Every auto body guy I've talked to does 'skimming'

[bull]

I've talked to two of my area's top notch auto body guys, and I've got 2nd hand info on a third, and all of them do the body fill skim on the entire car. I'm not necessarily opposed to it but unless they know what they're doing things can really turn out bad with cracking and such. The two I've talked to personally both have several years of experience (one has 18 yrs., the other more than 25 I believe) so I'm inclined to think it's ok but I'm a little leery nontheless. The one with 18 yrs in told me he uses a product called Platinum, maybe a glorified form of Bondo, I don't know. What do you guys think of this skimming business? Is it a recent fad that will create widespread havoc in 15 years?

[Drop Top]

Skimming has been around along time. Its a fast and easy way to make the car look straight. Its for people that can't do body work or a lazy body person. I don't like to do it this way. Its "OK" if the filler dosen't get very deep. But if the body work wasn't done properly. The filler will get too thick and will eventually crack. Another problem in doing it this way is, most plastic fillers will leave small pin holes that will need to be dealt with before you can finish your car. The filler that you mentioned is a good quality filler. But in my opinion there is better out there. If I where to do a car this way. I would use a differant filler. That would leave less to no pin holes like that one will. Just because he's been doing it for 25 years or so doesn't mean it will last or the bodywork was done right. Look at one of his jobs that is, say, 6 to 10 years old and see how it has lasted. In my opinion its better to metal finish any body work the best you can. If you have any heavy fill areas. Use somthing like Metal to Metal. Get the car straight before you need the skim coat of filler. Then use blocking/filler primer to block your car to make it arrow straight. If you have some low areas after you have blocked the filler primer the first time. Then use a good quailty of plastic filler on that area only. Then reprime and block the car again. If you do it this way you will have less filler on the car when your done. Witch will mean less chance of something lifting up on you.

A side note about Bondo. Bondo is a name brand of filler. Body filler is a Polly based filler or better known as plastic filler. Many companies make plastic filler. Bondo brand is just one of those companies. Bondo brand is one of the cheapest and worst fillers anyone can use. Its popular only because its easy to get and its very cheap. (You can get it at any Wal-Mart) I use fillers that are made by Evercoat. They make many differant types of filler. Metal to Metal is one that I use. Rage Gold and Rage Extream is the plastic fillers that I use. They are also made by Evercoat.

[bull]

Maybe I'll just have you paint my car, Drop Top. Where are you located again?

[Drop Top]

  Bakersfield, Calif.

[mopar_madman]

alot of guys do it using a polyester putty (another evercoat product) mostly high production collision and paint shops do it for speed. Less time metal working the area. You get the car to the painter faster and out the door. Saves time when your being paid hourly and getting a commision off the job. Like droptop said its better to start with the straightest you can get the panel and then you will need minimal filler later. Makes blocking the panel easier also.

[69hemi]

On my Charger the filling we did was with the high build primer to even out the skin.  Where it was to low for the high build we worked the metal to get it in line then did a light skim on there areas and blended it back in with another coat of high build.  Don't be afraid to put the primer on thick then sanding most of it off because it will leave you a great, smooth surface with less chance of cracking or shrinking than filler.

[javakmcharger68]

I only finished my first car, but I did get a chance to try out different fillers. I found bondo was by far cheaper, but you are going to work your butt off working the stuff to look right. Evercoat has a more expensive product, but as soon as you use it you will realize how much time it will save. As anyone is aware, you can try to go cheap & still have a expensive paint job that looks like crap. You don't save yourself any money in the long run, just buy the good stuff. People don't buy this stuff for the price it is for no reason. They buy it because it works well.  I'm only a newbie, take it from me that you spend more on fixing mistakes when using bondo. Thanks 

[bull]

Bakersfield, Calif.

How far will $10k get me?

[69hemi]

To about Oklahoma

[Silver R/T]

I usually have pretty straight body panels by the time im finished with bondo, if needed to do even better use few coats of high build surface primer and dry sand it first, then put some more coats on and wet sand. Now that panel will be show quality straight

[bull]

I wish some of you non-skimmers lived up here in Orygun.

[Drop Top]

That $10,000 could get you close or maybe done. Depends on what you want and how much needs to be done to get it there.

[bull]

That $10,000 could get you close or maybe done. Depends on what you want and how much needs to be done to get it there.

It has rust in the lower quarters (I have patch panels), there's a rust spot at the lower right of the windshield, one small hole in one of the floor pans and potentially some along the bottom of the rear window. I also just purchased new front and rear valances. The body is pretty straight except for a grapefruit-sized dent in the drivers fender and I think the LR outer wheel housing may be damaged. That's what I can see anyway. I would want it media blasted, rust repaired, body worked and painted. Not a #1 show car but a nice, straight driver that would go to shows on occasion. Does that sound like a $10k job without skimming? If so, how far are you out on your schedule?

[Arigmaster]

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Skimming has been around along time. Its a fast and easy way to make the car look straight. Its for people that can't do body work or a lazy body person. I don't like to do it this way. Its "OK" if the filler dosen't get very deep. But if the body work wasn't done properly.

I'm With drop top on this one... I on the other hand used the skimming procedure to locate low and high spots on my car. I wanted to minimize how much plastic actually ended up "on" the car. So, I used my stud setter, hammer, dollies, and punch to do the best I could. If it was low, I removed the filler and pulled it if it was high, I tapped it down.

