One of the smells from my childhood is Bondo (automotive repair putty). That fiberglass resin smell seeped into our house from the garage. It was the smell of summer, the smell of a mechanical beast that lurked in the garage. My father likes to restore cars and the fun part of that was bodywork. He used primers and fillers, paint and then clear coat, each with their own distinctive smell. A few years ago, at the very end of my working in cone six, I made a piece that had a touch of that resin smell in it.
This winter I remembered doing bodywork with my Dad, Kevin. He let me help on a few vehicles (my own) and it went something like this: sand until you get to clean metal, paint on the rust blocker stuff, coat with primer, fill holes with fiberglass filler, take off the extra, prime, wet sand, wet sand, wet sand, and paint. In my recent work I recreated those steps on a few pieces, with the exception of the paint step, which I leave to the wood kiln. I won’t be the reason for the fish eyes or drips and sags, I can blame that on the kiln.