Discussion on Official Bondo Thread within the Prop Building Workshop forum, part of the Community category; Okay, I bought some Bondo to fill the gaps in
Okay, I bought some Bondo to fill the gaps in a couple pieces. I read the can and it says to mix 1/4 tube (hardener) with 1/4 of the can contents. I've never used this stuff before and I don't want to get the proportions wrong. Would it hurt to just mix the whole can? How fast would it cure? This may be a stupid question, but I don't want to screw it up. Thanks.
Don't mix the whole can.It will harden in just a couple of minutes.What you want to do is experiment with it.Try to find a color(bondo is grey and hardener is red.The more hardener you use,the redder the mixture gets ) that dries at the rate you want .If you use too little it won't dry at all.If you use too much it will dry too quickly .It will also create heat .The more hardener you use the hotter it will get.What you want is a light pink color.Just mix a quarter size amount of bondo with a pea sized amount of hardener and mix it THOROUGHLY! See how it dries and adjust from there.Try to mach the color when you mix the batch for your prop.You don't have to be perfect.Bondo is pretty forgiving.When you learn how to use it there is nothing better!
Hope this helps.
TK/BH-1889
ay, I AGREE with pantera...do NOT mix the whole can !!!! That would make for a great story though
Bondo is not too hard of a science. You find that for a teaspoon of bondo, you could get away with with about a QUARTER of pea's worth to kick it. If you need it to kick (harden) faster, then add double the amount of red juice, but Mix THOROUGHLY until you no longer see red swirlies (or whatever color your hardener is).
Be careful, you want your bondo to harden according to your skill level at laying the good stuff down. I have been doing it for only 2 years under excellent supervision of a propmaster and even now, I still find myself messing up quite a bit ! The trick with this stuff is to layer and layer...don't think you can get it all in one shot...what happens if you think that is you will keep on sculpting and resculpting the stuff, messing it up even more than you had started. So be patient.
Anyhow the point to all of it is you want your hardener to kick at your skill level. If you are just beginning, start off really slow, very small amout of hardener to bondo to allow yourself maximal sculpting time. If you get better, the faster and more kicker you could add. On days where I have no time, I need the stuff to kick in five minutes, but then again, I its not like I am relayering a fett helmet or something, if you catch my drift.
hope that helps.
Another indicator is color of the bondo. When starting, just add enough hardener to SLIGHTLY discolor the bondo towards red (or the color of hardener that you are using) etc.
gm
Great info guys!! I've NEVER used bondo and I will need to very soon so this info is priceless!!
Thanks!!!
~Bobby
Yes, thanks! I'm SO glad I asked!
Great question BTW!
~Bobby
Just a little info on Bondo and hardener... Those pink Bondo spreaders that you get to spread Bondo are pink for a reason....Got Maul wrote:Another indicator is color of the bondo. When starting, just add enough hardener to SLIGHTLY discolor the bondo towards red (or the color of hardener that you are using) etc.
gm
Your mixed Bondo color should match the color of the spreader and then you know your hardner is perfact for no matter how much you mix up, it works everytime. Food for thought, I think it even says this on the Bondo spreader package as well.
I learned that in auto body class in school 17 years ago.....
***EDIT***
Bondo Spreader package instructions read....
"EASY MIXING.... achieving the correct color proportion of hardener to filler is easy with Bondo's color match spreader. The mixed filler ahould be the same color as the spreader. For complete mixing instructions see the can of filler."
IS THAT SO !?! I never realized that, but I guess you're right...
Luckily experience allows me to turn my stuff almost completely the color of the hardener itself...but again, as stated above, only if its a fast and relatively small job...for the jobs with layering and planing, you will want to go nice and slow...so everything is nice and even.
When filling the dent on a DP, if you used the red bondo stuff, Gap Filler believe, why does it get little pin holes in it? I've did it by doing a layer, it dried, sanded, and repeat, till I had it filled and with a nice curve. But now it's developed a few little holes. What should I do to fix this? I don't know of I wanna paint it yet due to this cause you would be able to tell there used to be a dent.
