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ckm @ Feb 25th 2008 3:17PM
I'm quite sure that most SEMA show cars and other high-end hand made cars have LOTS of Bondo or equivalent. And so does any Ferrari made before about 1985. That's just the nature of handmade, hand hammered metal, particularly when it's done in a mass-production sort of way. And before bondo, it was lead....
Note that it IS possible to build custom cars without bondo, but very, very few people have the skill and it's usually not worth the time anyway. The notable exception to this is stuff made from carbon fiber or fiberglass, as it leads itself to precision without the need for hard to master skills.
There is also the problem of over-restored cars. Next time you go to an old car show, check out the panel gaps. Over-restored cars have Honda-like panel gaps (e.g. 1/8" or less), while original cars would have more like slightly more than 1/4". What's the difference? Sprayable Bondo (aka, SlickSand), a material that makes it trivial to get smooth surfaces (and close panel gaps) out of just about any surface and it used copiously by most high-end body shops. I've seen 1-3 gallons of the stuff used on hot rods....