gelcoat bondo?
Thread Starter
Heel & Toe
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 19
Likes: 0
gelcoat bondo?
Has anybody used this technique before? I'd like to find some more information on it.
http://www.corvettemagazine.com/2000...y/puttypg2.asp
http://www.corvettemagazine.com/2000...y/puttypg2.asp
Pro
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 597
Likes: 0
From: Texarkana Arkansas
Ive tinkered with it. It is basically is a paste resin that chemicaly hardens with a paste instead of a chemical liquid. Personaly, I think I'll stick with the resin. I dont like bondo for most repair work, but they do make a fiberglass strand filler that is good for some fill work. Metal shops are starting to use it where bondo would be too thick to trust.
Thread Starter
Heel & Toe
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 19
Likes: 0
Sorry for asking but I cant decipher from your post what you think of it. Do u like the body filler (like the bondo stuff) or do u like the gelcoat technique? Would you recommend it? Are there any kits available with the materials to make this paste?
Thanks
Thanks
Pro
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 597
Likes: 0
From: Texarkana Arkansas
Originally Posted by vetterbetter
Sorry for asking but I cant decipher from your post what you think of it. Do u like the body filler (like the bondo stuff) or do u like the gelcoat technique? Would you recommend it? Are there any kits available with the materials to make this paste?
Thanks
Thanks
Instructor
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 179
Likes: 0
From: Burlington Ontario
Originally Posted by sam74c3
Ive tinkered with it. It is basically is a paste resin that chemicaly hardens with a paste instead of a chemical liquid. Personaly, I think I'll stick with the resin. I dont like bondo for most repair work, but they do make a fiberglass strand filler that is good for some fill work. Metal shops are starting to use it where bondo would be too thick to trust.
Currently preping my car for paint, I used fiberglass repair kit to fix a crack in my front fender. Pulled the strands apart in the cloth (several lose strands) and used a paint brush to dab the strands of fiberglass into the crack with resin.
I ground the crack out first and cleaned it up, it was not a huge crack, followed this with short strand fibergalss reinforced filler (Bondo type) followed by Bondo premimium filler for the top coat. The fiberglass reinforced filler will not sand very well, its tough stuff, thats why you need to cover with regular Bondo to get a nice smooth finish for top coat.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 8,339
Likes: 24
From: I can walk to MA
Perhaps the gelcoat paste will work fine, but I am of the mindset that
all you need for body repair is matte/resin and vette panel adhesive.
Bondo (fiber-filled or not) does NOT belong on a vette.
Use vette panel adhesive to skim over repair areas or fill small voids.
all you need for body repair is matte/resin and vette panel adhesive.
Bondo (fiber-filled or not) does NOT belong on a vette.
Use vette panel adhesive to skim over repair areas or fill small voids.
Team Owner
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 38,923
Likes: 1,481
From: Southbound
Cruise-In II Veteran
There was no factory gel-coat on Corvette body panels. It's questionable whether you actually need it. Any good quality primer/sealer will do the same thing as gel-coat without the additional expense.
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Racer
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 493
Likes: 2
From: Dunellen New Jersey
whoa whoa whoa NH Vette
Are you telling me that after I stripped all the paint off my car ,that the bondo looking substance at all the factory seams isin't factory at all?What did they fill in all the imperfections with at the factory?
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jan 2000
Posts: 8,918
Likes: 27
From: New Hill NC
The factory used a very good quality polyester material that is much like body filler. They used it for everything including minor repairs to seams and cracks. Now the micro-bubbles stuff. The same product is used in the hobby industry for shaping and filling on models. I have used it in the past with resin to make up puddy, like the article shows. It looks like he may be using it in conjunction with gel-coat which already has a lot of talc for filler. The micro-bubbles would make it very fluffy like foam. It should sand very easily. I personally prefer a little more substance to my filler than that, but it probably would work OK.
