I thought I would try and see how easy a Razor blade would take the paint off my 68 today. I scraped off a spot on the rear quarter and found a thin layer of Bondo. It was about 1/16 inch thick. I found the same on the door, top, and rear of the car? I started cusing and went to the house. The Bondo doesn't seem to get any thicker than 1/16. Under the bondo is the shiny metal. I was wondering what is up with this? I am sure the car has a fair amount of bondo in it in spots but a thin layer on the whole car? Why?I am sure this will be fun to strip. I am going to replace the rear quarters and rockers, I had hoped that would be all it needed. What fun! Any Ideas?

You could buy my '68 SS 396 with my Vette 427 engine and 4 speed. It's pretty much stripped down so you can see what you're buying. http://www.camaros.net/forum/biggrin.gif

Many people have told me about "uncovering sins" or "uncovering old skeletons" when stripping old cars. I stripped one earlier in my life and said "Never again", yet I still do it. I have a "Naked" '46 Willys CJ-2A as well. http://www.camaros.net/forum/biggrin.gif

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Rick
Everything I own is for sale. What were you looking for?

It might be a sealer and not bondo.

Some people put a lite skim coat of bondo over the whole car to get it as straight as possible. Street rodders do this alot, as long as it was put on correctly and not too thick it should not hurt anything just make it straight.

Hah. 1/16 of an inch is nothing! Last November I had a 68 that had at least 1/4 inch of bondo on both quarters and on the right fender. After seeing what was underneath I decided to sell the car.

I don't want to be an alarmist, but...
Several years ago a company by the name of Evercoat produced a product that was sprayed on. It was used to block sand and get the body straight if the car had several areas that required work. This product was more like a very thick primer as opposed to plactic filler and sanded more like primer.
Typically, it was about 1/16" thick after blocking (except on high spots).
Frankly, professional painters looked on this material with disgust and viewed it as something that would be used by an amature only, but, if this is the material that you have on your car, and the paint has lived without any undue problems, maybe it wasn't as bad as we thought.

Evercoats primer is called "polyester" primer and is as Toby said a "sprayable Bondo". It is a good product and is actually made and distributed my a number of manufactures like PCL and Evercoat still. You will find it in the VOC regulated areas more because of it's low VOC content.

I find that it works great, it will not replace urethane primer, but when you need it YOU REALLY NEED IT. It will last as well as that scim coat of plastic filler (bondo) the "pro" that bit**ed about polyester primer applyed anyway!

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Fan of anything that is interesting and moves human beings.
1965 Buick Gran Sport Convertible
1965 Buick Skylark H/T
1948 Chevy PU with 401 Buick

Toby & MARTINSR,
I think you may have something with the "Polyester Primer" idea. I have scraped several small places all over the car today and it seems as if this stuff is all over the hole car. Maybe it is not as bad as I had first thought. I know the front fenders are bondo free and the hood,roof,doors and trunk lid are also. Yet they still have a light coat of this stuff on them also? Under this "Polyester Primer" is solid metal. The car has 3 coats of paint on it Red, Yellow, and now Maroon. I guess if this stuff held up through 3 paint jobs it's not to bad?
QUESTION? Do you think I should just sand the car down and leave this "Polyester Primer" or should I go ahead and strip the whole car down to bare metal and start all over? I am going to replace the rear quarters and rockers. This car will be a fun daily driver for me and the family and not a show car. But I want to do it right the first time. Thanks Guys...

1/16 in. thick, thats nothing. Instead of working the metal, some people create their own plane with filler, and you end up with wall to wall plastic. For the most part, theres really nothing wrong with it either.

If your going to strip it all down, take it all the way down. Your not going to be able to strip your car and not ruin the plastic that already there. And if I remember right, that sprayable crap was called 'Eliminator', people that didnt want to take the time to work the metal used it, quick and easy.

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67 Camaro SS Conv.
70 Challenger R/T Conv.

the only thing I don't like about the idea of leaving it there is that there is no etching primer under it. Most polyester primers don't like acid etching primer and this is one draw back.

