OK, so 17 year old with no extra money, still in high school with no job. I love my car to death but cant afford to pay anyone to do anything. So I came up with this. I just did this today and Im actually happy with the results.

STEP 1
Start by removing your inner fender wall


STEP 2
Undo this thing, I have a power antenna so i dont know about the regular ones. This black thing just turns like a bolt.


STEP 3
Heres the power antenna, its held in by 2 bolts in the fender. I simply undid them and cut the wires, taped them up and hid them.


STEP 4
I started sanding with 180 grit to get down to the bare metal. Then finnished with 220


STEP 5
Mix some bondo yes thats a cd cover, i had nothing else


STEP 6
Put it on, I put a peice of tape across so the bondo would not fall through, then sand it down till its smooth finnishing with 400 grit


STEP 7
Paint and admire :lala:



I got the wrong paint, its a bit to yellowish so Im going tommorow to get better stuff

And thats all, Im really happy with the results, I think it looks great

 

Awesome! I should do that to my antenna. How did you say that top thing comes out? it just unsccrews? hmm..

I should do that, and at the same time paint my bumper. It's royally f'ed up. Paint keeps chipping off..

edit: I just remembered.. On my 87 I considered shaving the antenna and mounting a power antenna on the rear qtr panel, angled back. Think that would look good?

 

yeah dude it just turns, i just put vice grips on it and away it went

 

Hm. I will have to try that soon.. Just have to get some matching paint..

 

unfortunatley i got mine at canadian tire...thier "exact match paint" is that yellow i used to cover the bondo

 

loooks good 83

 

but it will look better when I get the right paint

 

nice job:hail:

 

thanks kretos :lala:
i dunno man, personally i woud just get rid of it all together, i still get good radio out here just as well as when i was in calgary

 

well how does it look up close...pictures tell a different story...

i did **** load of bondo work on my old toyota no matter how i rattle canned it or smoothed it out...it still looked like *** within 5 feet away.

It does look nice and smooth and im sure it will look unoticeable with the matching paint but upclose could you tell?

 

i would have at least laid a lil fibre glass behind it or used duraglass insead of bondo. the fender flex and with out proper reinforcment the bondo will crack. best thing to do would b weld the hole closed and skin with bondo. but hey it looks good and you did it on a buget. nothin wrong with makin ur car look killer for cheap.
matt

 

oh ya and i give you credit at 17 cause on a limited budget stuff is hard to do...thats why i resorted to bondo on my old truck

 

i hope it holds up . Give us an update after youve driven it for a while , i wants to know if it will crack or be fine.

 

HEy guys thanks for the responces, yeah the yellowish paint is noticable up close, but tommorow im getting the good stuff so i will hit you guys with an update on wed or thurs.

And yeah if it cracks or my fear...flys off while driving, I will let you guys know. Remeber this is just temporary until Im out of school and get a job so then I can get the car painted and that hole welded up

edit: i did this in an hour and 15

 

:werd: cant wait until you get the right paint!!

 

BONDO? HOW DARE YOU

 

:werd: lol yeah tommorow man then see how it stands up to a pressure washer

Project - perhaps you didnt read the first line of the thread. did you want me to go buy a welder and do it properly?

 

There is nothing wrong with bondo if it's used right and not abused...especially with custom work. About 95% of todays cars have some type of body filler in them from the factory...

 

im going to sahve mines off to but my uncle has a body shop so i will weld a peice of metal around the area but it will look the same

 

Nothing wrong with bondo. You just have to use it and apply it right. If you look into custom rods with alot of frenching, chopping, etc you'll see them go through a few gal. cans of body filler.

My dad was a body man for many years (even put on the bondo cans for the last 10 years or so, but now they changed the picture on the cans)

You need the spot sanded down to bare metal atleast 3-5 times bigger than the spot your fixing.

Apply the bondo in thin coats, sanding each time, when you apply it, Put it over the spot and atleast 3 times bigger than the spot, use your spreader to thin and blend the filler towards the outter ends that dont need filler.

Go back and sand it smooth. Your hands is your best tools. Feel it, rub it, Once you done it a few times you'll get where you wont even look you'll just feel for the finished blend. Eyes can play tricks on you, your touch cant.

You'll never get it filled in right with 1 coat of filler. If you did, then you better count on it cracking or falling out, and i'll bet money on that!

Most small dings will need 2-3 thin coats of filler to keep it from cracking easy.

apply, feather with spreader, sand smooth, apply, sand, apply, sand, Now it's time to block it. On this last step never use an un backed or power sander. You a sanding block with the paper on it, when you sand, feather and blend the edeges of the bondo into the rest of the car, and made sure you sand flat on the ding/dent/hole.

