Using Body Filler Over Foam? Brilliant!

17946 Views 6 Replies 6 Participants Last post by StanFam3, Jan 26, 2015

Bruzilla

Discussion Starter · Jan 25, 2015

I just read a story (link below) about a guy who took an old POS junkyard car and turned it into a show car using expanding foam (same as Great Stuff). When I started looking at the pics I wondered how he was going to make the body look smooth with the cells of the foam showing once you cut and shape the foam, and I saw he was applying body filler over the foam. I never would have thought that was possible to do, but it dang sure looks like it works fine.

You shape and sand your foam, apply your body filler, let it harden, and sand and paint the filler just like you would on a car body. This opens a LOT of possibilities for making large-scale props that are inexpensive, lightweight, and durable. Looks like my dream of having a mounted Headless Horseman might just come true since I'm pretty sure I can make an awesome horse that can also be taken apart and easily maneuvered. I can just apply the filler, etch in hair lines, and have an excellent surface on a horse with PVC pipe for a skeleton and foam for muscle.

Here's what he started with:

Here's how it came out:

http://wonderfulengineering.com/thi...-putty-what-happened-next-will-blow-you-away/

See less See more

Save

Reactions: 1

1 - 7 of 7 Posts

bobzilla

· #2 · Jan 25, 2015

That's crazy cool!

Save

punkineater

· #3 · Jan 25, 2015

Body filler, as in Bondo? Wow, brilliant idea for prop use...would be a thinner application & lighter weight than monster mud, yes?.....and that finished car is pretty bad @ss too. Can't wait to see how your horse turns out-a lot of people on here would be VERY interested in that build~hope you take lots of pics for the tut

Save

Bruzilla

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jan 25, 2015

What's really cool is for people don't like using filler because they're worried about not mixing the filler and hardener correctly, Bondo makes filler that is pre-mixed and cures in sunlight.

I was thinking about breaking down and getting a fiberglass horse sculpture, but they weight a ton and can't be taken apart for storage. This should work much better. And with the multitude of surface types I can make, I can sculpt a rearing horse with the Horseman's body from the waist down molded as part of the horse body. That would let me make the rear legs and tail and butt as the lower half, the front two thirds of the horse's body and lower half of the horseman as the upper half, then the upper half of the horseman would be the third section.

Save

Hilda

· #5 · Jan 25, 2015

If anyone tries this on a prop, PLEASE come back and report your experiences.

I made a large pumpkin out of Great Stuff last year and I won't tell what I used to finish it (because I'm an idiot... LOL), but it looked so beautiful and smooth until it started cracking. So I have been doing research on the different products you can use to fill and hardcoat the great stuff projects.

Thanks!

Save

Gym Whourlfeld

· #6 · Jan 25, 2015

On www.hauntedravensgrin.com is a picture or two of my old car. i built a motorcycle wreck into the huge dent on the passenger door with a Skeleton rider. The skull was carved out of insulating foam board then covered with a thin layer of Bondo, it made it weather proof and hard like real bone.
I built up the foam in pieces glued together , all beginning with a piece of sheet metal in the middle with "prongs" bent outward from the sheet metal to help hold it together, the exterior of the piece of sheet metal was where I drilled some holes to be able to bolt it to the next piece of the body.
I was scaring people in broad daylight with this car.

Save

Reactions: 1

StanFam3

· #7 · Jan 26, 2015

Very cool idea.

I hope someone tries this and reports back!

Save

1 - 7 of 7 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

Top Contributors this Month