How To: Fill Body Panel Holes (1 Viewer)

[MOORGUY]

Hello all,

I recently filled the body panel holes in my 80 series, so I figured i'd share how I accomplished it. This may not be the cheapest way, but it will deliver great results without worrying about panels warping due to welding heat. The panel adhesive is the same stuff your door skins are held together by.

The overall process was pretty simple:

1. Clean the backside surfaces of the panels you want to fill with some sort of wax and grease remover
   • i used Dupli-Color
2. Cut pieces of steel for filler plates
   • i used a piece of 1" x 1/8" x 3ft section of steel from the hardware store
3. Prep pieces with primer
4. **Adhere the pieces in place using panel adhesive
   • i used Lord Fusor 110B (note: you'll need the application gun)
   • there may be other panel adhesives (or sizes) available that do not require a special gun
   • one large tube of this will do the entire truck
5. Fill with body filler (I used 3M filler)
   • one quart of body filler should be plenty
6. Sand smooth with 80 grit, then 180 grit
   • may take multiple coats depending on your skill level
   • Dura-Blocks are fantastic for this
7. Prime and sand surface

**when using this product, it will cure quickly. i recommend doing one piece at a time, at about 2-3 minutes per part. If you try to put panel adhesive on all filler plates at once, they will begin hardening before you can press them into place. By doing one at a time, the material will not harden too quickly on the filler plate OR in the nozzle of the tube. Do one body panel at a time, and plan to throw away the nozzle after each panel (they are disposable). You may want to purchase extra nozzles in case you aren't quick enough.

Backside of fender prepped:

Lord 110B:

pieces of metal prepped:

Pieces adhered:

 

[MOORGUY]

coated with undercoating for extra protection:

front side:

i used a 36 grit flap wheel on a 4 1/2" angle grinder to remove the extra adhesive

i made sure to sand the edges of the holes a bit- to create a nice taper for the body filler

 

[MOORGUY]

body filler was added and sanded smooth:

primed the surface for the time being (until all will be final sanded and reprimed)

rear quarter panel:

 

[Scrapedknuckles]

Something tells me those bondo plugs are gonna start cracking and popping out once you head off road.

 

[sxp]

Why not leave the holes filled with panel adhesive?

 

[NorCal97]

Something tells me those bondo plugs are gonna start cracking and popping out once you head off road.

Nah, should be fine. I used the same method on all 16 of the factory roof rack holes, except rather than body filler I used JB Weld. Going strong for the last 6 years or so, with thousands of offroad miles, several hundred of which are high-speed Death Valley washboard. I found it to be a quick, effective, and pragmatic fix.

This said, for my currently unfilled fender flare holes I intend to weld them shut, but mainly because I picked up a welder a couple of years back and look for any excuse to use it. I like the fumes.

 

[MOORGUY]

Thanks NorCal97. "i like the fumes" hahaha

Actually, the previous owner had used some mesh filler pieces and just bondo'd them in...which i hadn't discovered until I replaced the fender. The truck was flexed a lot offroad and never had an issue. This will be far, far stronger....not to mention the filler plate in the back will take the stress (if any)...not the thin layer of filler on top.

SXP- yes, you could leave it. Since I adhered the pieces with the fender facing down, the extra adhesive mostly dripped out, so the holes weren't filled.

 

[Scrapedknuckles]

Nah, should be fine. I used the same method on all 16 of the factory roof rack holes, except rather than body filler I used JB Weld. Going strong for the last 6 years or so, with thousands of offroad miles, several hundred of which are high-speed Death Valley washboard. I found it to be a quick, effective, and pragmatic fix.

This said, for my currently unfilled fender flare holes I intend to weld them shut, but mainly because I picked up a welder a couple of years back and look for any excuse to use it. I like the fumes.

When you weld up the holes disconnect your battery negative cable. If you don't, you run the chance of frying your electrical system. Don't ask me how I know. Hahaha

 

[NorCal97]

When you weld up the holes disconnect your battery negative cable. If you don't you run the chance of frying your electrical system. Don't ask me how I know. Hahaha

Yup. Always amazed at how often folks ignore this step.

 

[Major Tom]

Thanks for the write up. Did you fill the holes in the rocker panels also?