I hate body work

[Daniel Moore]

I decided that since there has to be a first time for everything, why not get a nice hands on experience with some Bondo to try to remove two dents/scratches in my rear bumper? Well, after two straight days and using up a whole $24 can of custom-mixed spray, I finally have a pretty good (not many voids) topcoat on top of body filler and primer. I had no idea it could be so frustrating So tomorrow I have to put on the lacquer/clearcoat, but I still wish I could have done a better job. I guess $24 and about that many hours isn't that bad considering the grand that I'd get stuck with if I had it done.

Is anyone here good with the stuff? I think I'll be working with it some more in the future to take out highway pitting (spot putty) and a couple of small door dings (body filler). I've been sanding the subject area with 80 grit (dry), cleaning with Prep All, mixing a golfball-sized amount of filler with 1 1/4" strip of cream hardener as per the instructions, but spreading it is the hard part. It seems like if I try to put on heavy coats I get a lot of voids, but if I put on light coats I get too many ridges. I've been using the standard rubber spatulas, and they don't seem to be too great at spreading and making good contact. After it dries, I sand it with 80 (dry) then 180 (dry) then 320 (wet) then 500 (wet). This time the final product was good. There were only maybe three noticeable voids (1/4" long, very thin) that I didn't find until after I painted and they got left there. No biggies, considering the bumper is 11 and pitted anyway. The problem is that soon I'm going to be working with the front of the hood and sides of the car where it will be more noticeable. I could really use more advice. I know I used a pretty crude grit progression, but it seems like most of the trouble is just in the spreading.

 

[shotgunner11]

I'm a fair ghetto body man, I kinda enjoy it. It never works out the way you would hope because you know every mistake you make.

If you take your time with it, it comes out ok. Do yourself a favor and ask other people to pick it apart, it makes you feel so much better when they cant tell you what you did and where.

 

[ErikD]

I had someone dent my front drivers side fender once. Nothing really major, but enough that it would rub the door and was just noticable. Basically a pain in the a$$, but not a huge deal that I would spend any money to fix. Bondo and fillers suck, you want to use them as little as possible. Instead take apart whatever needs to be taken apart to get behind the dent, and push it back out. You should be able to get it fairly close to new without to much trouble.

I pretty much totally removed my dent in the hour or so it took to remove the panel, push the dent out again, and put everything back together. Then is paint is necessary, wasn't in my case, you can touch up as needed.

 

[SIFU1A]

i hate body work too, imho it takes a special person to do it & like it, some folks do like it though.