Ding filling in woodwork before painting

[ebj]

A good friend recommended Timbermate Wood Filler when I was patching old kitchen cabinet doors and facing before painting. It's water based and about the consistency of peanut butter. It doesn't shrink or crack. On vertical surfaces it held well enough to spread with a putty knife. It can be thinned with water. I used the maple/pine color which was easy to cover with a coat of primer and paint white with no color bleeding through. This stuff really worked on dents , dings, and scratches. I will still use bondo to repair rotten areas.

 

[lund]

A good friend recommended Timbermate Wood Filler when I was patching old kitchen cabinet doors and facing before painting. It's water based and about the consistency of peanut butter. It doesn't shrink or crack. On vertical surfaces it held well enough to spread with a putty knife. It can be thinned with water. I used the maple/pine color which was easy to cover with a coat of primer and paint white with no color bleeding through. This stuff really worked on dents , dings, and scratches. I will still use bondo to repair rotten areas.

Thanks! I already have something ordered that is probably close to Bondo Spot Putty without the dark red color that should be easier to paint over. But this product looks like it could be good too. If that does not work out, I may try it. Water based probably means it should have a better shelf life once opened. I suspect Bondo-like materials do not store well once the tube seal is punctured.

 

[lund]

I looked a little. For Bondo Spot Filler Putty (no mixing, fast dry and easy sanding: designed only for thin coats), I am finding it is only available in the deep red color:

https://www.amazon.com/3M-Pinholes-Scratches-Hairline-Fiberglass/dp/B0002JM8PY/?tag=atomicindus08-20

The spot filler putty works fantastic for purpose: fast setting, no mixing, easy to sand, and no shrinkage. BUT if you are not spraying a lot of coats (multiple primer and/or top coats) the deep red can show through. I am brush painting the doors and trim white with thin coats. For auto applications, I suspect for auto applications the dark red spot putty color is no issue: and the deep red color helps pick up where it is for touch up and multiple spray coats are used. For brush priming, it may take several coats (I was giving one light primer coat and that has not been enough) with fan out or full surface priming to not be visible. Another big problem for me is I tend to do iterations with rounds of extra fill and spot sand: I tend to notice more dings after the 1st round and try to spot those which requires a lot of prime and paint again fanning out. That becomes a PAIN with more bright red exposed on the touch up with a lot of layers needed to fully cover the new red spot filler.

I looked around and found this possibly similar product to automotive bondo spot filler that is **white** and hopefully easier to cover:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003P6I5KS?tag=atomicindus08-20
This is about 2x more expensive (per ounce, bigger tube) than the auto stuff above. I ordered some and will try it. Hopefully this will be similarly easy to use and easier to cover with brushed paint relative to the automotive spot filler putty. If so, it will be worth the extra cost for what I am doing. I will try to let people know if this works since it may help others with similar problems. I suspect I am not the only parent trying to recover from door and trim damage due to indoor play from active kids who are now sufficiently past their peak destructive stages to dare making repairs !

A confirmation follow up:

This 3M filler in white color came in yesterday:

Amazon.com

and did some tests. As anticipated, it works similarly well (fast set, little shrinkage, easy to work and sand) to the dark red Bondo Spot Putty. BUT it paints over (white in my case) very well with a bush without showing through. So, it should be excellent for rapidly filling small dings and scrapes with some iterative touch up and resanding/rescraping for missed or not sufficiently prepped spots. I am ok with the higher cost since it should save me a lot of work and frustration. The only downside that I find other than 2x higher cost (by volume) is that it generates more fumes than the Bondo putty -- but not an awful amount and it sets quickly. So I think it is tolerable for indoor projects in the limited amounts that I am using.

People with similar door and molding repair issues who are brush painting white or some off-white color may want to give this product a try. For me, this product should speed work up a lot and reduce frustration as I progress through the house repainting doors and trim with both ding & scrape repairs and touch up iterations.

 

[PCMusicGuy]

I'm a fan of Famowood latex wood filler. Anyone tried that before for this purpose? I've used it on some built-in and furniture pieces before painting and liked the result.

 

[purplezr2]

^ true, one can use "Bondo".
Unfortunately, it's RED, and being red, it requires three coats of primer to hide it.

The "Fix-it-All" and Marine Spar Varnish mix will be a buff color - not white, but not brown - and will cover with one coat of primer.
The "trick" is laying it off with the knife as though you were finishing it - you want to keep the sanding to an absolute minimum.

Use better paint, I have had it cover in one coat of of white primer.

 

[lund]

Use better paint, I have had it cover in one coat of of white primer.

IF you are referring to Bondo spot putty in your comment, I am using high grade Sherwin Williams white trim paint. That paint is expensive and has high pigment and good cover. It is designed for brush painting on doors and trim. The bright red shows through pretty well after two *brushed* of that over one light brushed coat of primer. If you spray the primer and/or use more coats of primer, it might work better. But I do not think this cover problem is a paint quality issue. Light colors over dark can be hard.

 

[four.cycle]

Use better paint

I've been using KILZ for over 30 years.
Red doesn't cover with one coat.
I started painting with oil based paints in 1965.

 

[Quickstep192]

Thanks for the link to the white glazing putty. Like you I loved the red stuff, but found it hard to cover.

Before now, I hadn’t seen the white and switched to Timbermate. It’s a lot cheaper than the glazing putty and works great. I’ve even had come off the putty knife smooth enough that I didn’t need to sand and painted over it before it fully dried. I’m surprised they can keep the stuff on the shelves.

 

[purplezr2]

I've been using KILZ for over 30 years.
Red doesn't cover with one coat.
I started painting with oil based paints in 1965.

I typically paint with Renner coating, I want to say that one coat of primer 643, will cover bondo filler, I know that one coat of primer+a coat of paint covers it with no issue.