Well said, Steve.
John
>Use of screen as a backing for bondo is one of the abuses of the product
>> that gave it such a bad reputation. Bondo is not a structural material.
>> The screen is used to prevent the bondo from falling thru the hole until
>it
>> dries. The resulting repair is GUARANTEED TO FAIL.
>
>The screen backing was my contribution to answering the original question,
>so I guess I'll have to respond to this. NOT NECESSARILY SO. I repaired
>the infamous holes in the A-post panels on my Midget this way over 10 years
>ago, and they are still sound. The length of time that this type of repair
>will last depends on how well you prepare the surfaces, as with any other
>repair technique. I agree that Bondo has got a bad reputation because it
>is fairly easy to use it to mask serious problems so as to unload them on
>an unsuspecting victim. However, I would like to go back to Scott
>Gardner's original question about this: How do you repair a rust hole in a
>blind area? I note that whenever a question like this comes up, a lot of
>folks jump in with advice to seek professional help, or replace the entire
>panel as beyond salvage, or go immediately to a MIG welded patch, or
>leading. That would be O.K. if no one had to worry about the cost of the
>repair, or if no one was ever interested in learning how to do bodywork
>themselves. To anyone interested in learning the skills, there is nothing
>wrong with using Bondo to fill a rust hole. If it rusts and falls out
>again, you have learned a lesson about how not to do it next time, No
>one ever learned a skill by farming it out to someone else, and normally
>one doesn't begin learning body work by learning how to MIG weld or do lead
>loading.
>
>Steve Byers
>Havelock, NC USA
>'73 Midget GAN5UD126009G "OO NINE"
>"It is better to remain silent, and be thought a fool
>than to speak, and remove all doubt" -- Mark Twain
>
>
>----------
|