BodyFiller

im about to start metal shaving on my first mini and i need to kno if i should buy reg bondo for filler or get the fiber renforced filler? the biggest hole i will be filling is my door handle. thanx for ANY help.

all i can tell you is you get what you pay for when it comes to body filler. ive used most all of them and cant find a problem with any of them. however i do prefer to use rage or rage gold. evercoat lightweight 3 is pretty good also but does tend to pinhole. as for the dynaglass, i do like it pretty well but its not a body filler as it has fiberglass hairs in it and it will leave a hairy look in the top that you have to put a light layer of regular bondo type filler over to hide. otherwise itll show thru into your primer and may even show in the basecoat. dynaglass does have some superior adhesion and water resistant properties.
take a look at what your body filler will stick to,will it stick to aluminum? glavanized? will it stick to painted surfaces? thats whats going to determine what brand you want to use. and not buying one brand because its too expensive versus the other brand, now thats just stupid. a gallon of any filler should last you quite a while unless you are turning out cars left and right or you just arent so well versed on using it. you truly get what you pay for.

first of all, dont use ANY plastic filler over your welds. Plastic filler has something called talc in it, and talc is kind of like a sponge, so if for some reason you were to get some moisture through your welds, the filler will soak it up, and then you will have rust under the filler, etc.... It is a very good idea to use a fiberglass re-inforced filler for your first coat, then use plasitc filler.
oh ya, another thing when you are doing your welding, let the welds cool naturally, dont use air or something to try to keep the metal cooler, this will ony crystalize the metal and make it brittle, eventually crack, and a lot harder to work with. just my 2 cents..hope it helps

i disagree with your statements about making it brittle and crack. if anything it might anneal it.(make it softer) i have seen cases where it seemed to become harder but thats kind of like tempering it and is pretty rare. all depends on the heat and cool down rates.
as for the not using air, well thats a yes and no answer as if you are a seasoned body man and understand the way it reacts to air cooling then you can use it where its approriate. but if your not, then yes i agree you should let it cool naturally. weld in very short spots, maybe 1/4-3/8s in at a time and allow it to cool. most trucks and cars are made of such a shitty metal now they cant take much heat at all.

first of all, annealing takes place when non heat-treatable aluminum reaches 650 degrees, so annealing does not happen with steel. second, whenever steel is heated, something called work hardening takes place, which causes the metal to become harder, and more brittle, and obviously if the metal becomes brittle enough, there is a pretty high chance of cracking. When cooling the metal too fast, the metal will always crystalize, in turn making it more brittle. have a nice day.

Originally posted by clean94ranger



first of all, annealing takes place when non heat-treatable aluminum reaches 650 degrees, so annealing does not happen with steel. second, whenever steel is heated, something called work hardening takes place, which causes the metal to become harder, and more brittle, and obviously if the metal becomes brittle enough, there is a pretty high chance of cracking. When cooling the metal too fast, the metal will always crystalize, in turn making it more brittle. have a nice day.



all i can say is you better go back to metalurgy 101. have you ever installed a new band saw blade that wasnt a pre made blade ? commercial band saw machines have a built in unit for cutting the blade from a bulk roll pack and putting it together in the correct length you need. there is a weld and anneal unit on the machine itself. its got a couple of clamps to hold the two halves of the blade, then you push a button and it welds the ends of it together. now if you know half as much as you think, youll know that welded metal is harder than non welded metal. since the blade has been welded and is now harder in that spot than the rest of the blade which is some sort of bi metal material. this is where you switch over to the anneal function and you anneal the blade in the same spot as the weld so it is closer to the hardness(or softness ) of the bi metal material. so are you telling me band saw blades are made from aluminum ? and can you define non heat treatable aluminum? can you define crystalize ?

from my experiance when my girl has been annealing there was a hardening factor once she got to asooking to completion the hardening was reduced but left plenty of filler

oh and my vote is for evercoat rage gold, if you cant afford it maybe you should keep working on bicylces untill you can do it right!

Originally posted by clean94ranger



first of all, annealing takes place when non heat-treatable aluminum reaches 650 degrees, so annealing does not happen with steel. second, whenever steel is heated, something called work hardening takes place, which causes the metal to become harder, and more brittle, and obviously if the metal becomes brittle enough, there is a pretty high chance of cracking. When cooling the metal too fast, the metal will always crystalize, in turn making it more brittle. have a nice day.

any metal can be annealed. its jsut a process of brining it above a certain temperature (a meterial specific quantity) and holding it and then cooling. then tempering, is bringing it to a temp, then quecnhing it. all you are doing is changing the shape and arragnement of the crystal structure within the material.

Like I said, "heated metal is work hardened" which is why welded metal is harder than non-welded metal. I do know that any metal can be annealed, but my point was that annealing, or permenantly softening, does not happen when you weld filler plates in for your door handles. Im not quite sure what ban saw blades have to do with shaving handles, but i do know that non heat-treatable aluminum is aluminum that is strengthened by a process of cold-forming and workhardening(without heat) vs. heat-treatable aluminum, which gets its strength from heating and cooling. Bryan already explained what crystalizing is. Hopefully this clears things up a bit.

i feel zip ties work the best. not to expensive and you can find them anywhere.