Lab Metal - has anyone used this stuff?

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Has anyone used Lab Metal before?
http://www.alvinproducts.com/

I was thinking it might be good for filling or patching for those of us who want all metal replicas.

 

[Jayn]

Hmm interesting.. I wonder if it's as strong as plain old 'bondo' type fillers though.
My experience with 'metal-powder-filled' fillers is that they're pretty brittle.

 

[cheech9898]

I've only used US Chemical All-Metal before. It's along the same lines and holds up well at least in automotive applications from what I've seen. It's almost a complete replacement for leadwork, only place I've seen it fail was on a friends Challenger at the roof/quarter panel seam. He refused to put sub-frame connectors and/or a roll-cage in it & dropped in a 440 stroker motor... the motor's torque tweaked the whole car & popped the All-Metal filler in the drivers side roof/quarter seam. But for skimming coating/smoothing ground weld beads, I've never had a problem with failure. It does take more time to sand/feather the edges thou than regular body filler.

 

[Stampedemag]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Deece @ Feb 11 2007, 09:23 PM) [snapback]1416891[/snapback]</div>

I've only used US Chemical All-Metal before. It's along the same lines and holds up well at least in automotive applications from what I've seen. It's almost a complete replacement for leadwork, only place I've seen it fail was on a friends Challenger at the roof/quarter panel seam. He refused to put sub-frame connectors and/or a roll-cage in it & dropped in a 440 stroker motor... the motor's torque tweaked the whole car & popped the All-Metal filler in the drivers side roof/quarter seam. But for skimming coating/smoothing ground weld beads, I've never had a problem with failure. It does take more time to sand/feather the edges thou than regular body filler.
[/b]

What is he nuts? No subframe connectors at least? If he is worried about it not being stock (the 440 ruined that) then he can at least get the bolt in frame connectors and a bolt in roll bar. Yeesh.

It is like putting a 460 in a Fox-body Mustang without subs or roll cage. After a couple of runs you won't be able to open the doors. :lol

 

[cheech9898]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Stampedemag @ Feb 12 2007, 03:01 AM) [snapback]1416916[/snapback]</div>

What is he nuts? No subframe connectors at least? If he is worried about it not being stock (the 440 ruined that) then he can at least get the bolt in frame connectors and a bolt in roll bar. Yeesh.

It is like putting a 460 in a Fox-body Mustang without subs or roll cage. After a couple of runs you won't be able to open the doors. :lol
[/b]

This was when we were in high school in '96 & all of 17. E-body prices weren't insanely nuts then and daily driver quality type cars were cheap (in comparison to today especially), I think his parents only paid $750 for it and gave us a 2k budget to upgrade it. It got a few rust holes in the quarter & cowl mig'ed up with some stop signs, black primer paint job, that stroker 440 motor & a new trans. He beat that poor car for a year with that motor in it, but never torqued the car bad enough to break the glass or cause major door issues. Spring '97 he got it in a fender bender that was just enough that Allstate totaled it. His folks bought it back for cheap from the insurance, we dropped in the original 318 & trans, and he had fun at the county fair demo derby that summer. I still cringe at the thought of what the 72 Challenger could be worth today if it wasn't destroyed in that demolition derby, especially since Goodmark will have pretty much every major panel available shortly for the Challengers. Live and learn, I've got subframe connectors to go into my 'cuda... just holding out to find a nice junkyardd 5.7 hemi & for the full factory repo quarters to be released, till then I'm amassing R2-D2 parts & working on a modified JAG r2 Frame design

 

[JOATRASH FX]

That is basically what I used to cast the shell of my Luke ROTJ cutaway (but it was another brand). It was fairly easy to work with... you could add as much metal powder you needed depending on how thick you wanted the mixture.

In very think layers it was very brittle but once you got some thickness it held up. Also feels pretty cool to the touch, making it feel like metal as opposed to resin.