Thread: Lead fill instead of Bondo... Any tips?

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Well just to be different I will mention that if you have a blow torch (the old fashioned kind), a metal bucket and a VERY LARGE soldering iron of the type used to set up copper flashing on expensive house roof gutters you should be able to SOLDER small areas. All I can say is that years ago I dechromed a '47 Ford convertible and filled in all the small clip holes with a little tinning acid (muriatic, diluted HCl) and soldered them shut. In fact I learned this from my uncle who was formerly a "roof gutter man" and used his soldering iron which had a large tip about 5" long and 2"x2" thick so it could hold heat for a long time. When we got to the large hole where I took out the trunk handle (about 3/4" diameter) we cut out a scrap metal plug about the size of a nickel and soldered it in holding it from the back with a piece of wood. This is apparently a lost art today with propane torches and such but if you can find a large soldering iron and an old fashioned blowtorch (gas or kerosene) with a hand pump, just put the blowtorch on full in the bucket and set the soldering iron in the flame for 10 minutes and you should be able to tin sheet steel and add lead to small spots as needed. The paint (GM Aztec Red over primer) stayed on for the three years I had the car thereafter (any tiny imperfections in the paint were not visible because the orange-red was so dazzling, it wearied one's eyes to look at it!).

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder