bondo, bondo, bondo

[David_Doan]

Started sanding the boot. This car had been in a rear end collision sometime before my father-in-law bought it. There’s a LOT of bondo on the boot. It is about 1/2″ thick between the left rear blinker and the bumper mount. It was cracked and coming off due to water getting in around the bumper bracket. The paint is crazing all over the car, but the worst is on the boot where there was excessive bondo. The bondo itself was crazed, with the cracks going all the way down to the metal (or the original paint). As I sanded it off, I could see the the bondo was applied over the old paint.


I spent a few hours working on it today with a 6″ DA sander with 40 grit paper. My goal today was to get all the bond off. While sanding, I found 2 symmetrically located holes on the boot. I’m thinking these might be for a factory luggage rack. I need to do some research on this. both holes are about 30" from the front of the boot where the aluminum cockpit trim attaches. Pics below and more in my blog.

I'm assuming it is not normal to put bondo over finished paint. I'm not sure what caused all the crazing on this car, but I really don't want it to happen again. My current plan is to sand down to metal wherever bondo is present. Everywhere else I will just sand the 2nd coat of crazed paint off.

I'm still planning to paint with white brightside. Brightside's primer is OK to use over paint, I have to make sure it is OK to use over bondo/skim-coat.

EDIT: What is the difference between gray bondo and beige bondo? You can see both colors in the pic below. The gray bondo seemed to be used in areas where more (thicker) was required.

 

[nomad]

The PO of my bugeye cut a hole under where the licence plate would end up so that he could reach inside with a dolly. I know straightening that area on another BE that it is a bear. After trying to direct a willing helper inside the boot to hold the dolly[not willing for long!] the hole makes sense.

Kurt.

 

[Trevor Jessie]

A little late now, but a tip for future projects. You can quickly remove thick bondo by gently warming it with a propane torch and scraping it off with a putty knife.

 

[Bob Claffie]

Color of "bondo" is a function of the cream hardener. AFAIK there is no difference in application. Bob

 

[David_Doan]

A little late now, but a tip for future projects. You can quickly remove thick bondo by gently warming it with a propane torch and scraping it off with a putty knife.

That would have been a handy piece of information.... on Sunday.

Thanks for the tip.

 

[tlthorne]

oh but it is so fun to make it snow with a wire cup wheel on the grinder!