Body work

[HorseFixer 2,012]

Duke, time and patience is a virtue when doing body work. I've been doing it for 36 years and never do much panting. Being you are used to working with sheet metal you should have no problems learning to remove dents and filling small pits with bondo. A skim coat of bondo will never crack. Always prep your metal properly and use a good pimer with a hardner. I prefer using base coat-clear coat paint which is alot more expensive but holds up great. My 550 was done with that and looks as good as the day it was done. It all depends on how much money you want to spend.

Thanks Ray I will hafta give it a shot! :hide:

[joebob 45]

I been doing body work for 35+ years man that a long time , The body fillers of today are not like they were and even then they received a bad rap most of the problems that went on are operator errors, just think how many times have you known someone or yourself to say had a dent or some rust and just filled her in with some bondo and she's good as new but 3 feet thick now, just to have it crack and fall out, there is many things right and wrong in the use of them ( I have seen plenty of the wrong) and it is like the saying (do a good job for them and they will tell 2 friends do a bad one and they tell everyone) so if used properly there is nothing wrong with it, I have seen some of the work I did back in the early 80's and it still looks like it did when I finished it.

[KyBlue 652]

JoeBob you mean like this ?/

The bondo was dug out of the back of that car - the owner paid somebody to do the bodywork, then brought the car to us for paint. No warranty on it of course, well about six weeks after we painted it, you began to see cracks at the back of the car, so a price was agreed upon, and ... We ended up remaking the whole back of the car, one rear fender was 1/2 longer than the other side, turned out to be quite the job actually!

Oh heres the car BEFORE the bondo came out.. you can see just how much they did with it..

[joebob 45]

yep hey man I tried, what do want from me just kidding , The photos dont lie this is the stuff that gives it a bad rap, there alot of good sculptures out there and nobody knows it till it fails, also I want to know where you got those wavy lights been looking for them for years and I just can't seem to find them :D

[KyBlue 652]

havent you seen those??/ Lowes Special - for what he paid us, he got a helluva deal

Everybody wants something done for nothing

This a better shot?? I think its about as straight as your gonna get

[bitten 133]

I am in the proces of resto job(85' 310-8 red hood). The frame has pits from what I believe to be battery acid. theframe is almost ready for the next step and that is the pits. I have thought about trying the lead way, but have never seen or read on how to do it. What I have read in this segment kinda scars me. I think the pits are deep enough that body filler will crack over time. The area is 5 to 8" long. I have the frame cleaned from rust. Not knowing what to do I thought about useing a smelter I have for jig makeing and pouring the lead in the pits and sanding smoth. It is on the frame that will be seen once assembled. After reading what you experanced guys have to say I think this may not be the way to go. Not to sure about filler primers. Would this be like spraying on a coat let it set sand flat and do it again till the pits are gone? Im afraid that if I use body filler that the twisting of the frame would make the filler fall out or a least crack.

I was trying to get this done before winter to use it for snow plowing but thanks to another redsquare member I have a 56" blade for the D200. I wanted to use the snow blower on the D and the plow on the 310, but will be able to get by with just the plow. So I have time to give each coat of paint plenty of time between coats.

I know this is a long story but any advice will be greatly apprecated.

P.J.

[linen beige 14]

P.J.,

On something as thick as frame rails why not fill the pits with brazing rod and file/sand it smooth? Nobody has mentioned brazing. It was popular in the old days primarily for two things. One which everybody has encountered was joining thin panels. Took less heat to braze than to weld so it distorted the metal less. The other less heard of use was as a filler on thicker metal. Thicker metal is kind of hard to do lead work on because if the temperature gets too high it takes too long to cool off and the lead cooks away. Brazing takes more heat than lead so it doesn't work well as a filler on thin panels. Brazing rod doesn't have quiet as much flex as lead but does have some.

I know somebody's gonna say paint doesn't like to stick to brazing. Paint doesn't like to stick to brazing FLUX! Clean off all the flux and smooth the surface and the paint will stick just fine.

[bitten 133]

Jim

That is something that I never thought of. My torch kit came with the brazing tips but have never used them. I will diffenatly look in to it. Thanks for the idea.

P.J.

[joebob 45]

man dont me started on what you could use it fill the pits there is a ton of products, but it really matters what your going to use it for, the plastic filler (bondo) will work but it has its limits to heat and thickness / glues, there is so many out there that can be used as a filler, but most of them will be affected by heat ,but unlikely the kind you could normaly give it ,weld/braze works they braze car bodys together for years, they still use a form of it today it call silicon brazing, it used to tack and weld seams together and melts at low temps,the only problem is that heat pulls moisture into the metal again how many time have you welded some thing and the next day it turned orange, lead works dont get me wrong just the health hazard that go along with it would make me stay away, sorry guys just seen to many coworker friends get messed up with it, and trust me I had my share too, not to get to deep, it really comes down to how you prep the piece for what your going to put on it clean clean clean and how you plan on using it. what ever you use they all have there limitations