West System Vs. Bondo

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cornbread

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Eddie
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I have since hopefully managed to salvage the disaster of my #firstworldproblem and another thin layer of epoxy filled in the cracks nicely.
 

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Jeff

New User
Jeff
I will try and post a pic of my epic failure.

Please post more than one pic for a better overall look at what you're trying to do and why you're considering it to be an "epic failure". Don't be too hard on yourself and don't simply write off the attempt as a failure; that's premature and it may yet be salvageable.

First quart disappeared so quickly due to apparent knots being bigger internally than they appeared.

What the ...? The West 105/206 epoxy mixture is slightly more viscous than water so it'll run through a void area like a sieve. Is that what happened? The epoxy can be thickened with West 403 Microfibers to change the consistency range from something like catsup, mayonnaise, or peanut butter.

http://www.westsystem.com/ss/adding-fillers/

http://www.westsystem.com/ss/assets/HowTo-Publications/User Manual 2015.pdf

Fred P suggested adding walnut wood sanding dust to the epoxy to make it look like a natural walnut knot. That also hides bubbles in the mix after it cures.
 

Touchwood

New User
Don
I've used West System epoxy for years on my rockers...typically for the butt joints of legs to rockers and arm rests to back. Same 105 Resin,but 205 Fast Hardener. If your simply mixing the resin/hardener with no filler it will be very liquid and soak into the wood. I would just paint that mixture on the wood...dont need to use a lot. Then take the remaining mixture and add their 404 High Density Adhesive Filler and the 406 Colloidal Silica Adhesive Filler.
If you get on their website they give detailed instructions on filler amounts to get the consistency you want. I usually use something like the consistency of mayonnaise. Here's a pretty complete guide on fillers.
http://www.westsystem.com/ss/fillers-and-additives/
I also do as Fred said..mix in enough sanding dust from the species your working to get a decent color match,
Good luck
Don
 

cyclopentadiene

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Perhaps I am behind the times. I used bondo to repair bodywork on my first car when I was 16 years old. I had the car painted and it looked great for about a year. Then, the rust came back and the places where I filled dents started to crack and some material fell out. I was a poor and dumb 16 year old doing the best I could. Later in life I realized bondo was considered a poor way to repair body damage by those that do body repair for a living. Have they improved their product since the 1980's or is it the same stuff?
 

AllanD

Allan
Corporate Member
Judicious use of auto body filler is fine. Trouble is it can be overused in place of good metal working. I did the same thing many years ago when all I had was a slide hammer and a can of Bondo. There are tons of videos and instructions online now on how to do acceptable body work. Now I use hammer and dolly among other things, prime the bare metal with epoxy primer and use a very thin coat of filler.
I also have used Bondo with woodworking with some success. For instance a few years ago I stripped and repaired an old waterfall chest of drawers. The veneer on the waterfall top was in good shape and beautiful but the veneer on the drawer fronts was missing from many areas. I filled the voids on the drawers with body filler and painted them while staining the rest of the chest. It came out great and is still in one of our rental houses.
 

JimD

Jim
Senior User
My first car was a 1966 mustang that the original owner had creased almost the whole length along both sides. It has other areas of damage too. Where there was rust, I took off what I could and used a neutralizer. Bondo smoothed it up and then it was painted (I didn't do that). It held together for several years while I was in college. Bondo over rust is not going to work. Bondo over metal, if it isn't too thick, holds together fine. If you watch any of the car shows on TV you can see people putting thin bondo on cars that cost as much as a house. It is not a bad thing but it can be used improperly, like a lot of techniques.
 
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