I've been mixing my filler wrong for years and didn't know it

I was working on a quarter panel for a 2015 Civic and my filler just wasn't curing right, staying tacky. My apprentice, Jake, watched me for a minute and said, 'You always put the hardener on the board first, right?' I realized I'd been doing exactly that for a decade, thinking it was the right way. I switched to putting the filler down first, then adding the hardener, and the mix was perfect and cured evenly. Has anyone else had a basic habit they had to unlearn?

2 comments

2 Comments

shaneb168d ago

My uncle did the same thing with his boat fiberglass for years.

joelwells8d ago

Just because something worked for years doesn't mean it was the right way to do it. My cousin in Tampa kept patching his hull with the same old resin mix. It finally gave out last season and the repair bill was huge. Using outdated methods can create weak spots you can't even see. That kind of fix might seem fine until you hit rough water and find out it isn't. Sticking with an old habit just for tradition can be a real safety risk.