Looking for advice. Want to build a Duster to run on a budget.
Understand but then the argument I’ll make is don’t fix it. Doing it wrong costs twice as much in the long run and it’s better to not have to unfuck a shoddy repair.
Exactly. 100%. Spoken like someone that’s had to deal with a shoddy repair.
You suggested that someone that has never welded before should get a welder and learn,and there should be no filler in their project and if there is they are doing more harm than good. That is a compiltation of what you've been saying. I believe you also said that filler has no place in a car period.
How difficult is it to grind metal smooth enough to paint over as you are saying here ?
Stop lying. I NEVER said filler had no place on a car. Literally never said that or anything like it.
Go read every thing I’ve ever tried to tell you. Fiberglass and wire screen has no place on any car, unless
maybe if it’s a fiberglass body. Bondo that’s used to
sculpt body lines and is a 1/4” thick? Unacceptable. A skim coat to level a surface because you’re not a panel beater with an English wheel? Perfectly acceptable, and the industry standard.
And yes, if you have a rusty car that needs panel replacement and haven’t welded before, LEARN. There are welding classes at your local JC. Or just buy a welder and learn how to weld on scrap until you get the hang of it. There are TONS of how to videos, online classes you can take etc. There’s no excuse to do shoddy work, it’s just laziness. Or fraud.
While that can be an option, you have to learn how to properly use that stuff too and make sure you’ve done all the proper prep. I mean, they’ve got quarter panels flying off of cyber trucks because the factory used the wrong panel bond, so there’s more to it that slap it on and go.
I lack the skill for flawless body work. I figure if covering welded seams with some sort of filler was good enough for the factory it’s good enough for me.
Ok, so you’re talking about bodywork welds. Sure, filler is fine as long as it doesn’t get too thick, I can’t do flawless metal work either. Make sure the panels are fit well, don’t warp the crap out of the panel with too much heat, grind the weld smooth and then use some filler. Nothing wrong with that.
That's why I did a good fiberglass job . Bodywork and paint complete and no worries of it receiving any more damage.
A preservation is an alternative to a restoration . This car was more suited for a preservation and that's the route I took.
No sir. Bondo over wire mesh and backed with fiberglass is NOT a good job for quarter panel repair.
Nothing you did is preservation. What you did was make a shoddy repair that will take more time, money, effort and skill to fix than what was there already. If you can’t fix it right, you could have just wire wheeled all the rust off, painted the area with POR15 and moved on. The rust would have been stopped, the damage was cosmetic, and then someone with the skill to do it right wouldn’t have had to deal with the shoddy repair you did.