Re: Urgent Body Work (victor_89)
The guy who started this topic said that bondo is ****...It's not...I used bondo, dupli-color primer, dupli-color clear coat, and the same exact paint that was the original color. I did all this at home...It's actually quiet inexpensive. The bondo is around $13 U.S.D. The primer and clear coat are around $20-30 combined. You can find the Bondo and Dupli-Color Primer and Clear Coat at PepBoys. The custom paint you can find at:
http://www.automotivetouchup.com/
Your car should have a code in the car somewhere, that has the paint code. My Golf MK4 had it in the trunk under all that carpet when you pull it up to get to the spare. It's a quiet easy job, and doesn't cost a **** load if you do it right. Me and my dad did it...First time in our lives, and we made it look like nothing at all happened. What did happen was that the passenger fender was dented in, and the bumper had huge cracks in it. We ended up with a flawless fender and bumper.
When you buy the Bondo, it will have instructions for you. But don't worry about putting exactly like 1 1/2 in. of Bondo layers. All you'll need to do is put some Bondo onto the cardboard, and add a little bit of hardener. If you put too much, it will harden before you finish the first layer. Here are the basic steps:
1.Sand down the area to it's base. This means that there will be no paint, but just the plastic exposed after you sand.
2. Mix some Bondo and a small amount of hardener onto something like a piece of cardboard. The paste should turn into something I think is black. You can tell it is mixed when it changes colors completely.
3. You will have the Bondo, hardener, a net, and a clear plastic strip rolled up. I did not use the net at all for my bumper and fender. After you put on the thing Bondo layer, you need to quickly cut some of that plastic and place it on top of the thing Bondo layer.
4. Put another layer quickly on top of the plastic. You have to do this a bit quickly so the Bondo doesn't dry, but be careful and precise with your work.
5. Let the Bondo dry. I would say give it about 30-45 minutes or so.
6. Sand the rough bondo down so it's smooth. You will want to add a few more layers of Bondo and hardener on top of that, without the foil, unless the foil peels off or something. Sand down again until the surface is relatively smooth.
7. Use the Dupli-Color primer. You should get one with a silver cap that is relatively close to the silver on your Jetta.
8. Spray a coat or two of the primer on there and let it dry.
9. Order yourself the custom paint online. One 12 oz. Aerosol spray is $20. You may have to wait a while, so this will give the primer a chance to dry.
10. Once your paint arrives, shake the can for about 2 minutes. You then spray on a coat, and let it dry for around 20-30 minutes. You then should spray on a few additional coats, allowing the paint to dry a bit in between coats.
11. Wet-sand the area with a 600. Try to hand sand this if you could, it gets you the best results.
12. After you sand paper the area and everything, you should be able to see where the work was done, because there should be an area that is flat silver/white.
13. Spray one more coat of the paint on.
14. Spray 1-4 coats of clear coat, allowing 5-15 minutes between coats.
15. Let it dry.
16. Install the part
I hope this is helpful for you. If I have anything wrong here, someone please point that out for victor_89. I tried to explain everything to you best as I could, because I don't remember the exact details of like the sand paper. We used a different sand paper for sanding down the Bondo, and then we used 600 for the wet-sand. Once again, I hope this is of some use for you.
~Orzel911