Switched from cheap bondo spreaders to the red ones, night and day difference

Honestly I used those yellow plastic spreaders from the auto parts store for like 3 years. Last week I grabbed a pack of the red flexible spreaders from a body shop supplier for $12. The finish was way smoother and I had way less pinholes to deal with after sanding. Has anyone else noticed a big difference with better quality spreaders?

2 comments

2 Comments

kim.sandra1mo ago

Oh boy, you're preaching to the choir! I made that same switch about a year ago and it was like night and day. Those cheap yellow ones flex too much and leave ridges you have to sand down forever. The red ones lay the filler down flat on the first pass and cut my sanding time in half. I even had to go back over some old work with a finer grit because the scratches were so deep from the cheap spreaders. Totally worth the extra few bucks.

riverp371mo ago

Man I think about that same thing all the time @kim.sandra. It's like how people buy the cheapest extension cords and then wonder why they burn up after three months. Same with hammers, you pay fifteen bucks for one and the handle splits by the second nail. There's this weird trap we all fall into where we think saving a few dollars today means we're being smart, but really we're just signing up for more work and frustration down the road. The red spreaders are the perfect example of that, they cost a little more but they save you hours of sanding and swearing. Eventually you learn that buying the cheap version just means you end up buying the good one later anyway, so you might as well skip the middle step.