Use of screen as a backing for bondo is one of the abuses of the product
> that gave it such a bad reputation. Bondo is not a structural material.
> The screen is used to prevent the bondo from falling thru the hole until
it
> dries. The resulting repair is GUARANTEED TO FAIL.
The screen backing was my contribution to answering the original question,
so I guess I'll have to respond to this. NOT NECESSARILY SO. I repaired
the infamous holes in the A-post panels on my Midget this way over 10 years
ago, and they are still sound. The length of time that this type of repair
will last depends on how well you prepare the surfaces, as with any other
repair technique. I agree that Bondo has got a bad reputation because it
is fairly easy to use it to mask serious problems so as to unload them on
an unsuspecting victim. However, I would like to go back to Scott
Gardner's original question about this: How do you repair a rust hole in a
blind area? I note that whenever a question like this comes up, a lot of
folks jump in with advice to seek professional help, or replace the entire
panel as beyond salvage, or go immediately to a MIG welded patch, or
leading. That would be O.K. if no one had to worry about the cost of the
repair, or if no one was ever interested in learning how to do bodywork
themselves. To anyone interested in learning the skills, there is nothing
wrong with using Bondo to fill a rust hole. If it rusts and falls out
again, you have learned a lesson about how not to do it next time, No
one ever learned a skill by farming it out to someone else, and normally
one doesn't begin learning body work by learning how to MIG weld or do lead
loading.
Steve Byers
Havelock, NC USA
'73 Midget GAN5UD126009G "OO NINE"
"It is better to remain silent, and be thought a fool
than to speak, and remove all doubt" -- Mark Twain
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