Contractor Craig - Repair Wood Using Automotive Body Putty

hi I'm Craig and in this video I'm going to show you how to use auto body repair filler to repair broken or missing or rotten wood either inside or outside of a home now the manufacturer of this product and auto body repair shops and chemists may frown on this but that's too bad because contractors have been using it for decades I've used it for over forty years for these purposes and you know what they say about smiling and frowning right smiling takes seven muscles frowning takes 40 so this is just given my reason to exercise their face okay I want to clear up one misnomer bondo is a trade name it's called a generic descriptor like Kleenex or coca-cola or Jacuzzi it's very popular this brand so that's why people refer to a bondo is actually the trade name body putty is what it is okay either when it's correct just wanted to clear that up let me tell you a little bit about this product chemically and then we can talk about how to use it body putty is a two-part system called a thermal set plastic I know that sounds strange but yes it is considered a plastic or it's in the plastics family it's called thermal because it actually heats up while it's curing and you can feel that after you've mixed it it almost gets too hot to the touch sometimes it's two parts are a resin and a catalyst now let's talk about the resin first the resin is a mixture of fiberglass or polyester which is probably why it's called a plastic styrene and talcum or talc the polyester acts as an epoxy of sorts which is what gives the body putty it's amazing adhesion properties it actually will adhere to almost anything you put it on now it was designed to adhere to raw or bare steel best but it will stick to wood now you have to consider in this video I'm showing you how to use it mostly on wood and wood is an organic material which will swell and contract or shrink with the changes in room temperature and moisture and body putty does not so I'll show you some techniques later in the video of how you can actually anchor it to the wood the styrene is the main solvent to keep the mixture fluid and fumes from this and other ingredients in the body but are very dangerous to your health so you should ventilate the work area where respirator and don't touch it with your bare skin while it's wet the talc helps the mixture flow smoothly okay now let's talk about the catalyst which is the second part of the two part system the catalyst or hardener is M ek peroxide which is also known as methyl ethyl ketone now this is also a very very dangerous ingredient remember ventilate the work area don't let children be around when you're using it wear a respirator wear gloves take whatever precautions that you seem to find necessary now the color of this hardener may vary from either a red to a white or a blueish gray so if you happen to run out of the hardener that it came with don't worry if the hardener that you buy to finish up the resin is a different color that doesn't matter as long as it says it's for body putty that's fine so when you buy the body putty it does come with its own hardener but the hardener is a much smaller portion the way you mix the two which I'll talk about later so if you do have to buy more hardener or catalyst don't worry about the color that's irrelevant as long as it says it is for body putty now they say when you're mixing body putty not to mix it on wood or cardboard or any kind of paper because any porous surface can absorb the solvent and throw off the ratio I don't get that technical about it I if I have a slab of wood around the shop I'll just use that it's preferable to mix it on a piece of glass or metal so that doesn't occur I'm not that worried about that but whatever you think is best I just want to throw that out there because that the manufacturer does say that okay so before mixing you want to take the tube the small tube of hardener and knead it just a little bit with the cap on just mix it around because the two ingredients in there will separate okay the best temperature to use body putty is between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit any temperature below 64 could the curing process two hours or even days the colder it gets now when mixing too much hardener will cause the product to become too hard or even crack become brittle to little harder could delay or the curing process also to even indefinitely so the ratio of filler should be roughly a golf ball size of resin to maybe a one-inch long line or dime size of hardener because the hardener comes out of a tube you could run it out to one inch long or to a dime size and if you double the golf ball you'll double the the dime size hardener okay now again the manufacturers suggestions when using body putty are always grind the paint off the car so that you're exposing raw or bare steel so that it can stick to it because they say will only stick to raw steel I know differently but that's what the manufacturer says also they tell you not to apply it more than a quarter of an inch thick okay so we're about to break both of these rules and exercise some more faces now I've used it over an inch thick with no problems and in many cases you'll find in wood repairs you're going to need to do with that thick you don't have that ability to to pull a dent out like you would in a car so that you're only using it a quarter of an inch thick you may have a chunk of wood missing that's an inch or even even thicker so whatever you've got to use it for don't don't sweat that but I just did want to throw that out there so you know what the manufacturer is saying okay it does have excellent adhesion properties as I mentioned earlier but because it is a polyester product it does like to stick to inner or products like steel which don't have movement now we're going to give it a little extra help to adhere to the wood because of that movement by using any metal object like a staple or small finishing nail or even a screw depending upon how much wood is missing and what kind of space we have to work with now will adhere to itself as well so if you don't get it you know the right amount in the first coat and you've got to apply a second or even a third coat that's fine or if you find that there are small little air holes or air pockets and you need to coat it again to get it perfectly smooth it will stick to itself as well now if there's any left over after you've mixed it just throw it away don't don't even think about trying to use it because it will harden up on you okay so the main reasons that I like to use body filler over wood or solvent