Bondo is Satan's KY Jelly

[britman]

Let me start by saying I am not a helpless individual when I enter a garage. Neither am I a professional wrench turner or body man by any stretch of the imagination. I have brought back a few old vehicles with both two and four wheels that I have been fairly proud of. Not long ago I turned out a skid plate for my scrambler from 5/16th aluminum and a Harbor Fright Step Bit that looks **** good if I must say so myself. (I refused to put out over a hundred bucks for a piece of sheet metal.)


My nemesis is frickin Bondo. I am redoing a bear claw for my Rocket to expose the pods. The claw came from off a wrecked Rocket and was given to me by my dealer. The metal cutting was a piece of cake with an air cut wheel. I beat out the worst of dents, repaired the small abrasion holes with JB Weld and started the fill in with that fowl pink ass goop that always seems to best me. The photo below is the third fill in prior to another attempt at shaping.


When I go through the door at True Value now, they automatically start ringing up sand paper. I am pretty sure they think I am restoring a battleship. I will sand, dropping grit sizes as I go, thinking it looks **** good until the primer hits. The imperfections and shape deviations start to appear like moths to the spotlight they use to summon Batman. I will get this, it has become a quest, but if there are any decent body men out there with any hints they would like to throw my way, please do so. If and when I ever get it ready for paint, it is going to be shot in black and lettered, which is not very forgiving toward imperfections. I know I am probably applying too much putty to the damaged area. I do the same thing with dry wall work. Most of my wall repairs tend to look like there are several little people embedded below the surface.

 

[HellFire]

The rough shaping should be done with a "cheese grater", I'm sure there is a real name for it but it's roughly a rasp that looks like a cheese grater. You can also use a very rough file. You rough shape just before the body plastic hardens completely. The smaller air bubbles and shaping marks should be filled with 3M Acrylic Glazing Putty 3M? Acrylic Putties
I personally prefer 3M Body Filler too, but Bondo works fine. The glazing and spot putties allow for better filling of small imperfections and it's easier to sand. The big thing is to rough shape the ridges off and do most of the excess removal while it's still not completely set up, save the sand paper for the detail work.
From you picture you aren't using "too much", you are just waiting too long and using the wrong thing to knock down the high areas.