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Bondo gone wrong

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Trevor Jessie

Trevor Jessie

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I had some free time last night and today, so I thought I'd tackle one of the rear quarters on the bugeye project. I wish I had taken a few more pictures so that you could see how bad it was.

After I pulled out all the Bondo and mesh I forgot about documenting the process. Instead I just cussed for hours on end. After cutting, bending and pounding out some patch panels. I contorted myself into all the strange positions required to get the panels welded in place. It was warm enough today to roll the car outside for the grinding mess.

Anyway, it is basically done. When I'm ready to do the body work this section should only need a little more grinding and a THIN layer of fiberglass (unlike the gallon the DPO used).
 

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Heh... a gallon of Bondo and an old screen door can go a looong way!!! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smirk.gif
 
I would not use fibreglass, as it tends not to bond to steel. Mar-glass might be the way to go if you are that sort of bloke? Drew must love these pictures??
Cheers, David.
 
Nice work, Trevor! That's quite the rusty spot. Sure glad I haven't had to tackle anything like that on the Tunebug (thanks, again, David!).
 
Wish I could do that.
 
he said he made them, boy am I impressed.
 
That's one smooth job. I know that most people don't care for bondo but that looks so smooth that it doesn't look like it would take much. Great job on the panel too. The time spent appears worthwhile.
 
regularman said:
Well done, Did you buy that piece or make it?
Click to expand...

Funny you should ask. I bought the outside panel since it is a compound curve. However, the one I bought was going to need a fair amount of reshaping to even be close. So, I decided to try and make it myself. It has a few more welded seems than the original, but they are butt welds and therefore hard to detect. I'm doing this at my house and I only have a MIG welder so I had to do a quite a bit of grinding.
 
Hey, when you're done, do you want to spend a little "working vacation" down here in Fl. and do mine /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif ?? That looks great!! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbsup.gif
 
On another thread, Jeff said he likes to do body work so maybe you should call him. I'm thinking about giving him a call if I find anther gallon of Bondo tucked up in the other side of the car. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
 
I forgot to mention... I needed a piece of 18 or 20 gauge steel for part of the inner closing panel. I didn't have any large enough on hand. So I went in the basement to scrounge. I found an old computer case (1990'ish). At first I didn't look at it because most modern computer cases are 24 gauge or so. But I tapped on it on it and it felt solid. Sure enough, it was about 18 gauge. and... the tag on the computer chassis said "Made in the USA". I kind of felt guilty about cutting up.
 
I did all my sheet metal work at home with one of the cheap flux core mig welders. It was easeir to weld the thicker metal, plus I wanted any patch I put on to lase forever so I made everything out of 11 gauge. cut out and redid the box under the motor (the one that the crank pulley alwasys hits on) it was rusted out. Redid the lower a pillars where the hinges mount, any holes in floor too. Car may be 5 pounds heaver but hopefully what is fixed stays fixed.
 
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