 

you're kidding, right?!?! you can't bridge a hole with bondo and expect it to stay long. If you want to do it cheap and do it yourself, this is what I would do:

1- cut piece of sheet metal to cover the hole from underneath
2- use an epoxy like JB Weld to attach sheet metal to inside of fender
3- sand around the outside of the hole like you already did
4- use 2 or 3 skim coats of bondo over the top
5- sand smooth
6- prime
7- paint base coat
8- paint clear coat

This will last much longer than the bondo bridge that will soon crack and fall out. I admire your drive to customize and improve your car, i just wanted to offer advice to make it last longer.

the biggest problem still present with this methos is that the clearcoat will eventually peel. the clearcoat should be applied to the entire panel at once rather than in a small section.

 

lookin good man:hail:
now should i do this or fix my power antenna...:shrug:

 

83 where the pics man?? i thought you were gonna get the correct paint

 

Okay i got the right paint and WOW what a difference. I will get pics up soon. cant even notice it anymore, so much cleaner of a look.

 

I know man, I have taken 3 years autobody in school and it has taught me every thing i know. But i pretty much did all of that but I didnt feel like typing every single ation i did. It took 2 thin layers though.

 

Canadian tire spray paint? bah, Canadian tire *****!

Now that's showin' 'em how it's done

but yea, I think when I do that i'm going to weld, or JB weld, or fiberglass... but since I now have a stick welder, it may work.. ?
geez, you did that, and got it to set now, lemme guess, since it warmed up to 5*??? bondo set in that?
(heated garage?)
yea, lets see what the proper paint looks like....
and where did you get the proper paint from? for future reference, Sams?

 

Welcome to the "Shaved antenna club," I'll be your host!

Looks pretty good man, I welded mine shut, but I had to borrow my uncle's welder at the time. As long as you're not expecting that to last forever, I'd say it looks good.

 

Canadian tire *****? LOL but nah man, I dont have a heated garage so I used a blow dryer (this one gets hot hot hot) and thats how i cured the bondo and paint. But yeah the new paint looks great, pics tommorow for sure, and the new paint was from crappy ruber aswell, but GM ghost white...matched PERFECT:lala:

82Firebird - thanx man, but yeah I didnt have a welder at my disposal so I just did this as a temporary fix. Until i get it painted then im gonna weld it shut

 

i would take a piece of scrap metal and put it underneath the hole. you can either spot weld it or do what i did for my spoiler holes...duct tape them in place...lol! i know, i can be kinda rednek sometimes, but it turned out great. i might shave my antenna tomorrow!

 

when welding it shut a quarter works very nicely. and it only costs ya 25 cents.

 

As promissed the pic with the new paint on it



the paint was very clearish so it could use a few more coats

 

it looks real nice

 

man thats soo hot!!!! :hail:

 

and a 16 year old with money, way of doing it

 

be gone

 

i still wanna see how long it holds up .

 

thanx for the comments doods, but yeah I drive the highway everyday, and go through residential with all the bumpy roads cause of the snow, and man its still holding strong...im very happy with it

 

i still dont think it was right to bondo that, why not cut out a piece of metal and go to a body shop. I dont think they would charge you more then 15 bucks to drop a couple of welds would probably take em all of 3 minutes, then if needed a tiny bit of bondo to smooth it out and paint on that

 

Who cares, like i said 100 times, TEMPORARY and easy fix for the short period of time that Its gonna be there

 

I welded my hole up! Was woried about the possible cracking with only bondo! Hope it lasts! Good initiative to get it done! Good pics to! I wish I had gotten more of mine when we did the job! There is always next time!

 

Thanx. But yeah as long as it holds for a few more months Im good. Actually if i wanted when school starts back up I can go into autobody and do it. Even if it does crack, it didnt cost me anything and I could do it again if I wanted......but i hope for the best

And i have already had a few compliments about it, from friends and strangers.....It cool:lala:

 

If you don't have access to a welder, then cold welding a piece of sheet metal behind it is the only way to really do it cheaply then. Bondo isn't very flexible, and it will start to crack soon.

Thats just the way it is.

Good luck with it, and when it falls out, get it welded next time.

 

Cold welding? have not heard of that... sorry could you explain?

 

An epoxy. JB Weld, or similar body adhesives would work. Not the best way, but much better than simply filling it in with bondo.

JB Weld, or any bonding agent is really just cold welding.

 

i agree, something that cost 3 dollars would have helped... jb weld

 

Oh, sort of like wiping acetone on plastics to bond 'em?

 

so far so good, its holding awsome... and i have been on some brutal roads