The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk The word of the day is "BONDO"

How do you guys feel about bondo. I have a 55 Chevy truck with a "trans am" rear end which is wider that the original rear end. The prevous owner widened the rear fenders 3". He used a alot of bondo...............I hear alot of bad things about bondo. I cant afford new fenders right now so I will probably stick with what I got. What do you guys think.

Body filler (Bondo) has it's proper place and uses. However, when you say "He used a alot of bondo..." I would be worried.

My experience with repairs that have been completed in that fashion has been nothing but trouble. Bondo pops off, or spider-webs as it dries and shrinks leaving you with major paint issues.

In my opinion, anything other than a skimmed coat of body filler is a problem waiting to be fixed.

i had a 76 chevy that had a lot of bondo on it. when i bought it you could not tell, but over the years that i owned it the bondo cracked and shrank, it ended up looking pretty bad. i got a wild hair one day and started sanding the bed down to repair the old bondo and repaint it. what i found was a bed that had been almost rebuilt with bondo. needless to say i was worried, so i sanded it up nice and primered it. i sold the truck a few weeks later. it was not worth the hassle to of fixing. i told the guy who bought it what was going on and even discounted my price. i felt bad not telling him what was up with it, darn conscience anyway. i have never had a good experience with bondo. as a body smoother / filler it is top notch, but as a tool of major repair i am skeptical. it made me sad that the PO had done that instead of doing the repairs right. if i were you i would sand it down and make it look good, paint it and forget it. when you have the money to do more i would pull the fender and get new ones. but until then bondo is really cheap. good luck.

I started my adult working life as a body man back in the 60's. In trade school we were told that if a repair needed more than 1/4" of plastic (body putty)the metal work wasn't ready for plastic yet. Anyone who used more than 1/4" was considered a butcher.

I agree with TINY no more than a 1/4" and try to eliminate it altogether if possible.My favorite way to see repairs done is by replacing the panel if possible but often times with these older trucks that is either cost prohibitive or you simply cant find a good replacement. My second choice is lead fill which is a fadeing art still practised only by those oldtimers that wont accept anything less(I don't reccomend because of health hazard) and my final alternative to plastic puddy is fiberglass which if done properly can out last the surrounding metal.
Hobert

There is also the bondo-glass product - it has fibre glass hairs in it and I am giving that a try on one ugly bit. I have a bud who used it on a step fender on a 17ft box truck - sees a lot of traffic and still is ok after 4 years. I would use that on a thicker repair, or one with a hole, but agree with the rest that over 1/4 " means hammer and dolly time.

I used to use a filler called Allmetal I believe. It had aluminum in it and worked like plastic Bondo. You couldn't just let it set for too long though or it would get hard as a rock and extrememly hard to work with if you didn't get to it right away.

Any of you guys familiar with this product? I thought it was great "back when".

The problem with bondo is that these auto parts places will stay open 7 days a week to sell the stuff, and people like to just blob it in there by the gallon and smooth it out and paint.

Personally, i'd rather have dents in my truck than have them filled with bondo.

I say smack the dent out as best you can.. then smooth it out with lead.. with alot of time, patience, and skill, you can get the dent worked out to where very little (if any) filler is required.

If you're not skilled in body repair.. find an old Pinto fender or something, and knock the hell out of it, then fix it. It's good practice.

Full on rot should be cut out and replaced with new metal (a patch) with filler used sparingly to help blend the patch in with the original metal.

Small dents,minor imperfections,etc.is what bondo is meant to be used for.Like was mentioned earlier if you put more tan 1/4 in.of that stuff in a repair you are asking for trouble.

Fort Knox: I can understand why your 76 pickup had a lot of bondo in it. I bought one of those pieces of junk new. I honestly think it started to rust before I got it home. I kept it for a number of years and never had any trouble with the drive train but the body was just junk. The door, fenders, floor pan and anything else you can think of turned to rust in a hurry. Not too long after that I left GM for good and haven't owned a new years for years. I still tinker with the old ones. Allen