So I'm going to be selling one of my cars soon, the driver car, but it looks like crap. It's rusted, has a couple dents and a really bad paint job. I want to get it looking okay so I can sell it.
I have an extra set of fenders that are clean and straight, as my fenders are rusted in spots. I have a new front bumper 'cause it's cracked, and I have new doors, as mine have rust on them.
My dad is saying just to get someone to bondo it and forget about it, as trying to line up fenders is super duper time consuming. And he's one of those guys who if you don't do it his way, it's wrong.

 

id suggest replacing...

i hate bondo...the **** sucks, if u bondo over rust its gonna come back...

my old truck was half bondo but still looked better then just rust, that and being a big money saver then having the job done right.

 

well if you plan on sellin it i would bondo it and primer the whole car... or replace the finders and line it all up and then primer and get a little more money.. but i would just do it the right way and get rid of all the extra stuff you have lying around. the doors are going to be the worst. but take off the finders when you do this since you are going to replace it anyways the bolts to the doors are hard enough to get to when the finders are on.


T

(i work part time in a body shop while i go to school)

 

personally if you just bondo the car up I think you are screwing the buyer. my car had a bit of bondo in it when I got it and it made it more expensive to repair the correct way not to mention making me feel a bit lied to. I say sell it as is with the replacement parts as part of the deal, or fix it the correct way but please don't screw someone by just hiding the problem from them

 

replacing is by far the more easier of the two but it also comes with a price. bondo has a cheap 15.00 a gallon tag but takes more work to do.

 

Yeah I know what you mean about doing it right, to sell it. But I just want it to look decent, and I'm not going to try and pass it off as a super nice car. I'm gonna sell it cheap, and it's most likely going to be sold to a fellow teen looking for a cool car, that's just the idea I have in my head hehe. Just maybe bondo it, and get a super cheap paint job, so it's all one color and presentable
It seems like to go and switch everything out wouldn't be too time/cost effective, for me.


And on that note, is it usually wise to get the body work and paint it before selling it, or would it be more effective to sell it as is and let them do what they want?

 

if you have the parts, i'd do it right. namely because if I bought the car and later found out that it had tons of bondo in it, i would be livid.

 

if you already have the parts.....then just do it right.

 

I would always repair over replacement, but I work at a body shop and realize how important it is to be done right. If you don't have a lot of exp... take it to a pro. The best way to fix rust holes (with out welding ) is to sandblast or hand sand ALL the rust you can't leave any. Then use Bondoglass.

 

I would always repair over replacement...If u were talking about quters yeah.(maybe) but not rusted out fenders or doors. Around here u can get fenders for about 20 bucks from the bone yard and doors for about 30. Only right way to fix rust is to cut it out and weld new metal in. Don't F the guy thas going to buy it. Let him decide on how to fix it. U are going to fix all the rust and paint it are u going to get what u put into it verse just selling it like it is. And save the guy that buys it a few bucks. On haveing to do extra work.

 

Thank *** for my peeling clearcoat...

At least I know its the crappy factory paint job and it doesn't have any bondo

 

If you've got the parts on hand anyway, replacing them will be way faster. Two, maybe 3 hours for the fenders, depending on conditions (I did one in 2 hours in the rain after work one evening) It'll take less time to bolt the new fenders on and get them close enough for government work, than it will to do all of the filling and sanding.

I wonder, for the doors, If you just took out the hinge pins, and left half of the hinge bolted to the car, and do likewise on the new doors, would you have to re-allign the doors?
Just thinking out loud...

 

if you have solid parts deff replace them, your not dealing with aftermarket crap! the parts will all line up fine you might need to make minor adjustments but in the long run you will thank your self for keeping yourself clean and not even dealing with all the work in bondo. and yes think about the next guy

 

I"d suggest replacing the panels. BUT.. you better make sure your replacement panels are strait and dont need just as much bondo as the ones they are replacing.

I replaced mine with some used ones and the little imperfections really show after a new paint job. If you have the money get brand new fenders and/or door panels and a hood.

 

yes, tis true so you might have to get a little dirty but either or if its rust damage replace it, if your good at body fix it, if you got some money buy some new ones. just get good aftermarket dont get the cheapest one's.

 

Bondo is the probably one of the largest cons in the automotive world. Anything that has more than a couple grams of bondo in it needs to really be inspected. I didnt realize that my formula had been previosely hit because some guy just bodoed a whole bunch of stuff up and repainted. After driving for a while, I noticed some terrible noises coming from everywhere. Long story short, unless your filling in a drill bit size hole, I wouldn't reccommend using it

 

U should not even use filler to fill in any size hole. Weld it first.