I'm painting my '76 2 door in my auto body class at my high school and I had a few questions about things that we've done to my car. My auto body teacher dug all the lead out of the c pillars and put fiberglass and bondo in and also i have a fiberglass grabber hood and now he put bondo on it also won't the bondo on the hood crack from the heat from the motor and i that the fiberglass on the c pillars will crack too from daily driving what's you guys' input on the subject.
My husband has been an autobody profesional for over 50 years. I showed him your post and he says that removing the lead from the pillers will not do any harm. He used to be a ' leadman ' back in days when lead was the way to go, but those days are long gone and the lead no longer needs to be there. The fiberglass and bondo should not crack on the pillers as long as it is used in moderation. Just be aware that a fiberglass hood will flex more than a steel one. There is always the potential for bondo to crack on a non steel hood, but as long as it is not applied real thick, you should be OK.
What was his reasoning for removing all the lead? When I had my car painted they also smoothed 1/4 panel to roof seam ... but as far as I know they did not remove the lead to do it ...
From what my body guy says, he likes to remove it while doing the car to clean the joint out good, sometimes when its done at the factory they wern't too fussy, so it could start to pop out a bit, but thats up here in the North, I know the "A" pillars on my '74 need to be redone, it's swelled up a bit, and that car is pretty rust free.
he said that sometimes the lead starts popping out so it had to be taken out and then he starting grinding away
you would think after 30+ years,it would be in there pretty good. i left mine in there also.just smoothed it out better with body filler
I would have used a fiberglass reinforced filler or something like "metal to metal" filler. Regular fiberglass and bondo will crack sooner or later when its applied to metal. They just expand and contract differently to heat and cold. Even though the pillars wont move as much as other body panels, it would still concern me. I mean the point was to keep something from popping out later down the road right?
