Good books on body repair (bondo)?

Haynes has a book on body work...I haven't used it, but if it's on par with the rest of their stuff, it should be good.

"Vanguard" wrote in news:gOOdnVuXg43OlxTZnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

I live in Wisconsin where they salt the roads in winter to control ice and my car budget has never been large so I'm very familiar with rust. Bondo has some real problems as a long term fix. If you just want to make it pretty so you can sell it in a hurry, go for it.

Generally by the time there are rust holes in the body it is beginning to develop structural issues that may not be apparant on casual inspection. The older Soobies I'm fond of have a multilayer welded floor pan that has no rust proofing between layers. They rust from the inside out and tend to unravel with great speed once the problem has become noticable. It's really sad when you put a lot of time and effort into the surface only to watch the wheels fall off. :-(

Later, Joe

We salt in Minnesota, too (hi, neighbor). No floor pan rusting ... yet. What I've got is a rust-through hole in the driver door (well, it's not through yet but I could punch it out with a finger), some rust where there was paint damage, about a hand-size area below the passenger door outside mirror that is bubbled (the paint is there but it looks like bubbling underneath), and a driver side front fender that definitely needs to be replaced in its entirety (because some kids poked holes in it with an ice pick) but also a bit of rust on the body around where the fender rusted away. Other than the bubbly spot under the outside mirror, none of the spots are large enough to cut out and weld in metal or use a fiberglass patch. Most are where the paint got peeled off because some rust started underneath and about the size of silver dollar. The fender I figure will have to be completely replaced so I'll have to hunt around the salvage yards for a used one in good condition. Other than the fender (and possibly the bubbly area), I don't think there is any structural damage.

Cutting out the metal and welding in new metal seems too drastic for the size of the rust spots that I'm talking about. Other than bondo, how else does one repair palm-sized, or smaller, rust spots? The fender is removable but the body is not. I am surprised at how fast the exhaust system rusted. I replaced everything back from exhaust headers (except catalytic converters) and it's all rusty. Had to use the aluminum-metal can trick to cover a hole that punched out in the pipe just ahead of the muffler (which costs $120 because a section of the exhaust pipe comes attached to the muffler, so I'm just delaying replacing the muffer-pipe section until the muffler actually goes).

My county library carries 265 of the "Haynes service and repair manual series". Alas none are for body repair. Thanks for the suggestion, anyway.

On Fri, 9 Jun 2006 13:47:19 -0500, "Vanguard" wrote:

I learned a few body repair points that I still remember while I was a GI fixing up my old VW while stationed in Germany. My buddy was a body man who grew up in Wisconsin. (There were a lot of old VWs around because the German vehicle inspection system was many times tougher than the US military overseas standards for personally owned vehicles (POVs). When the cars owned by the Germans wouln't pass the German inspection due to body/chassis damage, the locals would sell them to GI's. We had on base hobby shops with tools, welding equipment, work areas & spray booths available). He told me "Bondo" will absorb water. If you use it over a hole that can get water on it, it will eventually bubble, blister and crack. An example is the hole in the exterior door panel. Water will get INSIDE the door as it seeps in around the window gaskets. Once inside the door, it will contact the bare (innser surface) bondo where you patched. He always recommended using a fiberglass patch to seal the hole, covering a much larger area than the hole. An example: small holes along the bottom of the door panel. Power sand off the paint on the bottom of the door, and prepare a fiberglass patch to cover the entire bottom of the door. Chances are, there is more rust just beneath the surface waiting to pop through anyway. In addition, more rust will form inside the door panel in the future. Once the fiberglass is in place, sand the fiberglass to smooth, and feather the edges. Then use your bondo to further smooth the fiberglass and blend from the patch to the solid door area, feathering the edges. Don't be afraid to spread the filler over a large area. The larger the area, within reason, the easier it is to gradully feather the edge. The smoother the feather, the less noticeable the patch will be when you finish paint the car. Nothing is worse than a visible step where the bondo meets the metal. We then used a body filler that came in a tube to get rid of the super fine scratches in the bondo. This finish filler was not a 2 part - sorry, I don't remember what that was called, as it was in the 70's when I was doing this. Then paint with primer AS SOON as you finish working with the bondo. That will prevent the exposed bondo from absorbing any water and ruining your work. Then go on to the next section and spray the entire car when all the body work is primed & finished.

I think it cost me all of $14, new, a couple of years ago.

Is this the one to which you refer?

Dat be it.

If you have rust that was picked through, then Bondo will look ok for a year or two, then come back. The only way is to cut the rust out then replace the metal. Generally, the car isn't worth the time; drive it until it becomes unsafe.