diluting bondo thought

[calladar]

I am new to this but have years of experience in RC and RC building. was looking for something new for me and my son. we have both been making armor here the last couple of weeks and i was in the process of bonsoing the outside of my sons helmet for sanding when i had an idea.

In RC when working with foam wings and you are going to fierglass the wing you will dilute the epoxy with denatured alcohol which in turn will make it thinner but have the same strength when hardened. it makes it so that a lighter more even coat can be applied to the wings and conserve on weight.

denatured alcohol works well for this and i have used this techniqe alot for RC. I was considering trying this with the bondo to make a diluted batch which would be smother and not quite as thick and see if i could get a smother finnish out of the bondo to decrease the sanding and make final prep before painting easier.

i was wondering if anyone had tried this with bondo or not. if no one has i will try it this weekend when i am off and i will let you all know how well (or not so well) it worked.

 

[OverKill]

I havn't see anything like that, But give it a shot.

 

[Boba Fett]

the best soulution is bondo + fiberglass resin. they are compatible because bondo IS fiberglass resin, except with a thickening agent to make it a putty. Commonly known as "rondo" or "mud"

 

[calladar]

Yea used the rondo on the inside. i was thinking that diluting the bondo to a paste instead of a puddy would allow for a thinner / smother coat on the ouside allowing for less sanding. i like the rondo for somethings but i was thinking of trying to decrease work on sanding. don't know guess i'm lazy.. or the old saying work smarter not harder. never tried this but going to this weekend.

 

[calladar]

Ok guys.. tried it out this morning. worked really well diluting the bondo the end result was not what i was hoping for. able to actually paint on the bondo in a thin coat, but the coat was too thin and doesn't do much other than smooth small imperfections. might try again with a different mixture later. done with that experiment for now. back to using old and true methods. if i get a good mixture i will post it with the exact ratio for reference. for now don't bother.

 

[wolfshui]

...dilute the epoxy with denatured alcohol which in turn will make it thinner but have the same strength when hardened. it makes it so that a lighter more even coat can be applied to the wings and conserve on weight.

Hm... if this is the same strength, you may want to post a tutorial with the interest of saving resources and money.

 

[calladar]

i'll do that

 

[King Ramna]

Were you able to get a good mixture?

 

[VersionUp]

Look for this product called Evercoat Slick Sand. It's a polyurethane primer/sealr that's hardened w/ MEK-P. This might be what you needed. You can add a little talc or Cabosil on it if you want to thicken it a bit.

 

[Minkyboi]

I'd say just use the bondo very sparingly. most people on the forums put globs of it on their pieces but it works MUCH better and easier if you dont use as much.
if you look up on bondo tutorials it'll teach you how to do it this way. i learned it this way from autobody repair class.