based wood fillers are cost and time auto body filler hardens in minutes it's readily available it's easy to shape it's easy to sand you can paint it and stain it you can do most anything to it that you can do the wood it does take stain a little differently than wood and we'll talk about that a little bit later but you have to work with it to get the right color but as far as getting the filler in shaping it you can't beat it for time and time is money also to replace this entire piece of casing because this is blown out and there's a bearable chisel hole I'll show you that later also would be much more expensive and it would be much more intense process you'd have to take this pixel off you'd have to find this right profile which you can't get on the shelf you may have to have it made which would be cost prohibitive then you have to prime it paint it cut it install it whereas this we can just fill what's here and move on okay so here we have a very typical damaged spot where the jam was blown out it looks like somebody wanted in real badly and where was in wanted to be left alone not really sure but the first thing we'll have to do is take this strike plate off and then we can prep the surface so I'll show you how that's done now as I mentioned earlier we're going to use screws to anchor this body putty to that missing chunk right there so I'm pre drilling so that I don't split the wood and as you notice I like to do the screws at opposing angles so the axis of strength is kind of working together there it can't pull out in other words I'm going to put a screw wherever there's a low enough void to accept the head of the screw and I'm going to leave the head of the screw stick out just a little bit so that the body putty can actually grab on to that head kind of access rebar and concrete wood now you notice I'm trying to avoid the keeper hole so that the the door can actually operate when I drill that out I won't hit it with my drill bit leaving the head stick out just a little bit and that's your keeper hole you want to make sure that those two screws do not interfere with that you don't want to hit that with your drill bit just double-check make sure you're clear and I even mentioned earlier that in the lower or the thinner areas you can use staples now again you want to let the staple stick out just a little bit so you don't want to press real hard into the wood just kind of back off I'm using an electric staple gun but it doesn't matter you could use a hand staple gun and that just gives the thinner areas where you may not have enough depth to put a screw something to grab onto and you can even use as I mentioned really fine or small finishing nails now you take a straightedge any kind of a straightedge will work you drag it over the surface make sure that all the metal object screws staples nails that you put in are not protruding above that profile when you buy the body buddy comes with this large oversized cap on top and when you open it there will be the hardener inside lately they've been using white hardener which I don't like you see the color because the white and the light gray don't really show it a different color when they mix so you can't really tell when it's fully mixed so I buy a separate of two before night you see it's much larger it'll last for several of these and it's red you can see the red color right through the clear cap the clear end there and when you mix the two of the gray and the dark red it turns into a pink so you can actually get a visual of when it's fully mixed alright so you remember the ratio we talked about about a golf ball size of the resin to about a dime-size of the catalyst or hardener that's maybe be a little bit more than golf ball-sized but I'm just looking at what we've got to fill here and remember what we talked about it being a good epoxy it does stick to itself so don't worry about getting it perfect the first go-around you just want to get as much on there as you can and that's a little more than a dime cap back on mix it away now they always tell you to fold it kind of like a baker folds dough I just just assumed stir it I don't whip it they say not to whip it because you can get air bubbles but I don't whip it that quickly it's just way that I like to now you can see the gray and the red and the pink streaks that's showing how well it's mixing you can't see that when you have white hardener I don't know why they change that color I wish they change it back to red I'm certainly thankful that you can still buy red you've got to move pretty quickly the temperature in the air around you also determines how quickly it will harden in the summertime you'll notice it'll harden a lot quicker and you'll end up with a lot of wasted putty because you can't use it in the winter time it's much much slower ok now we're going to go ahead and put it on okay now when applying it's kind of sloppy at first you can't really get artistic you just try and pack as much in as as fast as possible because you remember it is very time sensitive now I'm going to go ahead and pack it into the keeper hole all the way so that my drill bit won't jump around when I'm drilling it and then at whatever point you find convenient when you've got enough material to work with you want to start generally shaping it you're not going to get really again not really artistic yet you're just smoothing it out to its general shape which helps you maintain that line when you're sanding and it speeds up the sanding process now here we use the painters tape to help keep it from sagging and also help us shape it and to keep that bead and that groove and you can use a knife or your thumbnail and kind of work with it you can't really do that when the tapes not in place so at about the ten minute mark you'll notice it's dry but it's still somewhat soft so go ahead and take the tape off and you can feel that heat from the curing process and it's still soft enough to where you can actually begin to shape it with either a sharp chisel or a razor knife and I like to do this before I sand because it takes that excess overburden or clumps of of putty that you don't need off without kicking up all that dust into the air and you could just shave it shape it and chisel it to get it to the general shape that you want you okay now at the point where I'm going to start sanding with sandpaper I'm going to take two extra precautions I'm going to put a respirator on as you see and I'm going to use a shop vac to suck up all that excess dust so I'm not kicking it up all over the house and that picks it up very nicely I use a hundred grit sandpaper it