One Day Build Bonus: Bondo Basics
For this week’s One Day Build, Adam makes use of a Bondo, a body filler that’s a favorite material among prop builders. In this clip, Adam explains the basics of Bondo and why it’s so useful for his kind of fast building. (If you haven’t joined the Tested Premium Member community, you can do so right here.)
27 thoughts on “One Day Build Bonus: Bondo Basics”
Leave a Reply
One Day Builds
Adam Savage’s One Day Builds: Life-Size Velocirapt…
Adam embarks on one of his most ambitious builds yet: fulfil…
Show And Tell
Adam Savage’s King George Costume!
Adam recently completed a build of the royal St. Edwards cro…
All Eyes On Perserverance – This is Only a Test 58…
We get excited for the Perserverance rover Mars landing happening later today in this week's episode. Jeremy finally watches In and Of Itself, we get hyped for The Last of Us casting, and try to deciper the new Chevy Bolt announcements. Plus, Kishore gets a Pelaton and we wrack our brains around reverse engineering the source code to GTA …
Making
Adam Savage in Real Time: God of War Leviathan Axe…
Viewers often ask to see Adam working in real-time, so this …
One Day Builds
Mandalorian Blaster Prop Replica Kit Assembly!
Adam and Norm assemble a beautifully machined replica prop k…
House of MCU – This is Only a Test 586 – 2/11/21
The gang gets together to recap their favorite bits from this past weekend's Superb Owl, including the new camera tech used for the broadcast and the best chicken wing recipes. Kishore shares tips for streamlining your streaming services, and Will guests this week to dive into the mind-bending implications of the latest WandaVision episod…
One Day Builds
Adam Savage’s One Day Builds: Royal Crown of Engla…
One of the ways Adam has been getting through lockdown has b…
Making
Adam Savage Tests the AIR Active Filtration Helmet…
Adam unboxes and performs a quick test of this novel new hel…
Making
Weta Workshop’s 3D-Printed Giant Eyeballs!
When Adam visited Weta Workshop early last year, he stopped …
One Day Builds
Adam Savage’s One Day Builds: Wire Storage Solutio…
Adam tackles a shop shelf build that he's been putting off f…
One day build guessing competition?! 😀
I’m going to guess some sort of storage device?
you won’t have to wait long! because we’re still awaiting some approvals for the Chase Car video I teased on Still Untitled this week, we bumped next week’s One Day Build up to tomorrow!
Awesome! Thanks norm!
I have no idea lol Ive paused it a few time to try and guess what the build is but I haven’t got a clue 🙂
I thought maybe it was a wing, but there’s not enough structure there for that.
Your know you’re evil for teasing us like this, right? Oh, and considering the fact that part of my Facebook friends list is composed of writers that pull this stuff, that is indeed a compliment.
4Hours ago SF time teasing for tomorrow might be today Europe time? hmm intriguing!
I always worked on the Ed China school of Bondo which was a ratio of a golf ball of filler to a pea of hardner.
Also I’m guessing at a sword. Something that’d be too heavy to wield if made out of metal. We know Adam loves his replica weapons.
Wild guess: Sword replica
Unfortunately bondo is really hard to get in Europe 🙁
tomorrow is a whole future away.. we want all of your upcomming planned activities yesterday.. we are hungry…. that’s the downside of being good at what you do; the crowd will never get enough 🙂
yeah.. there’s a need for a double posting.. ’cause WHAT?!?!?! just 7 hours later, it’s apparently already tomorrow! One Day Build is out! Thanks Joeym for posting earlier than norm’s scheduling..:)
Back to the Bondo… as it sets and transitions from a goopy cream to a hard solid there are a couple of minutes where it is kind of rubbery. This is a good time to do a rough surface trim, taking down the high spots and blobs you don’t want, using a “cheese grater” style rasp like a Surform, a knife or even a sharp chisel. This will save an enormous amount of time (and sandpaper) late. When it’s fully hardened it can take a lot of effort to remove large amounts by sanding, hint – an air powered DX sander is really handy for working with Bondo.
What do I win?
The way he said 6 SECONDS makes me feel as if he’s a little salty about something or other ;3
Loved the One day build. Sad that Mythbusters had to end but very happy that we get to see more of Adam here. 🙂
In Australia its called Builders Bog, not Bondo. The main part is yellow, the kicker is still pink. Its easier to tell the contrast between the two then (it’ll change from a light yellow to a light pink). It also stinks something fierce, but I’ve grown to love the smell.
That’s the ratio I’ve always used.
Also good to know that I’m not the only one on here who watches Wheeler Dealers. 😉
I have a classic truck that is almost completely made out of that stuff!
Here in Holland it’s called ” Polyester Plamuur ” 🙂
I did not watch the vid (no account), but I like to add to the Bondo information, that it comes in different versions,
The cheap ones have a bigger grain, and are harder to get a really smooth surface, that’s what they mostly sell here in the DIY stores, and is not great quality, takes a lot longer to fully cure.
Then there is a fine grain version (usually bright white) that can be sanded butter smooth, and is best for smooth lacquered surfaces.
there is even a version with glass-fiber strands in it, this is great to make strong constructive parts, and filling very rough surfaces, but even more protective care has to be taken with sanding.
Some “cheaper” bondo (Wilsor) can have trouble to fully harden in a short time, and you will have to wait at least 24H before sanding, it clogs the sanding paper pretty fast.
Tip 1 for the day is…Bondo does not adhere to PVC, and mo st packing tape is made of PVC, so you can use this to cover parts to use as stamps into the bondo, or cover tools, so they not get messed up by the bondo.
Tip two, mixing like Adam does, includes a lot of air bubbles inside the Bondo, and you will have to redo the top layer a few times to close all the pinholes and get a smooth surface, mixing with a large spatula, and squeezing the components into each other will give a much better end result the first time around, and saves a lot of time.
and maybe Adam can do also a bit about sanding, that is an art in itself, glad to see Adam was wearing gloves 🙂
And here in Sweden we call it PP100. Altough I’m not sure if thats the same stuff as Bondo. Bondo seems cheaper.
Good info, thanks!
It’s a such a cornerstone of model making!
Ironically I think I’ve used it for everything except auto repair..
Bondo is a wonderful material. The scene shop where I worked this past summer bought it in batches of several 1 gallon cans.
However, it is good to note that it is highly toxic during application and sanding, so I hope you wear a respirator when not filming a video.
This is also sold as “wood filler” in the UK. That’s how I buy it but I think it might be more expensive than “bondo”.
An old adage is to mix a golf ball sized amount of filler with a pea sized amount of catalyst. That seems to work for me.
So when is the Tested.com AppleTV4 app coming? Has it been discussed? I dont like watching the premium videos on a phone or a computer. A android/iOS app for airplay would do as well.
Its a sword.
Hooray for Bondo! I came to Bondo late, even as a life-long maker I didn’t use it up until a year or two ago. But hot damn is it useful for weird shapes. I built a Spaceship of the Imagination using Bondo and it turned out great (it’s in Scott Sigler’s house now https://maggiemcfee.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/soti_1.jpg). It took lots and lots of sanding, but I was able to get a really fine surface since it needed a near-chrome finish. So I’m definitely a Bondo Believer. 🙂
Hey , Bondo’s just a brand. You can get body filler, which is all Bondo is, anywhere there are automotive body shops, speed shops, automotive accessories. I can’t find find Bondo here in Brisbane, but I have a tin of body filler that operates exactly the same way.
There’s almost always an alternative !