Rusty, fast machines make fast mistakes! (But I use one also for roughing)

 

thanks Chuck, I can only hope you're right!!

 

Today I've changed my feelings about bondo! I realized today that the formulation has changed over the years and it has totally different properties than it used to have making it much more difficult to work with than it used to be, most likely to make it much more suited to the bodies and shop methods used in the body repair industry today. Today's bondo IMHO sets up quicker and is much "stickier" than it used to be, making it difficult to spread smoothly. Years ago when I did body work, you could mix up a large batch and work with it for as long as 15 minutes before it would start to set. It was firm so it held on the spreader without dripping kinda like soft butter, but would smooth out nicely and you could work it for a while, building up edges and such. Then it would go to a "hard cheese" state where we would rough it to shape using "cheese grater" files. 20 minutes after that it would harden more and you could sand it with the dust dropping away.
Today's putty sets up in minutes, so you can't use more than a 4" puddle before it kicks. It's runny and drips off the spreader if you pick up a quantity, and goes right to sandpaper ready without going thru the hard cheese stage. The cheese grater files are obsolete, the putty gets too hard too fast and you really can't build up enough thickness to need them for quick removal. The edges do not feather out to invisible very easily making skimming a panel or filling a nick or scrape a frustrating experience.
All is not doom and gloom however, today I picked up a can of Eurosoft glazing putty, and rediscovered most of my filler friend I used to know! The glazing putty is still a bit runny, but much more workable than the putty. It smooths down like cake frosting, and you can tool it to a feather edge. It will stay in those small nicks and scrapes and sands easier than putty too.
Since you do mix it with hardener just like the putty you can use it as a direct on bare metal skim coat instead of putty and it will also bond to epoxy primers so you can use it to fix those small gletzes you couldn't see until the primer dries.
I will no longer skim my hammer and dolly work with putty but use the Eurosoft instead.
I now understand why the car makeover shows skim nearly the entire car with the stuff!
If you haven't tried it yet, and are frustrated trying to get smooth panels with putty alone by applying coat after coat and sanding it back off, run out tomorrow to your friendly body repair supply store and pick up a can. You'll be thanking me soon after!

 

Yeah, don't think too many people use a cheesegrater anymore. I still like to start sanding at least if the area I am doing is a bit larger or deeper fill spot, at least initial roughing while still soft even if it clogs up the paper fast, so much easier to knock in to shape and sand. But to get it to feather properly have to let it set up more. What filler were you working with. I don't have a problem mixing up more then a 4" blob and getting it spread on the vehicle unless a lot of hardener is added, or temp is reallly hot. Did such big areas or bigger fixes at a few different jobs. In fact, think a lot of the spot puttys start setting up when spreading faster then regular filler. Picking up bondo brand thats been sitting on a hardware shelf for who knows how long is probably the worst to work with. I picked some 3m lightweight stuff up once too when a paint supplier in town had it on sale cheap, and really didn't care for that one. I have done it in a pinch when supplier not open, but evercoat lightweight is actually a little bit cheaper then the bondo, and nicer. A lot of people like the premium brands. Have you tried any evercoat? A lot of people seem to like the rage, but I usually buy the cheap lighweight as it works fine for me. I guess I really don't notice too much difference then when I first started slinging on filler in the early 90's. Fillers are suppose to be much improved over what they were many years ago, how would you like to be doing it all with lead?

 

I am using Evercoat Rage Gold I just use the term "bondo" as a generic. It is HOT here, 92 in the garage yesterday. I am very meticulous about everything I do, heck I even read the directions before using something. I needed to do a very light spot skim (~ 1/16") over the welds to clean up the grinding and to fillet the AC outlet box on my lower dash extension. I used the Rage first, but it either sanded out of the some of the grinder scratches and the filler did not feather well and telegraphed thru the primer. I ended up resanding all the primer and filler off the panel and starting over with the glazing putty (also an Evercoat product). I metalfinish all my body work until it needs < 1/8" skim to smooth.

 

Yes the ''bondo'' of yesterdays was good stuff --but black magic/and white diamond was my favorite. I was taught to use lead in the 70s when all the rage was body filler and the old-school teachers I had said-to heck with them,but I grew to have to use alot of putty in my days. Today the Evercoat co.gets alot of my bondo money!!!
I have seen vehicles with 3 and 4'' of black magic and held up for 15 yrs. I know today with glass-beading/epoxies/por15 type products and the Evercoat glazes --the finishes hold up and we treat our projects like our babies.
Axracer---You being a jeweler must be a perfection in everything-especially bodywork!!!I am amazed you are a great FTE asset and a good wealth of info..--REMEMBER LEAD!!!!!haha!!!!---Bill

 

Yes, White Diamond is what I used back in the day! Forgot the name until you reminded me. I was self taught so I never got into lead, but I watched a couple of old school bodymen/customizers use the stuff.
Unfortunately I am a major perfectionist, I have to keep reminding myself I'm not creating jewelry when working on the truck or I'd be spending way too much time metalworking all the bodywork without any fillers at all. In jewelry manufacturing the solders (solder is a misnomer we are actually brazing joints) will not fill any gaps between the pieces, the dry fit needs to be light tite, so I find myself fitting pieces for welding with that type precision at times until I realize what I am doing... DUH!