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I was mixing my body filler wrong for months until a job in Tacoma | Auto Body Repairers - Vivisector

I was mixing my body filler wrong for months until a job in Tacoma

I was working on a 2018 F-150 bed side and the filler kept sagging before it set. The guy I was helping there asked if I was using the hardener from the old tube, which I was. He pointed out the date code, and it was from two years ago. I swapped to a fresh tube and the mix set up perfect in about eight minutes. Has anyone else had a problem with old hardener making filler act weird?

4 comments

4 Comments

phoenix_grant5mo ago

My uncle had a tube of hardener in his garage that must have been from 2005. He used it on a little dent in his old Dodge door, and the filler stayed soft for like three days. We ended up having to chip it all out with plastic scrapers. It was a total waste of time. That stuff definitely goes bad sitting on the shelf.

seanc735mo ago

That's interesting, but I've had the opposite happen. I've used hardener past its date and it still worked fine for me. The real issue is often mixing it wrong, not the age. I'd check your ratio before blaming the tube.

blair_chen814mo ago

Honestly, I used to be on the other side of this too, @seanc73. I had a tube of hardener that was a couple years old and I thought it was fine, so I figured people were just being dramatic about expiration dates. But this story about the 2005 tube is making me rethink that. That filler being soft for three days sounds like a nightmare, and it makes me wonder if I just got lucky with mine.

paul875mo ago

Wait, you actually used expired hardener and it worked? That's playing with fire, man... the date is there for a reason. The chemicals break down over time, so even if you mix it perfect, it might not cure right. Could end up with a sticky mess or worse, the bond fails later. Just because you got lucky once doesn't mean it's good advice.