But if you find that there is good adheasion and no rust under the primer, I'd leave it.

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Fan of anything that is interesting and moves human beings.
1965 Buick Gran Sport Convertible
1965 Buick Skylark H/T
1948 Chevy PU with 401 Buick

I think I've got this stuff on my '69 as well. It has cracked on the inside of the trunk lid. At first I thought maybe the paint had been applied too thickly, but after reading this post it sounds like what I'm seeing. I checked out the Evercoat website and found this page http://www.evercoat.com/auto/eci_prim_surf.htm

Is it one of these products? If so, which one? Under the cracks I see a off-white to tan colored material, also what I estimate to be 1/16 of an inch or less. Does this sound like the same thing? The car is really straight and has a really good paint job IMO, but it still bugs me about this stuff.

I have a 68. I found the same bondo layer on my rear quarters as well. The quarters were reskinned. The bondo seems to be some kind of 'smoothing' surface. I agree that it is probably used for quick body jobs. I am going to remove it all using a combination of chemicals and d/a sanding.

i would not use chemical strippers to remove filler ,you will have a gooey mess...

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70camaroSS ground-up restification,350 slightly modified

Polyester primer comes in many different colors and you can even tint it with toner! So it's pretty hard to say what it is by the color. Sand it with some 80 grit and look close to see how porous it is. PLastic filler will have a porous look, while polyester primer will not.

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Fan of anything that is interesting and moves human beings.
1965 Buick Gran Sport Convertible
1965 Buick Skylark H/T
1948 Chevy PU with 401 Buick

68RJ,

To my knowledge, to get a car perfectly straight and blocked, bondo is almost a requirement. I don't do bodywork for a living like RAGTOPMAN but I have watched alot of guys work a body for literally hundreds of hours to get it straight. After the metal is worked out as smooth as possible, a very thin layer of bondo is placed over the entire surface area and 99% of it is literally sanded off leaving just the bondo that makes the LOW spots level with the rest of it's surrounding area. Once the body is prepared in this way then the primer is applied and it too for the most part is almost entirely sanded off further smoothing the surface to be painted. This may be done as many as three to four times. Additional "final" coat primer is then applied. All of this before a single drop of paint hits the car!!! I know in my own case over 200 hours were spent on blocking sanding and priming.




[This message has been edited by sr71bb (edited 03-14-2001).]

Want to talk about uncovering sins? look at what i found- http://members.spree.com/entertainment/ochrisl/Pict0009.jpg Brazed on half quarter skins.,with the seams beaten down and the whole panel covered with plastic!It got new quarters but these are the surprises you find when you strip a car.I think the Evercoat product was called Featherfill.

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68 camaro,hugger orange ,white stripes.327 4 speed. http://members.spree.com/entertainment/ochrisl/

[This message has been edited by ochrisl (edited 03-14-2001).]

[This message has been edited by ochrisl (edited 03-14-2001).]

I just had to add my Dos Centavos. My 68 has the same skimcoat of filler on the rear of the quarters. Scared me at first, I thought my buttercup had some major plastic surgery. But after further investigation, I found its just a little Revlon foundation on the old Covergirl. http://www.camaros.net/forum/wink.gif

ochrisl is correct, it was called Featherfill. Back in the 70's it was used in place of hard work and proper technique Maybe it got a bad name because of the hacks that used it, not the product itself. Personally, I don't know. I was taught differently and would have wound up with a knot on my head if I even considered using anything other than old school methods. Times have changed though and materials have changed as well but I still favor metal, a LITTLE plastic, primer and paint.

I don't find that using polyester primer is any different than applying that skim coat of plastic filler. They are the same product just a different means of application.

I have found polyester primer to be a great product, but it doesn't replace doing things correctly and it doesn't replace the need for urethane primer. I use it in certain situations, like the skim coat of filler, not a "magic primer".

If you are going to apply a skim coat of filler, think about how easy it is to spray that skim coat instead of spreading it. You have no ridges from the spreader to sand out, no pin holes, no trying to get that perfect uniform thickness.

