What is automotive body filler?
1 Answers
Automotive body filler refers to the putty used for cars. It is typically applied when a vehicle has relatively deep scratches to fill and level them. After application, the area is lightly sanded smooth with fine sandpaper, and finally touched up with a paint pen. The purpose of automotive body filler is to fill small imperfections, dents, scratches, or other processing marks after sanding, creating a smooth surface for the next coat of paint. Automotive body filler is characterized by high pigment and filler content, presenting as a thick paste that dries easily. Once dry, it becomes hard and fine-textured, making it easy to sand. Common types include water-based and oil-based varieties. Oil-based putty is further categorized into alkyd, nitrocellulose, perchloroethylene, epoxy, and other types, with nitrocellulose (currently modified with acrylic) being the most commonly used. Using automotive putty (body filler) for paint touch-ups may result in loss of gloss, which can be restored by polishing with a polisher and specialized abrasive compounds, preventing future gloss loss. Another issue that may arise is excessive orange peel texture, caused by excessive air pressure or moving the spray gun too quickly. Adjusting the air pressure to 2KPA and moving the spray gun slowly with 50% overlap during spraying can mitigate this. If excessive orange peel is noticed after baking, it can be resolved through sanding and polishing.
