How to Tell If a Body Filler Is Bad
Body filler is very useful in repairing dings, dents or certain types of body damage on your vehicle. If applied correctly, body filler blends perfectly with your car’s surface and won’t be noticed after being painted. Body filler that is incorrectly prepared, applied or finished ends up looking bad immediately or months after your car has been repainted. You can tell if the body filler is bad and needs to be repaired by paying close attention to details.
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Instructions
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Look for cracks or chips along the body panel where body filler was used. When body filler is not applied directly to bare metal and is applied over a painted surface, the filler separates from the surface. This shows up as cracks and chips in the paint.
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Run your hand over the surface of a clean body panel. If you feel dips or high areas on the surface, this means the body filler was not sanded enough to be level with the car’s surface, or it was sanded too much in one area.
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Shine light on the surface of the car’s body or park it so the sun shines on it at dusk, which is the best time to notice imperfections in the paint. You may use a flashlight to shine on the surface while standing next to the car looking down the body. The light hitting the glossy surface gives away ripples or waves in the body, which means the body filler wasn’t sanded with a long sanding block to keep the filler smooth and even.
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