Auto body solder?

[Ragnarok]

I was sorting some of the scrap lead I have on hand. There are some interesting strips of 'lead' that I thought were plumbers lead but are marked auto body solder after inspection. A bit of research online would suggest this stuff is either 30/70 alloy or could be lead free solder...I think it's the 30/70 stuff because the solder is heavy and easy to bend.

So what is alloyed into auto body solder and is it useful for bullets?

Thanx, Rag

[45DUDE]

I have about 20 rolls on hand and will try sneaking a roll into the pot next time just for grins. They may be to pretty to shoot.

[Pipefitter]

One thing I can tell you is that it is not lead free. Lead free solder would be hard to bend and it will "talk" to you when you do bend it (a crackling noise if you listen close enough).

[starnbar]

I got a box of it when I worked at Hamtramck Dodge Main it was from the national lead company it is about the same as #2 Lyman

[Winger Ed.]

Those numbers are the Lead to Tin ratio.

[Huskerguy]

Winger Ed is correct. I taught auto Collison and one of the long lost skills is the use of lead for welded seams and small dents in specialized areas. The bars could be round or rectangle bars and usually had the numbers 70-30 or 60-40 on them. They still make this and you can purchase it. My guess is not many people still know how to use it properly. It does require using heat. And the 30 or 40 is the tin content.

[RogerDat]

Winger Ed is correct. I taught auto Collison and one of the long lost skills is the use of lead for welded seams and small dents in specialized areas. The bars could be round or rectangle bars and usually had the numbers 70-30 or 60-40 on them. They still make this and you can purchase it. My guess is not many people still know how to use it properly. It does require using heat. And the 30 or 40 is the tin content.

God that makes me feel old. I just patched some dents in a motorcycle gas tank using 30% tin body solder and some tinning paste. If I could have recalled what type of solder to use to tin the surface I still had the acid to clean and tin but just couldn't recall if it was plain lead or high tin that one "rubbed" onto the area first. Tinning paste is super easy. wipe on heat and wipe off while still hot. Nice tinned surface.

Motorcycles tend to vibrate out body fillers, lead bonded to the metal as filler not so much inclined to crack loose.

Added to WW's or other alloys to give it some tin so it casts sharper. Can also be very useful to BP cartridge shooting where a binary lead/tin alloy is used for the bullet. Adding commercial body solder to plain lead to get the right mix of tin and lead without getting other alloys into the mix. Such as one would if they used pewter for the tin.

[Huskerguy]

God that makes me feel old. I just patched some dents in a motorcycle gas tank using 30% tin body solder and some tinning paste. If I could have recalled what type of solder to use to tin the surface I still had the acid to clean and tin but just couldn't recall if it was plain lead or high tin that one "rubbed" onto the area first. Tinning paste is super easy. wipe on heat and wipe off while still hot. Nice tinned surface.

Motorcycles tend to vibrate out body fillers, lead bonded to the metal as filler not so much inclined to crack loose.

Added to WW's or other alloys to give it some tin so it casts sharper. Can also be very useful to BP cartridge shooting where a binary lead/tin alloy is used for the bullet. Adding commercial body solder to plain lead to get the right mix of tin and lead without getting other alloys into the mix. Such as one would if they used pewter for the tin.

They have some nice tinning agents or "tinning butter" as it was called, that we didn't have much of in the old days. But then we use to use a play doh material that was asbestos to control heat when we gas welded. To lead, we just got the surface very clean and rough, used a carburizing flame and kept it parallel to the surface to avoid too much heat and used acid core solder and fine steel wool to rub it around out past where we wanted the lead. I can't remember how many motorcycle gas tanks I did over the years. Most people look at me like I am crazy when I talk about leading.

[Rickf1985]

Yea, I am old. Been there and done that and got the scars to prove it. I was taught by an old time bodyman who was a perfectionist, The metal had to be just about perfect before any filler was used and then he preferred lead. But that training transferred well over to the later years of plastic fillers.

[RogerDat]

Lead was the "plastic" of its day. A lot of items that are now plastic were formerly lead. Shower liner under tile, roof boots for vent stacks and flashing, sheath for wire, body fillers, seals, plumbing pipe, molds. etc. It is a pretty long list of lead items that were replaced by plastic.

In my stash I have some short bars labeled "Bell System Seam Solder" that was used to seal joints in lead sheathed wire when it was spliced together. Also known as "wiping solder" Now those lines are plastic sheathed and the joints have plastic couplers.

[imashooter2]

Ah memories! My Father started as a Lineman for Ma Bell in 1946. We cast literally tons of wad cutters using cable sheath and Bell wiping solder.

By convention, tin is always the first number in the designation, wiping solder is typically 30-70 or 30% tin.

[Rickf1985]

My dad worked for NJ Bell and he used to bring home truck loads of cut off sections of phone wire with lead sheathing. This was early 60's, I guess that was when they were converting to more modern wire. But I still have nightmares of pulling that wire from those 2 foot sections of cable. That wire got used for everything! I remember quite well his making the bullets and all of that but I just do not remember him ever blending anything. I am sure he must have since he was casting for the 30-06 rifle that I won many matches with in my teens. Thanks to a close encounter with a VC Mortor round that scrambled my brain connections I have gaps in memory where things are just gone. I can remember him filling the pot and pouring into the molds as clear as if it happened yesterday but preparing the lead for melting is just not there. It gets frustrating sometimes. But I do still have the same old Seaco pot and the same molds and even the same silver soup ladle for skimming the pot so I try to keep the memories alive. I even still have my lead soldier molds! I found them not long ago in an ammo can mixed in with the reloading stuff. May I will cast some lead soldiers for the Safety people to get all worried about!

[imashooter2]

LOL! We kids were tasked with pounding that wire on a section of railroad track to split the insulation. Clean copper got a better price per pound at the scrap yard.

Simpler times.

[Winger Ed.]

Lead was the "plastic" of its day.

In the late 50s, my Dad was a salesman for 3M in their automotive division.
They invented the old heavy weight stuff, but didn't sell enough of it to be a worth while venture.
So they sold all the rights and patents to Dynatron Bondo Corp...... Hence the trade name 'Bondo'.

Lead solder was all they used for body filler then, and why a very damaged & repaired car was called a 'Lead sled'.

Bringing in and demonstrating something so revolutionary as plastic body filler then was so upsetting
to the old tradesmen, he got thrown out of more than a few shops.

I think 3M also invented the glass micro-beads that are in the newer 'light weight' body fillers.
They took it from 8-9 pounds per gallon down to about 6.
The old school, original was talc.... basically dirt ground into a fine powder.