The 1947 - Present Chevrolet & GMC Truck Message Board Network - View Single Post

e015475 · 11-02-2017, 08:14 AM

It seems like doing metalwork follows the 80-20 rule like a lot of other things - you'll spend 80% of your time getting the dent to move the last 20% into contour.

For all but a few that have the time/money to throw at metal finishing a panel, bondo is a necessary evil- it's just a matter of degrees. Do you want 1/4" of filler or something as thick as a piece of paper?

If I'm really ambitious I'll work it until the remaining imperfection can be covered with featherfill (which is really just bondo you can spray from a primer gun), but I usually stop when a skim coat of bondo (maybe with a little resin honey to smooth it out) will cover my sins.

The OP's work looked pretty good to me. He probably fell into the same trap that I did when I first attempted it - you weld it up and when you're done it looks worse than when you started. Took me a while to figure out that cutting the old piece out and welding a new one in is the easy part and most of your time is spend undoing the damage you caused with weld shrinkage. The lesson learned for me was to do everything possible to minimize shrinkage because that takes work out of the back-end of the process and ultimately saves you time.

11-02-2017, 08:14 AM	#9
e015475 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: Show Low, Arizona Posts: 762	Re: Body work advice needed It seems like doing metalwork follows the 80-20 rule like a lot of other things - you'll spend 80% of your time getting the dent to move the last 20% into contour. For all but a few that have the time/money to throw at metal finishing a panel, bondo is a necessary evil- it's just a matter of degrees. Do you want 1/4" of filler or something as thick as a piece of paper? If I'm really ambitious I'll work it until the remaining imperfection can be covered with featherfill (which is really just bondo you can spray from a primer gun), but I usually stop when a skim coat of bondo (maybe with a little resin honey to smooth it out) will cover my sins. The OP's work looked pretty good to me. He probably fell into the same trap that I did when I first attempted it - you weld it up and when you're done it looks worse than when you started. Took me a while to figure out that cutting the old piece out and welding a new one in is the easy part and most of your time is spend undoing the damage you caused with weld shrinkage. The lesson learned for me was to do everything possible to minimize shrinkage because that takes work out of the back-end of the process and ultimately saves you time.