Spider Makeover

[adrians]

Before Makeover,

Dent behind headlight, dent in wheel arch, rust spots in door, mirror in the wrong location, dents along rear fender.



Rust spots in door, dents along rear fender, rear finder seams, rust in rear wheel arch.



Dents in the right hand side fender



Rust spots in the rear wheel area



Rub Back prior to respray



Rub Back prior to respray



Rear Right fender - - all thhose little dents front other drivers opening their door on your car.



Side Sills - full of leaves but no rust ! ! !



Rear Seams all cleaned out and refilled - no more cracks in the paintwork.




The After photos will updated next Tuesday.

[mdrburchette]

I know you're excited! It'll look like a brand new car. What did you fill the seams with? We filled the seams on mine twice and still had a problem with it cracking.

[adrians]

Denise,

Can't remember the name of the product, the place that doing in the work specialise in Classic Car restorations. I'll check on Tuesday and post it here.

Regards

Adrian

[manoa matt]

The best way would be with lead, like how they used to repair cars before synthetic fillers like bondo. Much higher tensile strength and remains somewhat ductile. Not too many people still doing that these days due to environmental and health reasons.

Convertible + body twist + bondo = cracks at panel seams.

[azygoustoyou]

Eastwood sells a lead free product that would do the job.
http://www.eastwood.com/ew-body-solder- ... h-dvd.html

[mdrburchette]

Are you sure that product is lead free? Brazing the seam with lead would require heating the sheet metal and I'd be afraid of panel warpage. Has anyone tried this?

[manoa matt]

It has a pretty low melting point, and takes a great amount of finesse. Not for a beginner. Older cars had thicker sheet metal and would be less prone to warp. The good thing about the spider: It's not in the center of a panel, and the 90 deg. bend in the sheet metal along the joint at each side of the seam will help a lot to keep the metal from warping.

[azygoustoyou]

I've never used the stuff. I haven't jumped on the body work yet. It's too cold out plus I've been making seat belt guides. I can't wait to hear what they used on his car to seal the seams. The Eastwood product states its lead free.

[zachmac]

The best way would be with lead, like how they used to repair cars before synthetic fillers like bondo. Much higher tensile strength and remains somewhat ductile. Not too many people still doing that these days due to environmental and health reasons.

Convertible + body twist + bondo = cracks at panel seams.

ron
I'm no body work expert but "bondo" has come a long way. It is now a plastic filling material that bears absolutley no resembalnce to the crap of my youth. It is very flexible, easy to work and cures extremely strong when properly applied. Professional shops, using modern tools techniques and methods, can match or better most factory work. BTW, when they ding a panel in production at the factory they use filler and repaint. Your new car may have some!

Lead work is pretty much a lost art other than on extremely high end restoration work, Ferrari, vintage Astons, etc. I had a 1962 250 GTE Ferrari that we re-worked from the sheet metal up. It was interesting to see that there was very little lead work on the driver side while the passenger side looked like a high school shop project gone bad. That was very common on the coachbuilt cars as they always had the master craftsman work the driver side and the apprentice work the passenger side. That way the driver (the presummed customer / owner) always apporached the car from the "good" side. I've seen early Ferrari and Maserati bodies with 1/2 to 3/4 inch variance in panels from side to side. Handbuilt wasn't all it' was cracked up to be!

[rlux4]

Hey! Why do I keep getting the credit for someone else's quote? First Mbouse, now Matt.
Could it be that I do say things that a lot of people disagree with?
Nah. Couldn't be that.
Ron

[radiopilot]

Ron... I use Dyna-Weld on my aircraft in the seams and it works great - snow or shine 24/7. I also used it to seal the panels on my car and my son's to prevent water from getting in.

http://autobodystore.net/Merchant2/merc ... ry_Code=FM

Nick

[MNspiderman]

If your leading then you should be using an iron for leading. Thats how they lead. At least thats one way.

[azygoustoyou]

Are you saying Dyna weld is what we could use in the seams of our cars even though they aren't plastic?

[htchevyii]

I would think if it says metal to fiberglass that it would also work for metal/metal. 3M Automix (formerly Duramix) epoxy seam sealers are very good.
http://www.levineautoparts.com/3m08310.html

[adrians]

OK - details

The manager said they use an very expensive 'epoxy seam sealer'.