Hi all! Been a while. I have a prep question. I am going to be painting a house that will be having some siding replaced with new pre-primed horizontal wood siding. The contractor doing the siding work says he can patch all the nail heads. I asked the HO’s what type of patch he will be using and apparently he wants to just spackle all the nail heads. I suggested light weight bondo instead and feel it will hold up longer. The contractor, not wanting to deal with the bondo, then came back with the idea of him priming the nail heads instead and leaving the bondo to me. I told the HO’s I don’t think that it is a good idea since they will of course want to use galvanized nails, which would rust if painted or primed. The contractor then told the HO’s he does it all the time and does not see the problem and says if he primes first, then the bondo will adhere better.
So, my question is; who is correct? If the siding is already pre-primed, why would it need to be primed again to use the bondo? I have used bondo on new pre-primed fascia (nail heads), sanded the bondo, primed with oil primer and then painted two coats paint. That is the way that I know to do it. If you have another way, please let me know. Also, please let me know what your opinion is regarding bondo vs spackle. Thanks so much.