Pellet holes in vinyl siding

Hello,

Looking to paint a home with vinyl siding. There are various holes that appear to be done by a pellet gun. Can anyone recommend a way to patch the hole that would be durable?

Thanks

Bart (CT)

not having done such a repair the first thought that comes to my mind is a bondo and sand it but I defer to others who have faced this before.

Tony

Small Holes in Vinyl

I’ve never done an exact repair like this either. Having said that, I would probably just caulk the hole to repair it. They make many different colored caulk/sealants so you would be able to find a shade that matches your vinyl pretty closely. Since you are painting the mobile home anyway, you could just use white.

Good luck with your project!

-Mike

Tony & Bart,

I Worked in a couple of body shops in my former life.
I have not actually fixed any of these type holes but I recommend that you DON’T USE BONDO! Bondo is hydrophylic, meaning, it loves to absorb water. The reason it works on a car (for a while) is that it is completely sealed with metal behind it and high-gloss (read: No pores in it) paint to keep the water out. You will notice bondo repairs over rust never work because there is moisture trapped behind it or coming through the rusted area from behind.

There is a fiberglass product right next to the bondo on the shelf. It mixes similarly to bondo with the same red hardener. It has fiberglass resin in it with either long or short fiberglass strands throughout. We used to call the big stranded stuff “gorilla hair”. Use the small fibered stuff. Neither of these will smooth out with sanding like bondo does. It has to be carefully smoothed as much as possible before it starts to harden and begins to drag. Or it has to be ground down with a power sander and 40 grit or lower (nonsensical in this application). You have to practice with this stuff (bondo too) to figure out the right amount of hardener required that it will actually harden vs. using too much hardener that it hardens before you can get it off the cardboard you mixed it on.

It might work on the small spots. Probably not a good solution for bigger holes as it may stick to the subsurface. As the vinyl tries to move with the weather changes there is a good possibility of causing obvious distortion of the panel (like nailing it too tight).

Steve

Thanks for the replies. Testing Presto-patch in a few of the holes today. I’ll report back.

Bart (CT)

[QUOTE=Bart (CT);882328]Thanks for the replies. Testing Presto-patch in a few of the holes today. I’ll report back.

Bart (CT)[/QUOTE]

Bart, what were the results?

Tony

I missed this thread earlier.

I have used caulk in the past, depending on the size of the holes. I have found it is helpful to have something behind the caulk, to keep it from shrinking back in or falling behind the hole at some point in the future. I have used newspaper, foam, and a few other things that aren’t coming to mind, with pretty good results.

But what I’d really like to know, is why is the OP painting a vinyl sided mobile home in the first place?