Reply to "1905 Photos"

I'm just an amateur but I have restored several rusted mid 50's American cars. I took a local community college auto body course part time a few years back. A PPG rep gave a seminar and said to apply epoxy primer over a 36 - 80 grit rough bare metal surface and apply the filler over the epoxy primer. All fillers use a chemical reaction to cure which creates heat. The heat creates and traps moisture from the humidity. Of course Houston is an extremely high humidity area. Like thewop I've found rust under bondo that was applied directly to bare metal. Bondo and regular primers are not moisture proof. They are like a sponge and hold water. Epoxy primers are moisture proof. I also use a product called All Metal as a filler instead of bondo. It's moisture proof and sticks like stink on s---. If you get bondo on your hands, it washes off with soap and water. If you get All Metal on your hands its there for a couple days. Even lacquer thinner won't completely remove it. I do all the body work and then apply epoxy primer over the entire car before using a primer filler and wet sanding. If you apply regular primer over bare metal and then wet sand, you've put moisture on the metal surface. All Metal does have a shelf life after it's opened. It's also more expensive and about 5 times and more difficult to use. Professional body men don't like it since they make their money on time and production. I've also had good results with Gorilla Hair for certain repairs. There's a lot of time and skill to doing auto body repair correctly which is why quality auto body restoration is so expensive.

Dan