.::edit, not try to bump this just fix the title:.
ok here you go the formula
if you work with FG you have this products, and you only need to buy the plaster
You need:
1kilo of Poliester Resin
4cc of cobalt
2cc of catalyst
800gr of dehidrated plaster
mix all exectp the catalyst, and make a uniform paste, you can reserve 2 or 4 months whitout the catalyst, remember the catalist start to dry all the thing and into lil time you can get a rock, anyway with all this you can make 1800kg of putty yup, but if you need less just take off parts proportionally
Still being new, I am asking a dumb question I know most of you know. How is bondo used? Looks like it is a 2 part material. I have seen one tube that has a reddish material in it and another that has a clear liquid in it.
Does it mixup like a clay?
Is it safe to touch and apply with your fingers?
I assume it is safe to sand after it drys?
Does it also act as an adhesive or do you need to glue/epoxy first?
The reddish tube is for use with Bondo, the clear tube is used for fiberglass resin, so you only want to buy the red. Basically you get a large can of Gray puddy, kinda like a soupy clay. You mix in a very small amount of the red hardener and produce a pinkish puddy. the more hardener you mix, the faster it cures. There is usually a small spatula that's included with the kit which is the approxamate color you want for a decient working time. As far as working with your fingers, it can stick to your skin, but you usually apply it with a plastic spatula anyhowI would wear a dust mask when you sand it, it can come off pretty fast, so you want to sand lightly ..... unless you really load the stuff on
Just make sure you don't use too much hardener because it will cure way too fast and once cured it will crack and break off. At least that's my esperience with it.
Anyone have a good pic of what bondo looks like?
Here's a pic but using a blue hardener
You definitely do not want to apply it with your fingers. It says it's a skin irritant and that it can be harmful if absorbed through the skin. Definitely use some sort of spatula, or a flexible bondo applicator.
I don't think bondo's strong enough to use as a straight adhesive, especially on high-stress parts like the knee-pads and cod-piece. I'd definitely join two parts together with epoxy first, then use bondo to smooth things out.
If you want to be really safe, you should wear a dust mask while working with the grey liquid. The vapors are supposedly harmful, but I nveer epxericened any pobrlems wtihout one...
Not only is it a skin irritant but it gets pretty **** hot while hardening so that is quite irritating as well lol
the stuff "theoreticaly" isnt supposed to fill more than a 1/4 inch or so BUT ive seen people fill in 2- 3 inchs dents with it. i am also sure that after a couple of years of hitting pot holes and speed bumps that bondo fell out along time ago. :p
remember anything that you put bondo on has to be sanded rough, im talking ROUGH, like 50 grit sand paper rough. personally i have always preferred the polyester filler over bondo. it doesnt break, usually doesnt fall out, and is harder than bondo. always wear a dust mask when sanding it though this does no good for the fumes
Bondo is just to smooth over minor inperfections, its not meant to fill in 2-3 inch gapes/holes. Although I have seen bondo mixed with elmers wood glue to fill in quite a large gap, but if I where going to fill in an area that needed heavy filling I would probubly use resin and fiberglass cloth and pull the cloth apart so it is less dense then soak it into the resin and smooth it over the area to be filled, then bondo. A ~good~ car body repairman never uses over a few teaspoons of bondo per dent.
Bondo smells! I opened my can yesterday and was not prepared and was breathing normally...took in a nice full breath of Bondo fumes and had to close the can immediately since I was so ill from the smell.
If I use 200 grit sandpaper on my helmet dent (I do not have 80 grit), will the bondo stick? Same for Sintra, Do you have to grind stuff up for this bondo to stick?
cal196 wrote:
Bondo is just to smooth over minor inperfections, its not meant to fill in 2-3 inch gapes/holes. Although I have seen bondo mixed with elmers wood glue to fill in quite a large gap, but if I where going to fill in an area that needed heavy filling I would probubly use resin and fiberglass cloth and pull the cloth apart so it is less dense then soak it into the resin and smooth it over the area to be filled, then bondo. A ~good~ car body repairman never uses over a few teaspoons of bondo per dent.
