This is about a temporary patch over a hole in metal.
I'm painting one railcar, but there's a second one that's leaving town for a couple months. One of the windows has a bad rubber seal, where the water runs down inside the body.I was told that the seal would be fixed, as well as the holes farther down that have rusted through, then I could do the body work and paint.
Then I was told it's leaving town Monday, see if I could do anything about the 2" gold stripe where the body is rusting through.Then I was told it's leaving town at noon, could I do anything by then. This is not entirely unusual scheduling, I just make sure I get my hourly rate and don't fret over it.
I found some 2" gold vinyl on a roll, used for striping other cars, similar color. My plan was to stuff used scrubber pads in the holes, then apply fiberglass reinforced bondo over that, and the vinyl over the bondo. The problem is that the bondo would either have a dip or a bulge, scraping it flush with the surounding area doesn't always happen. Then it occurred to me: why not leave the bondo bulged out, and apply the vinyl while the bondo was still wet and goo-ey? The vinyl would act as a sort of mold. And you know, it worked. Since the bondo is chemicaly (sp?)hardened, it doesn't need exposure to air.
Submitted an invoice for a TEMPORARY patch, and went to my next project.
