Filling holes.

There are some small holes in my car that once served to mount a body kit. I've since rid myself of the body kit but the holes remain. What do I use to fill them?

I was thinking "bondo and sand", prime over then take it in to paint but some of the holes are inaccessible on the back side and I wasn't sure how that side of the bondo would do if left unprotected.

My other idea was to try my hand at a fiberglass filler of some sort (still leaving the back side unprotected).

All holes are relatively small in diameter (sub 0.20") Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Fibreglass filler works great for that sort of thing. Doesn't blow out like bondo does. Leave it a little low and skim coat a little bondo over it.

The holes are in metal? Could you get a piece of copper behind each hole and just give it a spot of weld?

New body kit!

What about the little black plastic/rubber buttons? Just shove them in and be done.

Giggity.

Yeah, the holes are in the metal but I don't think I could get copper behind them, but I did kind of consider trying to fill the holes with a tig... But the back side would still be unprotected there.

Fox: I'm not familiar with the rubber buttons. Sounds kind of flimsy though, do you have more info?

KY: hisssss! nooooooo

Where's a good place to get some chopped fibers and resin for this sort of thing? (first time at body repair. sorry)

Amazon has the materials you need. Keep in mind that chopped fiber has a binder that doesn't work with epoxy resin. Home Depot has it as well.

vinyl graphics or grm stickers?

Something like this here?

http://www.amazon.com/Bondo-420-Fiberglass-Resin-Repair/dp/B000BO9NOO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1455640775&sr=8-1&keywords=fiberglass+repair

Hungary Bill wrote: Fox: I'm not familiar with the rubber buttons. Sounds kind of flimsy though, do you have more info?

They are just little rubber or plastic plugs, very much like the plugs the manufacturers stick in the floorboards and sills and such. Ex-cop cars tend to have these in them where the light racks were bolted onto the roof and such.

They aren't pretty, but they tend to be subtle.

You can get them at virtually any auto parts store.

bridge it w/ MIG, TIG or gas.

You might want to dimple the hole so that when you sand flush you don't remove all the glass filler that protrudes from the hole.

This would also be a great application for lead if you wanted to venture down that road.

I am guessing this is a rocker panel that is being worked on. You could just use some of these clips with or without a dab of epoxy on the backside to fill the holes. You can get them without the philips head feature if that matters.

giggity.

Yup, rocker panels. But I think I'll do the dimple and fiberglass, etc. I really want this baby shiny and new

The goal:

I have seen all sorts of hole fixes in the last few years. I have seen most of them fail. Just filling the hole with filler or kitty hair is a recipe for failure.

That said I have seen large 2" holes repaired with one of these mesh pads and cheap bondo that lasted ten years and still looked good when we repaired it correctly

Our body and paint guys would use 3M panel bonding adhesive and a small patch of metal from the back side. No filler, just build up the adhesive and block it down.

Or you could try the method employed by the previous owner of the Falcon

Stick on googly eyes are a classy and permanent repair.

Dimple, apply mesh, resin with a little recess, bondo, prime, then paint?

hoo dawgies!

Thanks guys

I do it the old fashioned way. Acetylene torch and a wire coat hanger!

If you dimple and use the green "Kitty Hair" filler it wont fall out. The other option is "All Metal" filler.

The more I think about it the more I would be tempted to go with the lead solder kit from eastwood for a permanent solution

https://www.youtube.com/embed/CCrlLyXp2i4

I think if the holes were bigger, or if I had more bare metal I might give the eastwood method a go. Right now I'm thinking the kitty hair method is the way I want to move forward with.

Looking at the car today, there are a few places I'm a little worried about "dimpling". Do you think a 100 deg countersink would work in place of a dimple? Or should I even bother with it and just fill the darn hole as it is?

In looking at the holes again, they're a bit smaller than I previously thought. I'd say around 1/8in diameter tops.

Thanks!

I bet that if you don't dimple and then sand the filler flush for painting, you are going to get little 1/8" round cracks in the paint after a year or so.

By dimpling you are sandwiching the hole in the middle of two "mushroom" heads; in front where you dimpled and out back where the filler squished through the hole.

Gotcha. Well, if I'm gonna make the omelet I guess I'm just gonna have to break an egg.

Thanks.

If it wasn't a 5 hour drive I would tell you to come to Eugene and I would just weld them up properly.

I appreciate the offer, but last time I made a 5-hour drive with the Alfa it went under the wrench and never recovered. That was 4 years ago!

Ok, so if find some brave pants and bring the tig out to the garage... Carbon steel rods? Any last minute advice (besides "don't, find someone who knows what they're doing and let them do it")?

I'm probably the worlds worst tig welder, but I gotta put my big boy pants on eventually, it might as well be now.

Might wanna practice on an old body panel of similar thickness.