new member,mudguard repairs

[mel650]

new member from north east england,current bikes 1984 honda cd 200 runabout ,1960 saphire blue a10,the a10 is in very good condition apart from the front mudguard ,i have bought a used mudguard which i have stipped back to bare metal no rust only a couple of small dents can anyone recommend a body filler for this type of repair also does the filler  go onto bare metal  or does the metal need a etch primer coat first.thank you. ps photos will follow when  new mudguard fitted

[Richard]

Hi
it depends on what or how you are going to paint the mudguard. If you intend to powder coat it then a metal based filler will be required if spraying then a good quality filler is best and let it dry out really well before priming it as sometimes you can get a small reaction to the paint.A light couple of coats of primer first and flat back well should suffice. fill to bare metal
others will probably advise as I am no body work or paint sprayer expert.
Hope this helps
Rivhard

[bsa-bill]

Hi there and welcome
If they are only small dents I would have a go at knocking them out while you have it down to bare metal ( maybe you have already done this).
I filled in holes in my front mudguard with ordinary cataloy filler from halfords, I put a piece of fibre glass mat beneath to give the filler something to catch, but if you are going to fill a dent try to score the metal in the dent with the tang of a file or something to get a key although modern fillers stick pretty good.
Sand it down when set hard and if you get a ridge at the edge you can use high biuld primer to level it out.

All th best - Bill

[Beezageezauk]

Hi Mel and welcome to our friendly forum. 

There are a few of us from the NE of England here now and I'm sure that you will get whatever assistance you need.  The knowledge of the guys on the forum is quite amazing and they are always willing to help each other.

Again, welcome aboard.

Beezageezauk.

[a10 gf]

Hello and welcome, hope you will enjoy the forum.

Haven't done much body\paintwork, but the few satisfying results I've managed always came after using 3 main ingredients: patience, resolution, persistence (a nice trio  ). And adding some needed filler, paint etc as needed.

Regards
erling

[RichardL]

Hello and allow me to add my greetings and welcome.

I think it's hard to know what one person considers "small dents" versus the opinions of others. The first thing to do is go online or go to the lending library to get reference material that teaches basic body work. Even small dents can be frustrating to fix if you set off on wrong initial steps. Erling's three ingredients are definitely the key, particularly patience.

I can't say I'm expert in body work, but, on my motorcycle, I've done my own. As for powder coat, there is a variety of opinion, some expressed elsewhere in this forum. My own opinion is that it should be reserved for heavy steel parts that are not likely to get dented, like frames, engine mounts, cast-iron parts, et cetera. Tins can get dented and need repair, which is not simple with powder coat.

You should use a good plastic body filler with paste hardener. In the U.S., Bondo Ultimate would be a good choice. In the U.K., I'm not sure, I came across a couple of names but am hesitant to cite them for fear of mistake. You should buy a cheap dent hammer and a couple of dollies (meaning, heavy blocks of shaped steel that backup hammer hits; not meaning, assistants to soothe the labors of body work with further body work.)

As for where to put the filler, directly on bare metal roughed-up with 80-grit paper is the correct approach (reciting from my book). Take off enough old paint and filler so that the new filler and its feathered edges are all on bare metal. Inevitably, you will put new filler on top of new filler, for touching-up as you go with the new dent repair. This is not a problem, as long as the lower layers are roughed-up. Remember, you are going to want the minimum thickness filler. If the dent is accessible for pounding out, I'd say filler should not exceed 3mm, preferably less. I cheated on this for my tank, as I did not want to cut it in half to pound out a 35mm (diam.) x 9mm (deep) dent. In this case, I put the the filler on in layers. (There may be better approaches, but I am, after all, an amateur.) As for all the various following steps, this is where your reference material comes in.

I hope this helps in getting you started. Sorry, if I've been too wordy. It's Sunday morning and I am just having coffee and watching television while others sleep..

Richard L.