<VV> body advice

[Alan and Clare Wesson]

> no bondo

This is impossible. I have lost count of the number of times people have 
told me their restored car has 'no bondo' in it. Since the demise of lead 
loading, ALL body repairs have some bondo in them. Even the best welder will 
distort the metal slightly when he is welding the part in, and he will HAVE 
to use a thin skim of bondo to rectify it (unless, as I said, he lead loads 
it - which is not only expensive but pointless, as bondo will do the job 
fine).

My Lotus guy only does butt-welding (never welds a panel above or below the 
surface it is adjacent to, but makes it as flush as possible, usually with a 
little rebated overlap). When he has finished, I take over and finish the 
job with bondo - like every bodyshop in the world. My job is arguably more 
important than his, because it is the last 1%, not the first 99%, that makes 
the job look fantastic or awful. And the last 1% is the bondo...

> and holes replaced with metal

That's fine! What you actually mean is 'no bondo filling holes up'. That 
makes sense. Bondo should only be used for surface shaping, and not to 
replace welding.

Actually, it's fine for replacing welding, as long as you understand that it 
has a limited life span, but 'limited' if done well (all rust cut out, back 
of panel painted and waxoyled afterwards) can mean up to 30 years. I did my 
1956 Ford Anglia with bondo in 1976, because I had no money and couldn't 
weld. It is just getting ready to be done again (although the bits that have 
started to go rusty aren't the bits I fixed with bondo - they are the bits 
that Ford made to begin with, and which hadn't rusted in 76, but have now!).

Cheers

Alan, off out to finish bondoing a customer's car where we have welded it!