a Northwest Customs Unfished Nationals on Graham, Wa one year. I'm thinking that a bread sack was involved in one spot.

 

lol , another one I use at work is “ I’m not happy untill your not happy “


Fuck ‘em if they don’t have scense of humour!!


Better then getting beat like a government mule

 

Really guys? Really?

Almost twenty years after the old man has been gone....and now I find out why he called me a shoemaker.

Dammit.