I have abused it to see how far it could be pushed, and it is amazing.

On one project a buddy had a black 71 Elcamino with a few small baseball sized dents. I repaired the dents, using ONLY NEW very sharpe 36 grit Carborundom long board paper on a rubber block. (you can imagine how vicious these scratches were) I feather edged it in 120 and then applied ONE application of polyester primer in three coats.

Guide coated it and blocked with 180 then guide coated again and finish sanded with a palm DA with 400 on it. The fender was scuff gelled and painted bc/cc BLACK.

It came out great and almost a year later I saw it and closely examined only to find a little DA scratches from the 400.....NO shrinkage what so ever!

I am sold on the stuff.

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Fan of anything that is interesting and moves human beings.
1965 Buick Gran Sport Convertible
1965 Buick Skylark H/T
1948 Chevy PU with 401 Buick

MARTINSR, he must not have been a very good friend using his car as a test to see how far you could push a product! http://www.camaros.net/forum/smile.gif Personally never used the stuff, I do however use the polyester filler "metal glaze".
Austin

Justin, it was a car he was selling, he's a wholesaler. But I can make the story worse if you are an ElCamino fan.....it was an SS454. http://www.camaros.net/forum/smile.gif

And you do use polyester products all the time if you do ANY body filling or fiberglass work, ALL body filler and fiberglass products are polyester. http://www.camaros.net/forum/smile.gif

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Fan of anything that is interesting and moves human beings.
1965 Buick Gran Sport Convertible
1965 Buick Skylark H/T
1948 Chevy PU with 401 Buick

I ment I've never used the spay on "filler". SS454 tell me its not so. I've seen many auction cars that have been done to look good for a while....and thats about how long they looked good. http://www.camaros.net/forum/rolleyes.gif
Austin

Justin, like I say, he ended up keepig it for about a year and it still looked good. But you are right, those cars usually get some pretty bad "repairs".

That is not my usual work. But when I get the chance I like to experiment. http://www.camaros.net/forum/eek.gif

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Fan of anything that is interesting and moves human beings.
1965 Buick Gran Sport Convertible
1965 Buick Skylark H/T
1948 Chevy PU with 401 Buick

Who's Justin?
Austin

I recently used a ppg product called omni high build (i cant remember the exact name) it is their attempt at producing a cheaper version of k36 I found it to be a great cheap substitute. And easier to sand. and less than one half the price of K36. since we are talkin high build primers here had to throw it in

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Its spelled camaro..... CAMARO..see, no e in camaro... what the hell is a camero anyway Camaro: french for friend

Austin, Austin, sorry http://www.camaros.net/forum/redface.gif

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Fan of anything that is interesting and moves human beings.
1965 Buick Gran Sport Convertible
1965 Buick Skylark H/T
1948 Chevy PU with 401 Buick

As long as we are on the subject. What is a sanding surfacer. The stuff we carry is made by US Paint. A gallon of this stuff is pretty heavy for it's size.

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70 z/28 4sp,71 camaro hugger orange/white stripes,2000 v8 Grand cherokee.(Former Know it All)

What do they call it? Are you in a VOC regulated area (other than national rule)? The low VOC primers like Martin-Senour urethane 5104 have about 68% solids and weigh about 15lbs!! That's 5lbs more than "bondo"!

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Fan of anything that is interesting and moves human beings.
1965 Buick Gran Sport Convertible
1965 Buick Skylark H/T
1948 Chevy PU with 401 Buick

I saw them use it on Speedvision's Dream Car Garage last weekend. They shot it on, sparayed a guide coat, and blocked it with a long board. Looked pretty good, I might try it. I'm sure the show will be repeated.

It's called AWL-QUIK sanding surfacer.Pale yellow base L/F.We use this on new Gulfstream aircraft before paint.I'm located in Savannah Ga.Meets rule 102 if that means anything to you. I can get this stuff for free. That is why I'm asking. If it can be used on cars.

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70 z/28 4sp,71 camaro hugger orange/white stripes,2000 v8 Grand cherokee.(Former Know it All)