Vinyl and most plastic needs to be very roughed because bondo is polyester resin and talk, and doesn't fully bond to some materials. A fiberglass piece will hold bondo very well, where a vinyl helmet won't without roughing, so the bondo has something to "grab".
also, you can mix bondo with resin and hardener to make a milky sauce to put insid eof vacuformed shells to produce a copy, like *soemone did with a kroenen vacuformed mask from hellboy
[quote]
BigaboyFett wrote:
Bondo smells! I opened my can yesterday and was not prepared and was breathing normally...took in a nice full breath of Bondo fumes and had to close the can immediately since I was so ill from the smell.
If I use 200 grit sandpaper on my helmet dent (I do not have 80 grit), will the bondo stick? Same for Sintra, Do you have to grind stuff up for this bondo to stick?
[quote]Quote:
200 grit? Oh ya, make sure you layer it. In that i mean instead of trying to fill the hole at once, apply several coates and build it up, let it dry between coats, think bondo likes to crack open and if its to thick it will never harden.
So I just bought some Bondo to play around with and get used to before my 95DP comes in. I noticed today mine was red whereas most of the props-in-progress I've seen online has has more of an off-white color. Did I get the wrong one?
All the bondo I've ever worked with was grey, the hardener is a dark red and when you mix the two together it turns a pinkish color.
You probably bought this;
That's what I used on my fett bucket. No mess no fuss.
really cuts down on air bubles & dries really fast.
The bondo spot putty is not suitable for large, thick areas like the dent. It's designed for things like pits and scratches, sorta like spackle is used in drywalling.
Soooo... Do I go get another type? How does this work with the other kinds?
judz dwedd wrote:
The bondo spot putty is not suitable for large, thick areas like the dent.
how long does Bondo last?
Before I bought a new can of Bondo the old Bondo was looking bad. I had the old can for over a year.
Thanks.
For thicker build-up areas, get bondo AUTOBODY FILLER in a can.
hhmmmm..Do you mean shelf life? Well if you opened it a year ago well its not good to keep it that long without use. Another issue could be if the Bondo was placed at room temperature all this time or not.Temperauture is very important.
The kind of bondo you want to get comes in a 2 part mixture.
Usually in a quart-sized can with a small tube attached.
The can is the main part of the bondo and the tube is the hardener. You MUST mix the two together. Too little hardener it'll take forever OR it'll never dry, too much hardener and it'll dry before it's mixed.
I usually use about a golf ball size amount of the main bondo (the grey stuff) and mix it with about a one inch (25.4mm) line of hardener. Mix the two thoughly so there are no swirls and it is one soid color overall.
Hope that helps. PM me if you have any more questions.
~Darren
Usually I have seen a can of the actual bondo lasting two years tops. This is at a constant temperature around 50-90F.
What I have seen happen alot is the hardener or catalist hardening or seperating. But you can buy new tubes...hoever think about this. IF you are workin on a $150 bucket would you want to chance putting bondo that won't cure on it? OR spend the extra $10-$15 to get a new can?
~Darren
I've had cans lying around, and I try to use it after a year and most of the time the part in the can has seperated and has become clumpy. Even trying to mix it doesn't help, like Prymer13 said, you might as well as just buy a new can
I second!
No! No!
I third that!
Git' uh new can man!
You would be crazy to use the old stuff..Spend the money and buy new stuff. Take it from me I just did my rifle with some bondo that was pushing the age in a can. It took well but I wont take that chance again.
Wow. Thanks guys.
shelf life
METALLBOY wrote:
hhmmmm..Do you mean shelf life? Well if you opened it a year ago well its not good to keep it that long without use. Another issue could be if the Bondo was placed at room temperature all this time or not.Temperauture is very important.
fettcicle wrote:
I've had cans lying around, and I try to use it after a year and most of the time the part in the can has seperated and has become clumpy. Even trying to mix it doesn't help, like Prymer13 said, you might as well as just buy a new can
Though I agree with fettcicle the bondo in the old can was becoming clumpy so I bought a new one.
after all... its only like what, $4-$5 bucks?
You can get one of the huge cans at Home Depot for $7.99. I just bought mine yesterday! Mmmmm, fresh!
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