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My weekend project....*pics*


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So i finally got around to shaving the rear end this weekend.

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Decided to go with fiberglass behind the holes.

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Filled in the holes with this fun stuff.

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First layer/attempt

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Second layer and dry....gettin there.

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Sanded it then smoothed it out with this.

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All sanded and smooth :D

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Still need to add another thin layer cause of some lows i can still feel. But i'm pretty pleased with how its turned out so far.

Anyway, this whole thing is a learning experience right? haha.

If any of you body shop guys are just cringing in your seat right now, please let me know what i should have done right. thanks!

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AHH!!!!! Bondo!!! Big NO NO!!

 

The fiberglass from Bondo is ok as it's waterproof.. but the filler is not. You will have an absolute nightmare of the next 2-4 years depending on the humidity and how much it rains where you live. The bondo will absorb any moisture.. it will slowly expand, peel off from the body, caust rust behind in the crevice.. bubble your paint with water bubbles... oh it's just nasty... Sorry to be a downer here... best thing to do is seal it up REALLY well and you might get lucky.

 

-Ed

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Yep, I had custom body work done on my 180sx. I told them to use as much steel as possible in every way. They got it to 98%, and then slapped some bondo in two places. Those two spots bulged after about a year, and after a couple years when I repainted the car... the painter was pissed at the rusty mess he found behind the filler.

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Globe, the work you did looks good. However, next time I would go to an auto paint supply store and get professional quality materials. There's nothing wrong with using fiberglass resin to fill the holes and body filler for a skim but like others have said the Bondo filler is not that great.

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ooops lol. well so i should have just only used the fiberglass reinforced stuff? o well. Im gonna get some rattle can primer and try to seal it off as best i can tonight. Only reason i didn't go metal like i would have liked, is cause i really don't know what im doin with welding. and didn't wanna screw it up. I hope this will hold for a little while atleast, as there really isn't much of the filler there, most of it got sanded off. Anyway, like i said, live and learn eh?

 

oh yea...i live in Bellingham, Washington. Rain capital of north america :(

 

anything else i can do at this point to prevent it from giving me more headaches than i need in the future?

 

EDIT: just a thought...what if i painted some of the fiberglass resin over it once i'm all done?? will that help seal it off?

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2 problems I see (not to bag on you, but rather some constructive comments): (apart from the valid concerns mentioned above)

1. That part of the car flexes and vibrates a lot. That method you used WILL crack and break.

2. There are still a lot of high and low spots that will show up when you paint. After skimming the filler, you should have just barely broken through to bare metal so that the filler has a very good feathering. You should use a hammer with a pointed tip to knock down the high spots, re-skim and re-sand..

 

Good luck.

Tim

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Yes, the resin over the top would help, however then you have to sand the resin down somehow.. kinda eliminates the point. Even doing that will only prolong it.. not fix the problem. I learned this first hand the hard way. Using body fillers as mentioned is ok... just be sure to use either professional grade or boat (marine) quality products. About 90% of marine products are waterproof for obvious reasons. That is what i use now, they cost more... but they last. I'd say depending on how much you drive that car in the rain... in about a year.. your gonna be able to pick at it with a screwdriver and pop out chunks of bondo.

 

Try to get a better paint to seal it instead of rattle can... that will help.

 

-Ed

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thanks guys! this is great stuff to know for future...too bad i can't do too much too it now except for re skimming it, which i think i will do. The rattle can idea is just to keep it sealed until it goes to paint in about a week. I'll just have to see how the real paint keeps it sealed.

 

should i go and get some marine stuff and re-skim it with that? or just work with what i've got here and hope for the best?

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Guest TegRacer324

Just out of curiousity how are you actually supposed to shave the back? Are you supposed to actually cut steel to the size of the wholes and weld them from the back? or can you just weld square plates and fill the other side with something besides bondo?

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Just out of curiousity how are you actually supposed to shave the back? Are you supposed to actually cut steel to the size of the wholes and weld them from the back? or can you just weld square plates and fill the other side with something besides bondo?

 

Yup. Kinda tedious but its the best way to do it. And for body fillers use epoxy based (fiberglass resin based) body filler.

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the way me and my buddy did it was layed about 4 layers of fiberglass over the holes and the dents, then shaved the glass till it was smooth and as thin as possible, filled up the holes with fiberglass filler (waterproo) then topped it off with Icing. even if the icing soaks up water and falls off, the fiberglass filler and fiberglass will prevent the metal from rusting

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  • 2 years later...

Just out of curiosity, how is your shaved rear end doing? Its been almost a few years, enough time for the problems mentioned to show up. I'm looking at doing the same thing pretty soon, because I really want that rear bumper gone. I liked your method, as I am welderless too. I'll be doing just about everything with fiberglass/resin stacks and filler.

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AHH!!!!! Bondo!!! Big NO NO!!

 

The fiberglass from Bondo is ok as it's waterproof.. but the filler is not. You will have an absolute nightmare of the next 2-4 years depending on the humidity and how much it rains where you live. The bondo will absorb any moisture.. it will slowly expand, peel off from the body, caust rust behind in the crevice.. bubble your paint with water bubbles... oh it's just nasty... Sorry to be a downer here... best thing to do is seal it up REALLY well and you might get lucky.

 

-Ed

 

I did this last January, and the inserts started coming out by April. I'm in Seattle, lots of wetness, but it happened. I mainly wanted it to be less obvious that I was rolling around without a bumper, so it worked.

 

Looks badass man, I hope it sticks around!

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