I have a new steel-clad door that I installed, after which I noticed a couple of small dents right in the middle at eye level. I may have even put them there myself when I brought it home. I’m going to paint the door anyway, so I was wondering if anyone has a suggestion for filling in these dents.
I thought of bondo (used for auto body repair) which I know can be sanded smooth, but I’ve never used it before. Is it nasty and toxic? The dents are on the inside part of the door, so the fumes etc. would also be inside, unless I take the door off the hinges (maybe a good idea anyway, now that I think of it). These dents aren’t very deep, would it stick to the paint-primed surface?
I’ve used bondo to fix dents in steel doors. Works well. BUT … that assumes you’re already skilled with bondo.
You’ll want to drill a couple small holes (1/8") in the dents to give the bondo something to ooze into & grab hold of. Otherwise the patch will fall off. You need to sand off the primer for several inches around the area you need to patch. Then you need to get that as smooth as the original steel, then apply the bondo & smooth it pretty flat.
Next, sand & polish the new surface until it’s perfect. Not pretty good, perfect. That’s perfect in flatness, and in smoothness.
Finally, you clean, re-prime the area, and repaint the entire door. Figure 2 hours of work spread over a few days total for a pro who owns all the car body tools & knows how to use them. For a ham-handed amatuer, you’re looking at a lot more work for not such a good result.
I definitely recommend practicing on something else first. Like get a wrecked car door from a junk yard.
A much lower-effort approach is to install a door knocker, peephole, coat hook, or decoration over the dented area so nobody ever sees it. I’ve done that too.
Frequent Bondo user here. No holes needed-use very coarse sandpaper to put a rough surface on the area to be repaired. Mix a small amount, spread it on with the included spreader, sand with 80 grit paper. If needed, repeat. No need to wait more than a half hour. When profile is correct, remove grit lines with 150 or 200/220 sandpaper. Remove dust with tack cloth, prime and finish.
The fumes aren’t toxic-Bondo is catylized polyester resin. Laying the door flat will probably make it easier to work on for a n00b.
Bondo is da bomb for repairing things like rot, pet scratches on painted wood doors, and similar damage.
The problem will be if your door has a textured surface, you patch (particularly after sanding) will be smooth
This will stand out like a sore thumb.
So for a textured surface, I would just paint over it. A small ding will less noticeable then a big flat smooth patch.
The rest of the door is smooth, so that’s not a problem. Therefore, I am going to choose to believe **danceswithcats **about the do-ability of this for a real genuine n00b, i.e. me.
Seriously, just read the directions on the can and follow them. Most common Bondo errors are too much catalyst in the resin, yielding maroon rock with stick in it, and too little catalyst in the resin, yielding slightly pink goo that takes forever and a day to set.