I need to fill in the tiny holes where the trim used to mount before I paint the car. It doesn't have to be perfect. The previous owner installed a god awful body kit. The trim is forever gone. I'll be doing the $50 paint job on this one. She can't get much uglier. Should I just pile on some Bondo? Any other CHEAP suggestions? This is just my daily beater. It doesn't have to look good, but I do want it to look better.

 

Cheap and good way to do it:

Rent a welder form Home Depot : $35
Pick up some sheet metal blanks, 1"x1" should do fine
Pull off door panel and use a magnet to hold each one in place over the holes.
Plug weld em on there
Grind welds down
Then you can use bondo to smooth it over.

All in all you can do it for probably under $75 if you can handle welding, or have a buddy that can weld for you.

If you just stuff em with bondo, it'll fall out.

You could always try using an epoxy to bond a fiberglass mat to the backside and then bondo over the hole, but I don't think that would be all too effective. Might work though, and it sounds to me like you really don't care all that much how it turns out, as long as the holes are plugged.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. All I care about is plugging those holes to prevent rust. If it looks good, all the better. If it doesn't then oh well.

 

The best and cheapest way to do it... not the right way but it works!!
first you need to grind down that rust and paint in that section, then you go to the autoparts store and get yourself some JB WELD, mix it up, patch it up and sand it down when its dry and vada-bing!!! its done... its the finnest cheapest way...

 

it looks like the whole door is in pretty bad shape. you should take a trip to the local you pull yard

 

Grind the door from the moulding holes down. Lay fiberglass filler over the whole area, and block with 40 grit. After its relatively straight, spread on some polyester filler, and block with 80 grit finishing with 180 and it's off to the paint shop.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sc4dr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Grind the door from the moulding holes down. Lay fiberglass filler over the whole area, and block with 40 grit. After its relatively straight, spread on some polyester filler, and block with 80 grit finishing with 180 and it's off to the paint shop.</TD></TR></TABLE>
You mean off to the paint rollers and the driveway. 50 dollar paint job here I come.

 

Well, whatever you wanna call it.

 

Another incorrect way, yet cheap and effective, is grind the areas around the holes as stated above clearing paint and all rust. Using a small hammer lightly tap the edges of the holes inward to give it a slight concave surface. From there fiberglass long hair filler to fill the concave surface, 40grit to make it even with the door, then a body filler of your choice to give it a smooth finish. Down side to this is when bending the metal inward could actually cause the surface around it swell. Dolly set will help this from happening but little taps and paying attention should be fair enough for what your trying to achieve.

Added: oh, and a piece of masking tape or something across the inside of the holes will help keep the filler from just globbing inside the hole.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Rigginit &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Another incorrect way, yet cheap and effective, is grind the areas around the holes as stated above clearing paint and all rust. Using a small hammer lightly tap the edges of the holes inward to give it a slight concave surface. From there fiberglass long hair filler to fill the concave surface, 40grit to make it even with the door, then a body filler of your choice to give it a smooth finish. Down side to this is when bending the metal inward could actually cause the surface around it swell. Dolly set will help this from happening but little taps and paying attention should be fair enough for what your trying to achieve.

Added: oh, and a piece of masking tape or something across the inside of the holes will help keep the filler from just globbing inside the hole.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thats the way that I have always done it and haven't had a problem yet. I did this on my accord about 3 1/2 - 4 years ago. I used fiberglass cloth then came with some icing and wiped her smooth.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SneezinCD5 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Thats the way that I have always done it and haven't had a problem yet. I did this on my accord about 3 1/2 - 4 years ago. I used fiberglass cloth then came with some icing and wiped her smooth. </TD></TR></TABLE>

That's actually the correct way

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by blue2000em1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">That's actually the correct way </TD></TR></TABLE>

Since when is filling in holes on a metal panel with fiber glass the "correct way"? It may be easier, but I don't think it's correct. Maybe it's just me...I was always taught to weld holes.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by WihaSi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Since when is filling in holes on a metal panel with fiber glass the "correct way"? It may be easier, but I don't think it's correct. Maybe it's just me...I was always taught to weld holes.</TD></TR></TABLE>

weld holes???

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by blue2000em1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

weld holes???

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes, weld holes. Like if you take a spoiler off of you deck lid, you plug weld the holes, grind, putty, glaze, etc... or do you just slap some figer glass in them?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by WihaSi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Yes, weld holes. Like if you take a spoiler off of you deck lid, you plug weld the holes, grind, putty, glaze, etc... or do you just slap some figer glass in them?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I can understand welding holes on a trunk lid,but how do you weld holes on the pre-exsisting moldings.You can't you've to cut tiny pieces of metal and tack weld it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by blue2000em1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I can understand welding holes on a trunk lid,but how do you weld holes on the pre-exsisting moldings.You can't you've to cut tiny pieces of metal and tack weld it.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Wait, so he's repairing holes in his moldings? I thought he was repairing holes on the outer panels of the doors. My bad, don't know where I got that from.

 

leave them if you arent going to get rid of them properly. the easiest thing to do is to weld the blanks on the BACK of the clip holes. you can get to them inside the door panel. thats what i did on Atheist's eg hatch.