So I started stripping the driver side of my tub tonight. The passinger side has been stripped for a few weeks, but I just got to the drivers.

While the passinger side was alsmost clear of bondo, the driver side is REALLY THICK. Between an 1/8th and a 1/4 inch thick.

My goal was to use a little bondo as could be managed, and stretching and shrinking the metal. But now I am thinking "take the paint off, smooth the bondo, and just f*cking prime it." I definatly had one of those "I'm getting in over my head with this" moments as I dug deeper into the bondo to see where it went.

Whadda I do. Does bondo weigh enough that it would actually be worth my time to take it off and try and work with the metal? I want to have this car straight and smooth for paint as soon as the spring air is warm enough to support painting.

Zach

kinda depends upon your goals.
1/4 inch of professional lightweight filler in some areas.. is not the end of the world.

you can probably smooth it and do the the body work to make it better than that...

if it were a full race car then less weight is better..
but if a street car then work the metal a little bit better and smooth it.

modern fillers are not that bad.
take off the old stuff and start over from bare metal.
brant

I'm not a body man, so I've found it easier to just replace with good, straight used parts. If it's removable that is. Bondo that thick is problematic.

It depends on what you want to do with the car. Will it bother you a year from now that you didn't do it when you had the chance?

Pictures, we need pictures

I'll take pics tomorrow when I have a chance to remove a little more of the paint. The bondo dust was getting a little to thick for me tonight, even with a OSHA mask on.



Maybe.
Right now I am too tired to care. Way too much work for a saturday, I'm going to bed.

Zach

welcome to my world ...

Pictures will help alot. Where is the damage located? What panels are you stripping? With that much filler, I would be concerned about structual damage.

Well be able to offer a better opinion after pictures.

Zach when you have bondo that thick it is usually easier to pop it off with a hammer and flat blade screwdriver. You know the panel underneath is already FUBAR so you can't really make it any werse. I always remove previous bondo if for no other reason to make certain there is no rust underneath it. Many times home bondo men don't prep correctly, bondo will seperate just a hair and allow moisture to seep in. As for the fixing the FUBAR........

I'm in the same situation. My right rear fender was buried in it. I stripped it all off and am going to try and see if I can work the metal a little better then use the least amount possible...

Glad I did cause I found this.

Sounds like we are living parallel weekends.
I still have to do my drivers side, just finished up the passenger, hood and trunk so far.


Fun stuff.

1/8 to 1/4 is not a tragedy, some filler is to be expected to get everything perfect.

But it is your car and you know what will make you the most statisfied with it.

I have to go to my sister-in-laws birthday today. But when I get back i'll try the hammer and flat screwdriver method. Actually, I'll use an old chisel.

So far, I have not seen any rust on the body, but I know that the car has had the driver front fender replaced (found that when taking the undercoating out of the fender wells). I'll put up some pics today aftr Ihave a little more off.

Zach

I just went out and knocked a few chips off with a hammer and a chisel. This is the thickest. No pic of the car, I was in a hurry. Will add those later.

The micrometer reads .391inches thick (just a hair over 3/8th inch).

It looks like the thickest bondo is between the driver door and the fender. As I got nearer to the fender, the bondo got thinner.

Erins done wrapping her sisters B-day present, so I have to go. Hope the Fam does not mind a certian amount of bondo dust. At least my father in law will understand...

Zach

Bondoing is crap, try to use Dyna products and Dyna Glass on heavy build up parts. The tin looks good on the pics.

:beer1:Good job.

Ouch, I think that's alot for a door panel, I'd probably look into replacing the door.

Use an orbital sander with 50/60 grit discs.

After you are back to metal, you should be able to pull most of the dent out. Of course it will need *some* bondo.


KT

I used about an inch of bondo on my RR fender for smoothing it a lil for the 05 WCC... Raced it too!!! no cracking (oddly..) and the fender supports were cut for max stretching..

ahh the good old days.

Not a door. Its behind the door but in front of the fender. I have not started stripping the door yet. They might be bondo city too, but I have not torn into them yet.

What I am going to do is this.

I am going to chip and sand away the bondo. Then I am going to make myself a slide hammer to pull the depressions out. I got the idea from an ad in Eastwoods cataloge for the stud welder and slide hammer. I figure I can make the same for <$25. Pull the depressions, if too far, shrinking disk them back into place. I don't mind using bondo (or some sort of body filler), I just don't want a lot of it on.

As always, learning as I go.

Zach

Zach that is definitely the way to go BUT a little advice before you get to involved. When pulling a dent do not just go in with a stud welder and slide hammer aimlessly pulling.when pulling a dent you also need to use a pick hammer in the opposite location from the puller to "offset" the pull. Otherwise all you do is transfer the dent to another area. By pulling on spot A and hammering on spot B what you essentially do is shrink the metal in-between the two. This is an EXTREMELY simplified explanation.I'm not very good at explaining things but I hope this makes sense. On the shrinking disc, it too has some tricks to it. I haven't gotten REAL good with it but I did use it to remove an oil can in a aluminum hood, that was a serious challenge!

You can also heat shrink any high spots. Heat the area up with a torch and hit it with a wet sponge. Wear gloves, watch out for steam.

I found this same thing in the same place on my old car. Try this test... Put a straight edge perpindicular to the panel length wise with the car. Try it in a few locations. Is it straight under the straight edge? There was a spot on mine where the straight edge rocked (teeter-totter'd) a good 1/2 inch either direction. That bugged me. I got all the old filler out and made the panel as straight as I could. I filled it with a little less bondo than it had before. But it passed the straight edge test.

I would probably dig it out and try to get closer to shape. Then fill it again. I guess it depends on how bad you want perfection.

Do not fear bondo, at least not the new stuff. When I reworked my rear fender, it was about 1/2" in certain spots. When I reworked the fender, I still ended up using a lot of filler, but the new fillers (good ones) are great. In fact, when you tap on the fender, it sounds like you are tapping on a fender without filler.

Do: remove all the old bondo.
Do: Use a 4' level as your sanding block. No short blocks. Use sticky 80 grit paper to adhere to the level.

Just finished painting her this weekend...

That panel is better than new. Use the long 4' sandling block whereever you can, and sand in an X pattern. Lower left to Upper right. Upper left to lower right. You will make the panel wave free.

with everything said. Do not fear new bondo (the expensive stuff). Do fear the old stuff and PO methods. When you're ready to apply your bondo, use some 60 or 80 grit to rough up the surface in order to give the bondo a good strong rough 'foot' to bond to. Do this for any subsiquent bondo layers as well.

We should make one thing clear about "bondo". Don't use Bondo brand body filler. Spend a little extra at an autobody shop and buy Evercoat Rage body filler. I only mention this because we have been using the brand name "bondo" kind of generically.