Patching Old Screw Holes on Zolatone?

[cloud55]

I'm sure there must be something in these forums on this topic but I'm having trouble finding it. Not to this point yet but just curious to know if the po's screw holes on the interior zolatone walls can be patched successfully?

Our zolatone walls are in pretty good shape but we will eventually repaint since the po did a lot of "tweeker" improvements that need to be brought back to original. I was thinking about using car bondo to patch these screw holes. Any comments or better ideas would be appreciated!

Lynn

[Mel]

Hi Lynn,

We did this in our '60 Caravel. The PO got very creative with installing a desk and moving the dinette, which resulted in hundreds of extra holes in the wall (well, it looked and felt that way!) We patched them with Bondo and then sanded until smooth. We then painted over everything - not zolatone, but much better than before!

Mel

[Levon]

Greetings Lynn,
I don't know if this will work for you are not, but I had several holes and missing rivits located in the ceiling and walls of several vintage units that I have refurbished. I put in new rivits in these holes and bought three different colors of fingernail polish that match the zolatone the best, and touched up these heads.....the average person could not see the difference until it was pointed out. Hope this gives you another point of view.

Levon

[Ken J]

Thats what I do - stick a rivet in the hole - except I used an automotive touch up paint to coat the rivet heads....

[cloud55]

I really appreciate all of your reply's. I think a combination of both rivets and patching will probably be the way I go. We took a bunk out of the back that left holes in the interior whale tail panel and I know rivets in that will always bother me. I've managed to get pretty creative with patching and painting in our 1925 house so maybe that experience will come in handy here. I'm pretty set on a new coat of paint because the original zolatone is way too grayish white for my tastes. I am definately not going to try to spray the zolatone myself ...thought I would do the prep to save $$$ I'm not sold on any of the standard zolatone colors. I read that you can mix them. Mixing seems like it could be risky with the cost of that paint...no room for trial and error.

[Ken J]

I gave up on trying to use zolotone myself, because if I screw it up, it would be very costly.... and I can't find anyone to spray it for me.....

Ken J.

[cloud55]

Hi Ken,
The best quote I got on zolatone was $500 labor plus cost of zolatone at wholesale. They figured 1 gallon and 2 quarts of zolatone for a 19' trailer. Sounded like it would be around $650 to go through these guys that were recommended in our area by the zolatone rep. I plan to ask a friend of mine that does a lot of spraying about it first. The real advantage of zolatone...besides originality and durability...seems to be the camoflauging capabilities.
Thank you for your responses!
Lynn