Bondo-like material that works on metal?

[marioxb]

Excuse my ignorance if Bondo works on metal, I've never used it. I have a control panel with somewhere close to a bajillion holes in it (made by one of its probably many previous owners) that I'd like to fill in and start over with new holes.

What can I do? I can post pics tomorrow for reference.

[TopJimmyCooks]

bondo was designed to work on metal.  it is auto body filler.  you can fill holes with it but you need to get some structure in there to support the bondo - like welding or gluing another piece of flat metal behind the hole.  then you can go to bondo. 

[404]

TopJimmyCooks is spot on here. You can take it to a metal shop and have them identify the metal type and tack weld some metal slugs into the control panel if you are hell bent on keeping the original panel. Optionally they can make you another panel as well.

If you absolutely want something to fill in small dents etc in metal while keeping metallic properties, professionals swear by a product called All-Metal manufactured by US Chemical

[Rick]

There's also a product called "JB Weld" which is for metal, but again, you need something behind the hole to support it.

[Monkeyvoodoo]

Another option is fiberglass. Works like bondo, mixes like bondo. I think there is even a product that combines the two.

[Rick]

Another option is fiberglass. Works like bondo, mixes like bondo. I think there is even a product that combines the two.

I believe it's called "Bondoglass".

[jdbailey1206]

Mario,

One thing you might want to consider also is how much of the integrity is gone from the original control panel.  It probably wouldn't hurt to entertain the idea of instead of spending your time filling the holes grab a new piece of metal and rework it into a new control panel.  You really don't need heavy machinery to accomplish this.  A table edge, a couple of two by fours, and clamps can get you where you need to be.  And as for the holes well we all know how those are accomplished. 

Throwing pictures up would help immensely.  Never helps to get a fresh pair of eyes on the situation. 

[BadMouth]

Being that I don't know how to weld, I'd use JB weld to adhere another piece of metal under the holy area of the CP, then fill the button holes in the CP with bondoglass.  Thoroughly scuff both surfaces with rough sandpaper to give the JB weld a foothold.

What do you have to sand/grind with?  If you don't have the powertools to do that, stick to regular bondo.  Bondoglass is a lot tougher and would take forever to sand by hand.  If you use regular bondo, it will probably crack while drilling new holes and need to be touched up, but should be fine if covered by artwork.

JB weld can be grinded like metal, so you could use it to fill the holes if you have a grinder.  That would be the strongest, but that amount of JB weld could get expensive.

[michelevit]

What your trying to do is done all the time in the automotive / hot rod world.

Lets say you have a car with side marker lights that you want 'deleted'.
Remove the light

Now you have a hole in the sheetmetal.
Find a piece of scrap larger than the hole.
Spot weld it to the back of the panel where no one will ever see it.
The hole will be filled, but not flush.

Fill the recess with Bondo or other 2 part body filler. Use enough to make sit proud.

Wait for it to set.

Sand smooth to level it with surrounding metal.
Prime and paint.

[marioxb]

OK, so here are some crappy pics. The panel is from Dragon's Lair II. It's a hybrd metal on top, wood on bottom panel that went from Dragon's Lair II to Tekken 2 with probably a million things between. I want to make it into a two player 2 joystick 8 buttons per player panel.

Here's the top:


The bottom:


Left side closer:


Right side closer:

[Rick]

While I may be in the minority here, in my opinion, there is very little worth saving. Even filling the holes with any of the methods above (welding blanks being the most 'original' repro) you still have that wood piece to deal with, and it looks awful.

If it were me, I'd source a NOS piece, or cut my losses and recreate the piece from scratch.

[jdbailey1206]

While I may be in the minority here, in my opinion, there is very little worth saving. Even filling the holes with any of the methods above (welding blanks being the most 'original' repro) you still have that wood piece to deal with, and it looks awful.

If it were me, I'd source a NOS piece, or cut my losses and recreate the piece from scratch.

Rick you are definitely not the minority here.  I agree.  I would be worried if it was actually bondoed Marioxb could get maybe 20-25 good runs of *insert generic fighter here* before the joystick and buttons would begin to fall inward.  Plus on top of losing the control board he worked so hard on he would be out the "x" amount of dollars that was payed for the CP art.  Bottom line - Sometimes it's okay to start new. 

[opt2not]

Has anyone used Devcon metal filler? A buddy of mine who's a metal worker recommended it to me recently. I told him I normally use bondo for my CP fixes, and he said to try this stuff cause its stronger than bondo.
 

[marioxb]

While I may be in the minority here, in my opinion, there is very little worth saving. Even filling the holes with any of the methods above (welding blanks being the most 'original' repro) you still have that wood piece to deal with, and it looks awful.

If it were me, I'd source a NOS piece, or cut my losses and recreate the piece from scratch.

Rick you are definitely not the minority here.  I agree.  I would be worried if it was actually bondoed Marioxb could get maybe 20-25 good runs of *insert generic fighter here* before the joystick and buttons would begin to fall inward.  Plus on top of losing the control board he worked so hard on he would be out the "x" amount of dollars that was payed for the CP art.  Bottom line - Sometimes it's okay to start new.

Yeah, it's a piece of junk, I know. I'd probably feel bad ordering a "new" DL2 panel just to smurf up (and I chose to write that word, I find it funny every time I see it used by Saint's sensor). I have zero wood working skills or tools, and I have no wood-working friends.

That being said, does anyone here "hire" themselves out to do things like this? Any other games use a panel with these same dimensions that already is a fighting game or something?

[michelevit]

devcon is overkill and expen$ive. you want bondo. the big bucket of it is like 14 bucks.
if your time is worth anything just start from scratch or buy a new replacement control panel.