Jeff, this comes from a guy who started 30 years ago doing his own body work in high school and went on be do it for living. I can "Metal finish" (no body filler) and also teach the body repair trade to others.
First, repairing body damage with no filler is very possible, but not without a LOT of practice. There are no magic books, videos or anything like that will make you a skilled craftsmen over night.
There is nothing at all with using body filler. 99.99% of the cars or trucks at a rod show have some on them, PERIOD. 99.99% of cars that will go thru a collision body shop will leave with some on them, PERIOD. If used properly it WILL outlast you and me. We will be dead and gone and the filler will still be on your truck, no one the wiser. If used anywhere near it will not fail, crack, pop off, what ever goofy thing you have likely heard. Those "old husbands tales" are simply not true.
There are a ton of sources for doing body work, be it with filler or fillerless.
To start, check out some stuff I have writen on the "Basics" at
http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=74560 For some metal finishing there is places like metalmeet.com,http://www.fournierenterprises.com/index.html,
http://www.ghiaspecialties.com/ and
http://www.covell.biz/ are a few sources.
Check with John at Ghiaspecialties first. He has some dvds I beleive and some great write ups he can link you to.
Brian
