Alvin 14 oz Lab Metal Hi Temp Repair & Patching Compound with Alvin 16 oz Lab Solvent Thinner

I purchased this to coat my rusting fire pit bottom. It's definitely an unusual material and the instructions make it sounds easier than it is to use. I prepared my surface with an agressive wire brush to remove as much rust as possible then used a pump sprayer with Lab Solvent and a scrub sponge to clean it. The material comes out as a putty, which made me wonder if it was expired, but after mixing with solvent, it quickly thinned out and became nicely homogeneous. I poured it on the surface and proceeded to spread it out with a paint brush. Before I was halfway done the material began to set, which made me real nervous (you gotta work real quick with this stuff), but I found regularly spraying it with some solvent thinned it right back out and made it workable again. I repeated this process until it was done (I used the whole can of Lab Metal) and I was pretty happy with the results. A couple days later I lit the fire pit and baked it for over an hour as per the instructions. After it had burned down, I found the cured material was coming off in large chips. I don't think this is the fault of the product as I don't think it's intended to be applied to a flexible surface and the small amount of expansion the fire pit experienced while heating and cooling was enough to disrupt the adhesion. So good in principle and would have worked well under different circumstances.

I bought this to use as a body filler that could be powder coated. It will accept powder coating, but it is very difficult to feather your repair so the repair area is still noticeable after coating.Not as easy to get good results with this as it is with conventional filler, primer and paint.

love this stuff. had an exhaust manifold for an ac crawler that was all rotted out, sand blasted it and applied 1/8 coats until I had 3/8 builtup over entire manifold, waiting 48 hours between coats and baking every two coats. have run engine now 24 hours total and no sign of cracks or peeling. the reason I did this is because the manifold not available anymore. excellent product, but follow directions to the letter. ps. use the solvent to clean and wet the surface between coats.

Product works great easy to work with. Works great when you are powder coating auto parts

I put this on some steel and sent it out for powdercoating at 450 deg F. and it worked! I was expecting something bondo-esque having never used the stuff. Very un-bondo. Lab metal has its own rules.

this stuff is hard to work with becomes chunky fast has long cure times also has to be baked to fully cure better do your research when u use this stuff i think jb weld would work just as good

This product worked exactly as advertised. Directions say to bake at a specified temp above 400 degrees to complete the curing process. Use as directed and you won't be disappointed. It powder coated flawlessly.

This is expensive, but really helps create a smooth seamless weld. The material takes about 2 days to get to full hardness.