By the time I was done with a panel, the plastic was almost transparent or non existant on most of the car. (there are always going to be those spots where the metal just won't cooperate) I followed up with Dupont Sandee and blocked it down with 250g then epoxy primed it. I used 400g after a mist coat and it ended up looking pretty nice.

I think the key is paitence and time...

[Drop Top]

With that amount of work your going to have to dig a bit deeper. (Sorry) After it gets plastic media blasted something else could come up also. I'm at least a year out before I can bring in any new work.

The Manix car is on the back burner again. The 69 Charger RT/SE will be out in a month. Just have to paint the hood and deck lid then buff them. Then put the front clip and deck lid on the car. Goes home after that.  The 68 Charger will be back inside after the 40 Chevy Convertible leaves on Tuesday to get the interior and top made. Then it will be back to get finished up.  The 68 Charger has to have the running gear put in and get running. Plus I have to convet it to a 4-speed. I just started back on a 37 Ford pick up. The bed is painted and the cab is at the blasters. The fenders are done and the hood pieces have to be blocked 1 more time. I'm also working on a 64 Chevy II drag car. All the fiberglass pieces are done and I'm starting the body work on the shell. A 69 GTO comes in tomarrow. Then goes directly to the blaster. I already have the rubber nose almost repaired on it. (It came in last week) I also have a 48 Chevy sedan delivery coming in in 3 or 4 weeks. Metal work is mostly done but its going to be a long hall frame off job. Almost forgot the 69 Hemi Charger is coming in around December. A bunch of rust in this car also. Yes I'm very busy. Any good dependable body people in my area need a job? I need good help. A vacation wouldn't hurt eather. But I get paid to do my Hobie. YES!!! I love it!

[bull]

Yea, every body guy I know is very busy. I've already been on one waiting list for 7 months and I still have to wait another 5 months before I can get in. I need to talk to the guy again and find out more details about his method. I don't think he's necessarily a lazy type of person, I just suspect he's a strong believer in the quality of the materials he's using and has had very good results in the past. No matter what happens I know the car will turn out better with him doing it instead of me. 

[Mfr426]

I live about 20 minutes from Kohrs Kustoms if anyone recognizes that Mopar shop. They are 2 years out on their restos. They only do Birds' and Hemi Cars now that they are well known.

Mike R in Reading PA
MFR426

[PocketThunder]

Yes I'm very busy. Any good dependable body people in my area need a job? I need good help. A vacation wouldn't hurt eather. But I get paid to do my Hobie. YES!!! I love it!

I'll talk to my spouse tonight to see if she wants to move to Bakersfield...i'm guessing the answer will be no.  well, actually it'll be "leave if you want to, i'm not stopping you"...hmmmm shouldn't have said that honey!!

[hotrod98]

I've noticed that a lot of the primo shops on television skim coat the entire car. I think it's really used to speed up the body work process. In actuality, as long as it's not any thicker than multiple coats of primer, it will hold up rather well. That is if good quality 2k products are used. I don't use that method here in my shop. We use DP epoxy primer on the bare metal and either K36 or K38 urethane primer over the epoxy. We have a panel pulling system so we don't usually have many large dents to fill. We use Rage Gold for vertical surfaces and Rage Extreme for horizontal surfaces. The secret to straight panels is lots of elbow power with long blocks. I keep about 8 different types of sanding blocks and usually use them all on every job. No shortcuts. Remember that most of the primers and fillers end up on the floor and the actual amount left on the car is minimal. On high end jobs, we spray the car with three coats of Concept urethane color and block one last time before applying the base clear. Our customer's cars tend to win a lot of the car shows around here.

[zstalker]

another victim of over-doing skimming.   This is my old 'Bee...all the red area was covered with bono, sometimes up to 1/2 inch thick.   the green areas were the places, after grinding the whole hood bare, that actually needed filler put back on.

[73rallye440magnum]

id gladly come work with you drop top. i should probably finish high school first though...

[Drop Top]

Yes! Please stay in School. Then go on to a vocational tech school or collage. You won't make much money doing restorations for a living. The only reason I'm doing this is because of circumstances beyond my control. You know the old saying, "If life serves you lemons. Make lemonade." Thats pretty much what I did. There are very few that can hold on long enough to make something like this work. God has a plan for my life and this is just one of the training steps for me.

[4402tuff4u]

Went to look at the progress of my car and sure enough the body guy was "skimming". I asked him what is the reason for the skimming. He said if that if you really want the lines of the car to look as it did when the Charger came out of the dealer, you need to skim. He said most of the material that is applied is removed with the sander anyway. He said the skimming basically takes care of any small imperfections that are not immediately visible to the eye. 

[CornDogsCharger]

I do body work for a living.  I do not skim coat everything I work on though.  The only time I skim coat is when I am doing a restoration.  I agree with most of what is said above.  As mentioned before... DO NOT use "BONDO" brand filler.  It sucks!  I always use Evercoat products.  At my body shop, we use Evercoat Rage filler.  It's relatively easy to sand and is a really good quality that lasts a long time.  I don't skim coat with filler though.  I get the metal as straight as possible by working it with various hammers and dollys and then I'll skim coat it with a putty made by Evercoat.  I can't rememebr the actual name of it, but it is in a pink bottle.  It sands very well too.  As long and you prep the metal really well and you use a very thin coat of filler/putty, then you should be alright.  But I prefer to block a couple coats of primer instead.  All primer is... is "liquid bondo"!

Justin
"CornDog"