i've been painting my FB flat black, rattle can stylin'. removing the door trim while doing so, the drivers side, hood and such so far looks great. much better than the maaco (scratched up) crap it had on before.

i went to remove the trim on the passenger side and when i pulled it off, not only did the trim come off but massive amounts of old bondo and basically tore it down to the raw metal. looks like the car had damage here before and someone just filled in the bottom right side of it with bondo. all along the bottom is rust and same with the back side.

i started doing some more grinding/bondo to fill it in again, but im wondering if i shouldnt steal a door off my -SE. i'd hate to steal parts off the SE since its such a nice shell, but no one seems to want to pay more than $500 for it, even with the damned engine.

anyways. look for yourself.

 

i'd say grind out all the bondo and see how bad the actual damage is. I'm probably going to have to replace my drivers door because when i bought it there was rust from where bondo had been chipped off when it got backed into.

 

What is wrong with your gsl-se for sale???? what color is the interior and where do u live?

 

that bondo in the pic is what i put back in there to try and level it back out, its like 1/4" drop down the entire way. looks like the door is bent for the first 1/4 half!

must have been hit at one point in its life. o'well..... i think i'll try and just bondo it all and see how it looks, right now its all sanded out but still needs waaaaaaay more bondo (which is the problem) i dont really want to have a door that is 40% bondo

 

You need to keep the body filler under 1/8", if at all possible. Thicker than that it will have a tendency to shrink and crack later on. Be sure to use a good self-etching/rustproofing primer under the filler. You can buy that in a rattle can at your local auto paint supplier. Make sure you get a top coat on it as soon as possible. Primer does not seal against moisture absorption. It can start rusting underneath and you won't even see it.

If it looks like it's not worth all the work, find another door.

 

ya i used some black primer already actually. so i have a few cans laying around. right now the bare metal parts of the door are primered.

i'm mostly having problems with the bondo not sticking in the holes of the door which ive grinded out. should i enlarge the holes?

as for being more than 1/8" im sure it might be in a few spots. but im more worried about getting the door back to a flat conture, its kind of hard to tell in the picture but its really dropped down a fair bit right where the paint cracks off there. hmmm. guess i've got a lot of work ahead of me to level it out properly

 

From your pic, the bondo looks like it was set up too much to work with, it should be smoother. Pic also shows bondo directly on old paint, that's a no-no.

Rough up the entire area you want to cover with no less than 80 grit paper. Since this looks like your first time, rough it up with 36 grit. Grind a an inch or so past where you want to putty, then feather out another 3-4 from there, with a finer grit, i.e. 150.

There is a putty honey that you can add to your filler, before you mix in the hardner. Makes the filler consistency smoother and easier to work.

Personally, I would take the door off and work it on a bench. Sand the entire door down and see how much rust is actually under the paint. Everywhere you see a little chip, there will be a larger rust pocket underneath.

Play with your putty. May sound silly, but make up small batches, varying the amount of hardner, until you get get the ratios right. You will have less than 5 minutes to mix, apply and smooth the filler. Once it starts to set, quit working it, all you will do is loosen the bond.

Get a file sander. That is the best tool to take the waves out of a flat curved panel, like your door.