My computer shouldn't allow me to send a letter without a topic, but it did,
anyway:
Why I like lead over Bondo... Bondo catalyst is a fume that eats brains.
Lead dust is a particle that also does nasty things. Fumes are more difficult
to filter out than particles... particles are larger. That is one reason I
like lead.
Another reason is that lead seems more forgiving to me. I once really
screwed something up with Bondo... and removing the excess and the rest of
the mistake was nigh on impossible. With lead you just heat it up with a
torch and all your mistakes melt away giving you a second chance on that body
panel.
Lead has more a professional image. Being able to say that a car was lead-
loaded as opposed to plastic-patched is a good selling point on an otherwise
amateur restoration!
When a car with Bondo is hit, the Bondo cracks and falls out. Lead dents.
To re-repair a Bondo patch is much more difficult than re-repairing a lead
repair.
High wear parts on cars, like the door edge, just aren't suitible for
Bondo. Bondo is brittle, and chips off easily in high contact situations. On
a door for example, I am going to be opening and slamming that door daily.
You can literally shake the Bondo right off sometimes. If Bondo is ever put
on the edge of something, you will find that even with properly prepared
surfaces, Bondo can peel right off. If your car has a flimsy bonnet or boot
lid, like my car, the natural twisting of opening and closing can pop the
Bondo right out!
Why is Bondo the industry standard? Industrial size body shop containers
of it are DIRT CHEAP. Lead bars are very expensive, as well as tinning butter
and all that other stuff you need. (Hence the original post, who sells these
supplies cheaper than Eastwood??) Also, Bondo requires no real skill to make
it look right. Glop it on, sand it off?? The tools, plastic putty knife, are
cheap. Lead working tools, like maple paddles and propane torches and what
not are more expensive.
Why I want lead? When you "restore" a car you try to make it as original as
possible, and a 1950's car I think deserves an 1950's repair. While not as
noticable, it seems to me like using plastic wiring in a TC that has otherwise
cloth wires. Or, it is like putting fuel injection on a MG M-Type. Sure it
works, but is it correct?
Anyone know a cheaper source than Eastwood? Everything they sell seems
double the price of what you can get elsewhere (if you can find it!)
John
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