Body Filler Question

[Denis Goyette]

The plan calls for bondo Catalysed auto body filler.The store i went to have a brand with fiberglass in it , anyone of you tried it before?Is any type of body filler good?

Here are my option - Bondo Glass ???

- Bondo Plastic Filler (tack free 15-20 minutes)

- Bondo Hair Fiberglass reinforced long strain

They are all roughly the same price 5-10 $ difference

I am puzzled :?

Thanks Denis

[Frank Hagan]

The hairy Bondo is good for filling large cavities, but for the type of small imperfection filling you will be doing, the regular old smooth Bondo is best. The hairy Bondo is really hairy ... thick and not really manageable for use as a "fairing compound" where you are covering small imperfections and smoothing things out.

The Stevenson's show using Bondo to fill the weave of the cloth after the first coat of vinylester or polyester resin. I think all of us using epoxy have skipped that step, as we've heard Bondo won't adhere well to epoxy. We simply rolled on 4 or 5 successive coats of epoxy to fill the glass weave (at least three coats of epoxy are needed for waterproofing anyway, as its so much thinner than polyester or vinylester).

I don't know if not using Bondo with epoxy is technically correct ... but most of us didn't want to experiment with our boats! I suspect that the amount that you use to fill the weave gets "encapsulated" by the epoxy above and below it, so it won't matter. I just don't know anyone who has tested my suspicion out in the real world!

[High C]

I'm a little leery of the Bondo myself, and don't like the way it works, either. Too thick for my liking. I use it only to fill something I need to dry quickly so I can move on to another step.

I like fairing with epoxy and a little of the microballoons mixed in to the constincy of a runny milkshake. It spreads easily, I like to use a wide metal putty or sheetrock knife, fills the holes, and takes very litttle material to go a long way. Easy to sand, too. Rather than sanding it, sometimes I use my secret weapon, a cabinet scraper! It works great on flat surfaces and curved surfaces that only curve one way. Plywood only curves one way, so it's ideal. Then a little fine sanding to finish it off. Voila!