Repair Furniture with Bondo

One of the best ways to fill large areas is with Bondo. Today I will show you how to repair furniture with Bondo. Yes, it is made for cars but it has been used by professionals for many years. I worked for a large furniture retailer for 5 years and Bondo was a staple product we used all the time. Additionally Bondo is an always in my shop type of product.

I have received some negative feedback about using wood fillers / epoxy etc. to fill large areas of wood missing. To set the record straight in the MAJORITY of my repairs I am not restorting a true antiques. I am just painting the furniture which makes any of these fillers acceptable. Should the case be that you are looking to fill an area of missing wood to preserve the quality of a valuable antique. I would highly suggest that you consult with a professional refinisher and antique appraiser on the process of the restoration to ensure that no damage will be done while restoring. Now that that’s out of the way lets get on with the fun stuff.

Bondo Repairs

Above is a door frame where I filled the hinge cutouts with Bondo for me this was a faster repair than to replace the boards which in most cases that what I would recommend. This was also done in my home in a small bathroom closet. Also wood prices are insane right now which all those reasons lead to me filling this and faux finishing the grain to match the existing. I have also done this type of repair on door frames from pet damage. My client choose to have the door frames repaired because the wall were all plaster and they wanted to perverse the original wood throughout the home.

This repair was on a very cheap piece of furniture. You can see that its not even made out of wood but a cardboard like material. A tip on making the broken cardboard a little stronger. Use come CA glue on it let dry and then use your Bondo.

Video on Using Bondo

Tips For Using Bondo to Repair Furniture

• One thing most people don’t know is that you can carve Bondo. You can reduce the amount of sanding you do by waiting till the Bondo is just past the tacky part of drying. You will only have a small window to do this. I usually keep the leftover Bondo on the mixing cardboard and touch it everyone and a while. Once my finger doesn’t stick and it feels warm its prime time to carve it out. You can see me doing this in the video above.
• As with every filler you want to make sure that you are level. If you can feel it with your finger you will be able to see it after its painted. This is of course more important on a top or flat surface than it is on the bottom leg.
• If you have a large chunk missing use brad nails this will insure a securly filled area. The area will be less likely to break off in the same spot. I have seen a similar post using screws which would work too.
• Also as I mentioned above if you are working with a partical board or press board like cardboard you can use some CA or hobby glue. Soak the glue into that sub straight and strengthen it before doing your condo.
• Finish sanding, to get your Bondo leveled out you will want to use a 80-100 grit sandpaper. To make sure you don’t have any sanding lines after painting go to a 180, then 220 sandpaper to insure those sanding lines are minimal to gone!
• The more hardener you add the quicker it will harden.

Happy Filling with Bondo thanks for reading

Tara Lou

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