Can you say BONDO??!!

[Darwin]

While waiting for my blasting pot to become available I decided to begin the process of stripping the car using my angle grinder and a wire wheel. Works real well. I now know that the car has had 5 different colors of paint applied over the years; Original Signal Red, White, Inca Yellow, some strange Royal Blue Metallic, and the orangish red that was on it when I bought it. Each layer is accompanied with it own layers of primer and bondo.

I flipped the frame rightside up, set the body on it and started grinding. I found that some VDPO had used Bondo in thicknesses up to 3/4" to fill in minor dents and dings. There is bondo 1/8 to 1/4" thick in places where the panel is perfect. ????? What gives? Here are a couple of examples.

 

[tomshobby]

The PO was probably trying to get the arodynamics right in the wind tunnel! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jester.gif

 

[Brosky]

He was trying to bring it up one weight class???

 

[Darwin]

And another. The sad part is that where the bondo is thickest the panels are the smoothest. Most of the thick bondo is in "oil can" dents that I have been able to remove with gentle hand pressure or minimal hammer and dolly work. I think I have my work cut out for me. I have also found some original factory lead work in small areas.

 

[Darwin]

For sure Paul. I think I have ground out a couple hundred pounds of bondo so far and I still have a ways to go.

Tom: aerodynamics??? These cars go fast enought to have aerodynamics? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Brosky]

You could post a view of that on George Noory's Coast to Coast AM website as a spirit emerging from some weird place.......

 

[Andrew Mace]

[ QUOTE ]
The sad part is that where the bondo is thickest the panels are the smoothest.

[/ QUOTE ]That sort of thing never ceases to amaze me! I had the same thing on the second Herald I ever owned (originally bought as a parts car after I crashed the first Herald...but the "parts car" has survived and is being restored eventually...but I digress). The most amazing thing is that someone apparently took the time to remove the front parking lamp assembly...in order to lay in about 1/2" of Bondo in that area. Ironically, it's very easy to get at that area either through the hole where the lamp fits or by getting behind it. While only 17 at the time, I'd been taught well by a few "old timers"; I removed the Bondo, did a little hammer work, used a very small amount of Bondo for smoothing (even managed to preserve the seam), and painted. Still looks fairly decent 36 years later!

Of course, with 39hp, no Herald needs any extra weight. In addition to that parking lamp area, I must have removed 10 lbs. of filler from the rest of the bonnet as well!

 

[Alan_Myers]

Bondo is great stuff... In fact I think it's better today than ever before.

The problem is some of the people who use it don't have the slightest clue what they are doing!

Hey, we expect you to finish strippin', hammerin', refillin' and have it ready for paint on Day Three... just like they do on Overhaulin'.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif

 

[Darwin]

Sorry Alan, no Foose-ification for me. A little bondo is great stuff for smoothing. Day 3? How about Year 3? Maybe if I had a crew of 40 pros working around the clock I could do it in 3 months, but where is the fun in that?

 

[sammyb]

I love the smell of Bondo in the morning...smells like cracked paint.

 

[martx-5]

Someone showed me an easy way to remove thick layers (or thin layers for that matter) of Bondo without making a lot of dust. Use a propane torch and the stuffs just scrapes right off with a putty knife. Be careful though, too much heat and the stuff burn slowly with some pretty noxious fumes. You might want to do this outside. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hammer.gif

 

[BOXoROCKS]

Fire is good,I have a freakin flame thrower that I use on lots of parts.Undercoating,paint,frozen bolts,master cyls,weeds in the rock garden,crumbling asphalt in my driveway, and sometimes my lunch. "Box O Rocks"s British cars and crematorium".

 

[Trevor Triumph]

I understand that some restorers actually prefer the smoothness of bondo in place of metal. A friend in the Mini club has a car the has maybe an eighth inch or less of bondo all over it. Notice on the Orange County Chopper shows that after the metal work, the paint shop puts bondo on the parts before painting. T.T.

 

[Darwin]

I agee. A little body filler can be a good thing. No sane person will spend the time to get every panel perfectly straight with hammer and dolly. (If that is even possible.) What I can't understand is the gobs of this stuff where there is no metal damage. It is like they couldn't get the door to line up so they started layin on the bondo til everything matched up.

Thankfully, I am just about done with this stage of the project and now get to start on paint removal from the interior panel. Doing a lot of it the hard way to save time when I media blast.

The doctor told me I needed to lose some weight and I should start an exercise program but this is insane. Darwin's Spitfire Gym and Coo Coo Bin.

 

[trfourtune]

metal can be fixed WITHOUT BONDO!!! but ignorance is bliss. there used to be CRAFTMEN IN THE TRADES. this was lost with the disposable car. many people think that they can be craftsmen because they want to save money and do it themselves. a true craftman takes years and years of practice to become a craftsman, but poeple do not want to pay for , or apreciate true craftsmanship, which is why we find the atrocities we do in our cars. we think that because it looks good, it is. nobody wants the truth. but the truth hurts sometimes.
rob

 

[martx-5]

[ QUOTE ]
metal can be fixed WITHOUT BONDO!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

This is quite true, but to expect hammer and dolly work to totally straighten a panel after all the stretching, shrinking, hammering etc. is not always possible. Even the best of those craftsman occasionally will have to fill with something.

If you really want to fill with something permanant, then go with lead. I'm using it on my TR3 resto, and even gave a demonstration of the technique to the Triumph club I belong to. It's a beautiful way to fill some of those little wrinkles that exist after the hammer and dolly work. But, even the lead work itself might need some help afterward with pin holes and file scratches. Modern plastic fillers are very good, and if used and applied properly will last many, many years.

There are many tools in the tool kit. Each has their place and considerations. As pig headed as I get sometimes about using lead, I do realize that sometimes the use of plastic is the tool that I need.

 

[trfourtune]

very true.
rob