Yikes - Body Filler, Bondo, Mud ?!?!!!!!!
 

Help - my wife backed into a brick mailbox w/ my '97 E320. She caught the left rear corner of the car on the corner of the brick pillar / mailbox. The car fought valiantly knocking over the brick pillar, but alas, the mailbox won.

The dent is right on the corner of the car - it bowed out the quater panel and pushed in the gap between the fender and the trunk lid. She couldn't have lined it up better if she was trying. The corner is pushed in about 3 inches from the top of the fender, through the cracked rear lens and to the now cracked bumper.

I took my beloved sled to a reputable body shop (the one recommended by the local Benz dealer). The guy tells me they'll stretch it out. I'm ok with that part.

He also tells me that they'll use a a thin layer of plastic filler to smooth it out after they pull the dent.

I don't know much about body work, but the term filler makes me ill. Is this Standard Operating Proceedure? To me any type of body filler has been synonomous with low end work. Help, please. They'll start work tomorrow unless I rescue her from the clutches of MUD!

I was watching American Hotrod on Discovery over the past few days. It's about the Boyd Coddington Hotrod shop in So. Cal. They use a skim coat of filler to even out body panels after sanding.

As long as the body shop doesn't use a lot of filler, it's probably fine and cost effective.

Have you priced what it will cost to replace the body panel? Finding that out might make you feel better about the bondo. It's pretty common practice - even new cars on the assembly line get a little touch here and there. The material used in high-quality bondo is so far advanced nowadays you really have zero worries of checking and cracking like in the old days. I used some of the new ultra-violet light activated Bondo on my kid's car after one of his frequent accidents (if you have three teenagers, you get to learn a lot about Bondo) and I was absolutley amazed by the stuff. It comes out a lot more like fiberglass instead of chalky old fashioned body mud and is a joy to work with because it is so strong it resists over-sanding. It costs about $30 a quart and is worth every dime.

The real test is how the paint looks. If the spot the bondo was applied looks slightly dull compared to the rest of the paint, then you've got a problem that someone who knows what to look for will notice when you go to sell it. If the spot totally disappears into the original paint, then they did it right. Personally, if it is a Benz recommended shop I would say the odds of having problems with bondo are pretty low to non-existent.

Thanks guys - your responses eased my anxiety. I remember an old MG I bought that had more mud on it than you could imagine. It all came loose over the course of 5 years.

The guy at the shop told me exactly what you both said. That bondo has come a long way and this was the right way to fix it. I didn't inquire about welding new panels.

Thanks for the responses.