seems to be a good grit it's not too coarse it's not too fine and I fold it in half to give it a nice sharp crease so that I can stay in those inside corners and maintain that groove right there and and still hold that bead okay now that we finished our first phase of sanding you'll notice some honeycombs or air pockets and some low spots and as I said before this stuff does adhere well to itself so you can second coat it third coat it fourth coated if you need to remember I've been doing this for years so shaping it's pretty easy for me you may not get it the first go around don't be afraid to second coat it and just go ahead and smooth it on like that and sand it again just like we did before up until this point I've been using sandpaper by itself but now I'm going to show you how to use a block now this is actually a sanding sponge for sheetrock you could use the sanding block it could be wood I just prefer a sanding sponge it's a little bit softer easier to use and by using a block of any kind you're actually maintaining that straight plane number one and number two those right angles of the block can get inside the the corners the inside corners and help you maintain those a little bit better and that groove on the other side of the bead as well and it gives you a smoother flatter surface rather than just using your fingers with sandpaper so this is more for your finishing okay now we're ready to mark for our keeper plate and this is where I mentioned earlier to make sure your screws are not in the way of any of this drilling or chiseling process and that's the other reason why I pack that hole filled with body buddy so that that hole that the drill wouldn't jump if it hit an air pocket when drilling the the keeper hole now one thing you'll notice about this product is it chisels and drills beautifully much better than wood because it doesn't have the irregularities of wood that the density is much much more consistent so we chisel out install our keeper plate make sure the door operates properly take the keeper plate back off and go ahead and apply our first coat of paint and you can paint it with the same type of paint that you would use if you painted it the door jamb the first time just a semi-gloss latex paint and you can 1-2-3 coated whatever you want to do but it takes paint the same as wood okay so while the paint dries here are some other uses for this product you remember I said you could use this product outdoors and outdoors rot is a very common problem now there's two things you want to be sure to do when you use it in an exterior application make sure that the wood is dry let it dry out for several days and prime it and topcoat it before the weather gets to it this will prevent that expansion and contraction that we talked about now here's a kind of unusual application this is an old wrought iron gate that had a mortise lock that had seized up so we completely remove the old mortise lock and we're going to take that mortise box right there and pack it with body putty and then we'll drill it out to a standard two and three-quarter back set to an 1/8 inch hole for a standard modern deadbolt lock we'll go ahead and install the lock spray paint everything flat black and there you go now that's a lot cheaper than hiring a welder to come out and completely remodel gate for a whole new lock system now this is a very common occurrence and a lot of homes with hollow core doors particularly if you have boys who have flying baseball bats and hockey sticks all you want to do is solidify that loose flap with a screw like I've done here once you get your first coat on that will hold the flap still then skim it a few more times sand it and paint it now that is a lot cheaper than going out of buying a whole new door and it's not just the cost of the door it's your time to take the door off to draft it to sand it to fit all the hardware to move the harbor from the old door to the new door time is money keep your money in your pocket this was a quick fix as you can see just as good as new it's just a dowel hole that was recessed I've used two nails here to give the body putty again something to grab onto so the chunk doesn't pop out when the door slams and in this case the customer wanted to go with a modern doorknob so we got rid of the old mortise knob filled the hole and sanded it and started over okay so here you have the finished product and I'm sure as you can see by watching the video all the many reasons why I like using this product instead of any other kind of solvent based wood product or even a piece of wood itself to mortise out and put in a block of wood and chisel it and carve it and sand it it's it's we just take too long it just it's not practical I mean this house is old but it's not on the National Historic Register it doesn't warrant that kind of effort in time time is money you want to keep your money in your pocket you want to quick easy durable application real life applications and this product is it you can use it indoors and outdoors it does have its inherent risks you've got to remember to ventilate your house wear a respirator take precautions lead test your would wear a respirator all of these things are on you as the practitioner okay you've got to use your own common sense take your risks into consideration and mitigate those risks on your own but this product is amazing to use so I hope you found this video helpful hope you found it informative if you did give it a thumbs up please and subscribe and share it with your friends be sure to check back there's going to be lots more videos for lots of easy practical applications for you to repair your home Thanks this video was created to assist you as a mean to save money on basic home projects and repairs it is provided free in the spirit of sharing professional knowledge and techniques the methods demonstrated herein are merely opinions and are not the only way to perform any given task the responsibility is on you to research your local codes laws or consult a professional before attempting any of these procedures any attempts at performing these tasks by you on any property are taken at your own risk any property damage or personal injury that may be incurred during your attempts to replicate the information provided here in are your responsibilities alone there are no warranties expressed or implied for the results of these techniques

Channel: Craig Shotwell

Views: 612,891

Keywords: wood repair, body putty, bondo, wood putty, wood filler, Contractor Craig

Id: zXEsvErcvFY

Length: 21min 40sec (1300 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 15 2016