side molding question

[cleanjdm]

i would like to not have the side molding and have metal welded in and bondo to make the sides s look flush, but i talked to someone thats in this line of work and he says that one time he tried doing this to his 93 cb and the sides started to warp on hi because its so thin. he said it could be done for 1000 and a shit load of bondo. so my question is if this is true?
also, how would it look if i have the molding removed and jes have the little holes filled in??
answers to both would be great, thanks

[steelbluesleepR]

the reason the door began to warp is because the person welding was not welding like they should on thin sheet metal. if it is done right at all, a very thin skim coat of bondo is all that should be needed. your friend is quite wrong. using a huge load of bondo is just asking for it to crack the first time you hit a bump. you need to cut pieces of sheet metal to fit the shape of the "valley" the moulding goes in, then tack-weld it in place. you go around the entire piece doing very small beads of weld, only welding for less than a second at a time. this keeps the heat down and will not warp the piece nearly as easily. after all the welding is done (which will end up being much longer than if they just laid a constant bead around the piece), the welds should be ground down flush with the metal, then a very thin layer of bondo laid over the whole piece and block sanded.

i have not seen anyone shave just the holes on an accord, but i've seen it on a civic and i think it looks cool. personally, i plan on shaving the whole thing, though, not just the holes. IMO that looks better, and may even be easier. yes the pieces are much bigger to shave the whole moulding valley, but it is only one piece of metal per panel as opposed to the many little tedious pieces that would be used to fill the holes.

[aznartist_34]

Like the previous poster stated, a professional would shave the moldings correctly. I've seen a lot of 6th gens with shaved moldings and they look really clean.

[accord90cb]

I couldn't have said it any better then steelbluesleepeR. Welding them is the way to go. I shaved my door handles and moldings. It was alot of work but well worth it. Heres some pics of things just roughed in.

[cleanjdm]

the reason the door began to warp is because the person welding was not welding like they should on thin sheet metal. if it is done right at all, a very thin skim coat of bondo is all that should be needed. your friend is quite wrong. using a huge load of bondo is just asking for it to crack the first time you hit a bump. you need to cut pieces of sheet metal to fit the shape of the "valley" the moulding goes in, then tack-weld it in place. you go around the entire piece doing very small beads of weld, only welding for less than a second at a time. this keeps the heat down and will not warp the piece nearly as easily. after all the welding is done (which will end up being much longer than if they just laid a constant bead around the piece), the welds should be ground down flush with the metal, then a very thin layer of bondo laid over the whole piece and block sanded.

i have not seen anyone shave just the holes on an accord, but i've seen it on a civic and i think it looks cool. personally, i plan on shaving the whole thing, though, not just the holes. IMO that looks better, and may even be easier. yes the pieces are much bigger to shave the whole moulding valley, but it is only one piece of metal per panel as opposed to the many little tedious pieces that would be used to fill the holes.

thanks alot man i will speak with him about this, and if he says different, then i will have to go somewhere else

[bacal36]

Dood PM blackcb7 he is from SoCal and he has his coupe shaved.

Also PM Joeyboy_cb7 he had just the holes filled on his silver sedan.

But it seems like they ahve it covered here.

[H23CB7]

also pm 92cord. He has a nice shaved cb.

[evil_demon_01]

I remember a few years back, my sis ex B/F decided to shave the mouldings on his legacy (I wanted nothing to do with the way he did it)
He filled it with Nutech metal filler - Basically a steel version of fibreglass - then I bogged over it and smoothed it.
Results-OK
Time and effort - Not so good

The rule always applies - Do it once, Do it right
My advice - Weld them and a small skin of bog